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

[eli]

Al Clark did the original cut but had trouble putting all the footage that Robert Rossen had shot into a coherent narrative. Robert Parrish was brought onboard by Rossen and Harry Cohn, to see what he could do. Since Rossen had a hard time cutting anything he shot, after several weeks of tinkering and cutting, the movie was still over 250 minutes long. Cohn was prepared to release it in this version after one more preview, but this threw Rossen into a panic, so Rossen came up with a novel solution. Rossen told Parrish to "[s]elect what you consider to be the centre of each scene, put the film in the synch machine and wind down a hundred feet before and a hundred feet after, and chop it off, regardless of what's going on. Cut through dialogue, music, anything. Then, when you're finished, we'll run the picture and see what we've got". When Parrish was done with what Rossen had suggested, they were left with a 109-minute movie that was more compelling to watch. After the film won its Academy Award for Best Picture, Cohn repeatedly gave Parrish credit for saving the film, even though Parrish only did what Rossen told him to do.

[gabriel]

Portions of the film were shot on location in small towns near Stockton in central California.

[harry]

Harry Cohn wanted Spencer Tracy for the role of Willie Stark. Robert Rossen disagreed, saying that the audience might like Tracy too much.

[bryan]

Was the last film for more than 50 years to win the Academy Award for Best Picture that did not also win an Oscar for either writing or directing, until Gladiator (2000).

[bernice]

John Derek completed this film prior to Knock on Any Door (1949), but that was released first and is generally considered to be Derek's debut film.

[ronnie]

The first film to win both the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress Oscars.