All Fall Down
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List Price: $19.98
Features
• Black & White
• NTSC
In Theaters : 11 April, 1962
Video Release : 01 September, 1998 |
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All Fall Down Customer Reviews
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♥♥♥♥♥ |
"I wanted to be just like you in every way I could."
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"All Fall Down" stars Warren Beatty, in one of his earliest roles, as Berry-Berry Willart. Berry-Berry is a womanizer and perhaps worse, yet he's idolized by his parents (Angela Lansbury & Karl Malden) and kid brother, Clint (Brandon de Wilde). When Clint visits his brother in Key West, he finds that Berry-Berry has been arrested for roughing up a prostitute. He bails out Berry-Berry and heads home to Ohio, where his overbearing mother and alcoholic father badger him. Berry-Berry eventually returns home, to the delight of his family, who obviously manage to overlook his flaws - some would call it denial. When an attractive family friend (Echo played by Eva Marie Saint) comes to stay with the family, things start to build to a (very predictable) climax.
William Inge (Picnic, Splendor in the Grass) adapted the screenplay from a novel by James Leo Herlihy (Midnight Cowboy, Blue Denim), and John Frankenheimer (Manchurian Candidate) directed. The main cast has an amazing 11 Oscar nominations among them, and Brandon de Wilde is very good here. Of course, he seemed to specialize in playing idolizing youngsters - he perfected it in "Hud" and "Shane." With this pedigree and cast, "All Fall Down" should have been a classic, but it ends up a mess - although a somewhat interesting mess. There are a couple of problems with the movie, starting with inconsistent characterizations. In particular, Angela Lansbury's role begins as a clichA d overbearing mother, but then she abruptly becomes endearing, before ending as a deluded screecher. These variations didn't feel natural or organic and didn't seem to reflect actual changes in the character - it was just bad writing. In addition, there's no build-up in the big dramatic scenes; it almost seems as though scenes are missing. As a result, I didn't feel any kind of investment in the story or these characters. Yes, the characters are sometimes quirky (the father is a communist and Clint eavesdrops on people and obsessively records their conversations in a journal), but these quirks don't contribute much to the final product.
I somewhat enjoyed "All Fall Down," as I often like melodramas from this period. However, this genre is much better represented by "Splendor in the Grass" or just about anything by Tennessee Williams. "All Fall Down" is best viewed as second-tier material with some interesting actors saving it from obscurity.
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