All the King's Men - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of All the King's Men or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to All the King's Men

[violet]

Producer-director Robert Rossen offered the role of Willie Stark to John Wayne. Rossen sent a copy of the script to Wayne's agent, Charles K. Feldman, who forwarded it to Wayne. After reading the script, Wayne sent it back with an angry letter attached. In it, he told Feldman that before he sent the script to any of his other clients, he should ask them if they wanted to star in a film that "smears the machinery of government for no purpose of humor or enlightenment," that "degrades all relationships," and that is populated by "drunken mothers; conniving fathers; double-crossing sweethearts; bad, bad, rich people; and bad, bad poor people if they want to get ahead." He accused Rossen of wanting to make a movie that threw acid on "the American way of life." If Feldman had such clients, Wayne wrote that the agent should "rush this script... to them." Wayne, however, said to the agent that "You can take this script and shove it up Robert Rossen's derrière . . . " Wayne later remarked that "To make Huey Long a wonderful, rough pirate was great . . . but, according to this picture, everybody was shit--except for this weakling intern doctor who was trying to find a place in the world." Broderick Crawford, who had played a supporting role in Wayne's Seven Sinners (1940), eventually received the part of Stark. In a bit of irony, Crawford was Oscar-nominated for the part of Stark and found himself competing against Wayne, who was nominated the same year for Sands of Iwo Jima (1949). Crawford won the Best Actor Oscar, giving Rossen the last laugh.

[nicholas]

Mercedes McCambridge's Best Supporting Actress Oscar winning performance was the only nominee in the category in a Best Picture nominee that year.

[richard]

According to Don Siegel in his memoirs, Broderick Crawford was drunk on most scenes of the film. But he was ready and brilliant for each of the performances he finally pulled.

[kyle]

After Robert Rossen took the Fifth Amendment when he was questioned by the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1951, Columbia broke all connections with him and bought all rights and residuals in the films he made for the studio, including this one. In 1953, Rossen again appeared before the committee and named fifty-seven people in Hollywood who had at one time belonged to the Communist Party.

[amber]

Won the Directors Guild of America (DGA) Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures in 1950. The previous year's ceremony in 1949 was the the very first in the Guild's history. For the 1949 awards, the DGA had used a non-calendar year honoring films released in both 1948 and early 1949, unlike the Academy Awards. Both the 1949 and 1950 DGA winners, A Letter to Three Wives (1949) and All the King's Men (1949) respectively, competed for the 1950 Academy Award for Best Director, which was awarded to Joseph L. Mankiewicz for "A Letter to Three Wives", the 1949 DGA winner. This explains why the heavily favored Robert Rossen did not win for directing "All the King's Men" at the Oscars, however the film was awarded Best Picture.

[ella]

Features the only Oscar nominated performances of Broderick Crawford (for which he won Best Actor) and John Ireland.

[nina]

Mercedes McCambridge was cast after she got angry with the producers. She and other actresses were kept waiting in an office in New York City during open auditions. McCambridge told the producers off and stormed out of the office. They called her back and eventually cast her because she fit the part of Sadie.

[alyssa]

In the original manuscript, Willie's last name is Talos, not Stark. When the novel was first published, the name was Stark. In 2001, the novel was reprinted with Stark's name changed back to Talos, among other changes.

[elmer]

In 1948, Norman Corwin was hired to write a draft of the screenplay. After the release of the film, questions arose about the extent of Corwin's contributions to the completed film, but the Screen Writers Guild judged Rossen to be the sole writer.

[brent]

The only film to be nominated for Best Supporting Actor and Supporting Actress Oscars that year.

[alyssa]

Mercedes McCambridge's Best Supporting Actress Oscar win is one of the rare occasions where an actor or actress has won an Academy Award on their debut.

[jeffrey]

The campaign montages were shot by Don Siegel.

[lonnie]

Director Robert Rossen filmed in an unusual manner. Nobody in the cast had a script. Rossen let them read it once and took it away from them. According to Broderick Crawford, "We really had to stay on our toes."

[frances]

Humphrey Bogart was considered for the lead role.

[sylvia]

To prepare for the role of Willie Stark, Broderick Crawford watched newsreels of Huey Long, the former Louisiana senator and governor on whose life the novel was loosely based.

[terry]

Residents of the area around Stockton, California, were used as extras in the film; often, director Robert Rossen would give them speaking parts and film the "rehearsals" to get a more spontaneous effect.

[aaron]

Film debut of Mercedes McCambridge.

[caroline]

In adapting the novel for the screen, Robert Rossen made many changes: While the focus of the film is the character of Willie Stark, Jack Burden is the focus in the novel. Willie's political party is unidentified in the picture, as is the state that elects him to political office.

[victoria]

According to Broderick Crawford, "During the filming, we never mentioned the name of Huey Long on the set. That was the unspoken law at the studio."