Not to be confused with the 1958 television movie All the King’s Men…or with the 2006 remake starring Sean Penn, Jude Law, Kate Winslet, and James Gandolfini (which, unfortunately, received less than rave reviews)…or with a 1999 film of the same name that focuses on the bizarre story of the Sandringham Company that disappeared in World War I…or with 1976’s All the President’s Men, starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford, which told the story of Watergate…nope, this week’s Best Picture winner is the original adaptation of Robert Penn Warren’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel All the King’s Men. The film All The King’s Men (1949, Robert Rossen Productions) was nominated for seven Academy Awards, including Actor in a Supporting Role for John Ireland as Jack Burden, Film Editing, Directing, and Writing (Screenplay). It won three: Best Motion Picture, Actress in a Supporting Role for Mercedes McCambridge as Sadie Burke, and Actor for Broderick Crawford as Willie Stark.

Willie Stark stirring up the masses at a political rally.

Speaking of Willie Stark…In the late 1920s and early 1930s, a lawyer named Huey Long rode the wave of Depression-era populist discontent to the governorship of Louisiana. Huey’s reign (for that was in essence what it was) was marked by notable achievements in public education, health care, and prison reform, as well as building and highway improvements and expansions. Despite accusations of corruption and misconduct (and after having narrowly avoided impeachment), Long was elected to the U.S. Senate (though still retaining control of Louisiana’s government until he could ensure a state government of his choosing) and was considered a real threat to President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1936 bid for reelection. An outspoken opponent of Roosevelt’s New Deal, Long proposed his own solution for America’s wealth-distribution issues. According to the Long Legacy Project, Long’s Share-Our-Wealth Program “would have eliminated personal fortunes in excess of $5 million, provided every family with $5,000 with which to buy a house, car, and radio, provided for old-age pensions, minimum annual incomes, veterans bonuses, and government-paid college educations.” In other words, Long’s recommended solution to America’s Depression struggles shared some striking similarities to the loathed communism of the 1940s and 50s. The Share-Our-Wealth Program was never implemented.

Huey Long in 1935. Photo by Harris & Ewing, photographer – Harris & Ewing Collection (Library of Congress)

On September 8, 1935, after surviving numerous assassination plots, Long was shot by Dr. Carl Weiss, a relative of an opponent, in a hallway of the State Capitol building in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Weiss himself was killed instantly by the submachine guns of Long’s bodyguards—according to legend, over 50 bullets were found in Weiss’s body after his death! Long initially survived the shooting, but doctors were unable to staunch his internal bleeding, and he succumbed to his wound two days later, his last words a plea: “God, don’t let me die. I have so much to do.”

Why is Huey Long relevant to this Weekday Warm-up? Well, Long’s political rise and violent end form the basis of Warren’s novel, All the King’s Men, and hence, for the film as well. And for me, both the historical timing of this novel and film and the timing of my viewing this BP are interesting in light of the political climates of the late 40s/early 50s as well as that of the present time. As is frequently the case during and after major world conflicts, people often turn to extremist politics—socialist/communist movements after the World Wars and, um, whatever this mess of politics is we have right now in the post-September 11 era. All the King’s Men portrays a “take that” attitude to established government norms, habits, and policies that ignore the average person and instead serve only to elevate and cater to the already wealthy and powerful. This trend was very much in vogue in the post-war politics of the late 1940s and early 1950s—again, as it is today in movements like that of the Tea Party.

Willie Stark’s campaign headquarters are a bit emblematic of just how big his britches have gotten during the span of the film.

Complicating war recovery in the United States in the 40s was the advent of the Cold War with the Soviet Union. Fear of Communism (and Russian spies!) was rampant, and politicians and political movements rose to power on the basis of this paranoia. People were hauled before the House Un-American Activities Committee and forced to give names of others who were “communists” (Robert Rossen, the producer, director, and writer of All the King’s Men, having been a member of the Communist Party himself, pleaded the Fifth Amendment before the Committee in 1951, which jeopardized his career; in 1953, he testified again before the Committee and named over 50 people who worked in Hollywood as having at some time belonged to the Communist Party.). And what do we have today? A lot of childish politicians whose loyalties are to their parties rather than to their constituents, who spend their time bickering about foibles instead of addressing the gross atrocities the mobs are clamoring to bring into the spotlight. The common people are overlooked and unhappy. In my eyes, that’s where we are now. Not too different from Huey Long’s world…or that of Willie Stark, the protagonist of this week’s BP.

For additional information about Huey Long, go here: http://www.hueylong.com/index.php. For more thoughts on All the King’s Men and its significance, please check out the full post this weekend!