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tcm · 4 years

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How Do I Corrupt Thee?...Let Me Count The Ways By Theresa Brown

Facing the most consequential American presidential election of the 20th century...let’s talk movies. Movies are important because they help us see things once removed that we sometimes don’t see right in front of our very eyes. One of the great political movies in cinema is ALL THE KING’S MEN (‘49). The acting in this film is top notch with everyone demonstrating what happens when one’s values are compromised, and what happens when they’re not.

Willie Stark – Demagogue

“You’re a hick and nobody ever helped a hick but a hick himself...You’re hicks too and they fooled you 1000 times like they fooled me. Now I’m gonna fool somebody. I’m going to STAY in this race. I’m on my own and I’m out for blood. Now listen to me, you hicks... Nail up anybody who stands in your way.”

The star is Broderick Crawford as Willie Stark, who gives a towering performance that earned him a well-deserved Academy Award. Son of comedic actress Helen Broderick, Crawford’s been around since 1937 appearing in nothing memorable that would set him apart from the crowd. But he got the opportunity to play this role and he’s great. As Willie Stark, he starts off as a low-level, small-town community organizer/lawyer with a devoted wife and son. He wants to run for office, thinks he can do some good. He takes a real licking in the election.

Stark unknowingly gets used by the power brokers to split the ‘hick’ vote. As long as he stays in his lane so the big boys can put in their candidate for governor, he’ll be okay. But a tag-along reporter sees that Willie is being framed and tries to offer him a little campaign advice to be more of himself:

“Look Willie, you tell ‘em too much. Just tell ‘em you’re gonna soak the fat boys and forget the rest of the tax stuff...Willie, make ‘em cry, make ‘em laugh. Make ‘em mad, even mad at you...But for heaven’s sake, don’t try and improve their mind.”

To finish the job of opening Willie’s eyes with a crowbar, booze and a drunken bang is the political operative sent to babysit Willie. She tells him: “You know what you are? Why, you were the goat. You are the sacrificial goat. You’re a sap because you let ‘em!!”

And with that wakeup call, he quits being a stooge and tells the people how he really feels about their condition. He gives his famous “I’m a hick...” speech. There’s a great montage and voice-over by John Ireland showing Willie’s rise to the top: the deals he makes, the threats he levies, the hands he shakes and the dames he messes around with. He takes to it all like a duck to water now that he plays in the swamp with the rest of them. His home life falls by the wayside, compartmentalized into a little back corner in the dusty rural area he’s from, and he keeps his enemies closer.

Willie’s got a slick coat to him now. He ups his game with proper diction. Upgrades his women, too. He goes from Anne Seymour (sincere working class) to Mercedes McCambridge (pitbull powerbroker) to Joanne Dru (bubble-wrapped high society girl). He starts to use people, squeeze them and throw ‘em away. He’s got power now...and wants more.

The Reporter: “You throw money around like it was money.”

Crawford: “Money? I don’t need money. People give me things.”

The Reporter: “Why?”

Crawford: “Because they believe in me.”

Sadie Burke - Power Broker

“If you won’t let me sleep you might at least give me a drink... You’re not going to be governor.... You’ve been framed you poor sap. And how. Oh, you decoy. You wooden-headed decoy.”

No time like the present to bring Mercedes McCambridge into my essay. Sadie is Willie’s equal and she is magnificent! McCambridge takes the working girl mantle from Rosalind Russell and wears that pin-striped suit like an armadillo’s skin. She’s one of the boys in the back room of smoky politics. And she looks just grand in there. She fits. She’s all about getting paid. She smokes, she drinks, she flicks cigarettes. She’s not the glamour girl but she’s got balls and can get you where you need to go. She’s what you need when you want power. She clutches, she claws, she growls and she spits out words like a sub-machine gun.

And she doesn’t mince words. She can spot potential. She feels a kindred spirit in John Ireland, like she can level with him. She thinks he’s a bit like her; but he’s really not. And she totally sees something in Willie Stark. She wants in on the ride just like everybody else. She fancies herself as the one to control the power. But underneath all that, she’s a woman. She gets jealous (“Was she pretty?”). Her comparing herself to her society rival is a poignant scene. You can tell she doesn’t get tender loving.

But McCambridge does not shy away from who Sadie is; there’s no heart of gold. She ends that scene with a growl.

Jack Burden - Observant Reporter

Editor: “Stark is getting too big for his britches. The Hicks are getting too smart. We are now supporting Harrison.”

Burden: “How do you square that?”

Editor: “I work here.”

Burden: “Well I don’t, not anymore.

Editor: “...You won’t find it easy to get another job.”

Burden: “I’m too rich to work.”

John Ireland plays newspaper man Jack Burden sent to cover this fluke of a human interest story that is Willie Stark. He is a rich young man trying to find himself, not wanting to rely on his wealthy stepfather. He serves as us, the audience/bystander/observer of events. He has principles and believes Willie can do some good. Burden’s also in love with a girl from his set and works towards being an independent success so he can marry her. But...his hands get dirty too.

He brings lambs to slaughter introducing, or delivering, his wealthy family and friends to Willie...including his fiancée. He watches Willie change and give in to power and is horrified. But he doesn’t leave. By the end of it, Jack’s holding on to the tail of a comet. He betrays friends and sheds principles like a viral load. When Jack tries to convince an old friend that Willie is right, his friend says:

“He’s right because you want him to be right. Because you’re afraid to admit you made a mistake.”

Anne Stanton - Society Girl

Anne: “I understand you. It’s myself I don’t understand... Maybe we’d better stop seeing each other.”

Willie: “No. No we won’t stop seeing each other, will we?”

Anne: “No.”

Willie: “Because you believe what I tell you.”

Anne: “Because I believe what you tell me.”

I always thought Joanne Dru was an interesting actress. Never could quite peg her as a specific type. She gives off a Gene Tierney-vibe to me in this movie. She plays Anne Stanton, the society girl the reporter’s been in love with. She tells the reporter (Ireland) she wants him to be somebody...he wants to marry her...she promises to wait for him. But he drifts from job to job. How long’s a girl supposed to wait, and why wait when Willie is already there? Willie’s stepping up in class when he’s got Anne Stanton strung out over him. Yeah, strung out. She seems addicted or doing something she’s not very happy doing; that she can’t help doing. Is she another innocent bystander swept up in things? Is it love at first sight after she first hears him speak? I don’t know about love, but she is drawn to him. She’s intoxicated by power. Disillusionment will be hard.

ALL THE KING’S MEN is a solid movie; practically ripped from today’s headlines. It feels adult. It doesn’t feel dated. It speaks to our current political climate in so many ways. Power seems to suck people in like a vortex. Some go through a sort of “I wish I could quit you.” The movie is a lesson for us. We can look at the Willie Starks of the world and learn to recognize a demagogue when he’s rallying right in front of our eyes.

#All the King's Men #politics #film history #mercedes mccambridge #John Ireland #corporate greed #fake news #demagogue #populism #TCM #Turner Classic Movies #Theresa Brown

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