Twenty-four years ago Wally and Christel Storer came from Australia to the Cote d’ Azure for a visit, stayed a year, spent all their money and were unable to get home. But, they didn’t want to go home anyway – they liked it here!

Beach lady.

So, what to do? Both Wally and Christel were book lovers and noticed that if you were here for any length of time as a book lover, chances were that you would go looking for a book to read in English and would discover very quickly that none were to be had (for sale anyway).

The bookstore and directions.

Thus, out of necessity and love of the area – that almost indefinable and mysterious drawof this rich, in so may ways, environment – was born the “Cannes English Bookshop” in a small storefront at “Rue Bivouac Napoleon, just off the Vieux Port and almost immediately behind the Majestic Hotel.

The author, in search of something to read.

I read a great deal and, when traveling, to foreign places, one of my great concerns is whether or not I have enough reaching material with me – not so in Cannes! As an example, just last week, I began to be concerned as my reserve of unread books dwindled to a mere two – a situation designed to bring on the beginnings of a (mild) anxiety attack. So off I went to “Rue Bivouac Napoleon, chatted with Wally and Cristel, and picked up four more novels – the latest from John Le’Carre (just released that day and three in the genre of the “policier,” two from England and one from Sweden – translated, of course. Wally and Christel have a thriving, little business selling a commodity they love in the place in the world that they want to be. What might be considered a perk is that, due to the “festival” nature of Cannes, many of their customers are movie stars and celebrities of all varieties – so they meet them all! It adds fun to the job. When asked what they like about living in Cannes and the Riviera they identify four characteristics in no particular order:

The azure sea attracts many — such as Wally and Christel!

• The French people themselves. “They are so nice” (now that’s interesting)
• The weather
• The food
• The space

When thinking about a movie to talk about, I concluded it should be a movie made from a book – a good movie from a good book!

There are many examples:

• Mystic River
• The Grapes of Wrath
• The Constant Gardner
• The Ox-Bow Incident

But I decided to chat about the Original movie version of the Pulitzer Prize – winning novel by Rover Penn Warren “All the King’s Men” directed by Robert Rossen in a bravura style according to A.O. Seatt of the N,Y. Times and starring Broderick Crawford, Mercedes McCambridge and John Ireland.

Movie Review:

All The King’s Men

Directed by Robert Rossen — Columbia Pictures 1949
Starring: Broderick Crawford, Mercedes McCambridge, and John Ireland

This is quite an interesting movie given that the recent remake with its star power (Sean Penn, Jude Law and Gwyneth Paltrow) turned out to be such a dud.The prior version’s director is Robert Rossen who earlier had directed “Body and Soul”, a very good boxing picture with John Garfield – a “hunky” actor who died an early and untimely death – and later directed “The Hustler”, a great movie with Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason and George C. Scott.So Rossen is good; and smart too as he realized that fundamentally, unknown actors would be required to successfully bring the Robert Penn Warren, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel to cinematic life. Of course, the studio was Columbia, the poor relative to MGM and Universal, situated off the main track on Gower St., so it may be that studio economics had plenty to do with the casting.

Willie is learning to tell the voters what they want to hear.

But, I tend to believe Rossen who wrote that this choice of solid actors (but not with familiar faces) was a creative decision. In any event, it certainly worked as Broderick Crawford is outstanding as the demagogue Willie Stark in an academy-award performance – the same going for Mercedes McCambridge as Sadie, the backroom, political “fixer” – another academy award – and, in fact, “All The King’s Men” took the Best Picture Award in 1949.

John Ireland as the Reporter, and Mercedes McCambridge as the political "fixer" — in her Academy Award-winning performance.

The movie theme is that “power corrupts” and that “power attracts”. Willie’s rise and fall is modeled upon, and inspired by, the career of Huey Long, the Louisiana governor who was generally thought of as a “man of the people” but was a corrupt politician who was assassinated on the steps of the State Capitol Building.

Willie is about to be assassinated on the capitol steps.

The movie, and, of course, the novel, is a thoughtful essay on the nature of democratic politics. Stark’s career follows a classical, even tragic arc as he starts out as a seemingly sincere man of the people who wishes to do “good things” and rid the state of favoritism, cronyism, backroom deals, etc. Willie quickly realizes that his strength is with the common folk and that he must be identified with them thus his repeated statements and mottos such as “I’m a hick and you’re a hick!”, “Your will is my strength”, “My study is the heart of the people” – Willie is presented as “an honest man with courage”.

Willie Stark at the height of his power.

Of course, Willie Stark is elected Governor and embarks upon an astonishing program of building highways, schools, hospitals, etc. – all with his name and achieved by making deals with the very forces that he opposed in the beginning. In effect, the same crowd is in charge.Nothing new here for us I don’t think, but when I saw the movie at age 13, it spoke to me and the simple lessons it taught didn’t go away as I began to experience the more sophisticated expressions of “how things get done” through successive Presidential regimes – Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, etc.

The voters believe in Willie.

In an article written by Robert Rossen for the new York Times, he pointed out that the film company used the California town of Stockton as their “set” with the real townspeople for their cheering Stark supporters. Initially, they didn’t recognize Broderick Crawford, but, by the conclusion of the filming, they were flat-out Willie Stark supporters and if he had run for office, it would have been a landslide for Stark in Stockton.“All The King’s Men” is a difficult story to tell with all of its political and personal nuances, but, in this version, Rossen and his actors manage to succeed in presenting Willie as a tragic hero and those around him as like moths to a flame.

Sean Penn and an all-star cast fail to resonate with audiences in the remake.

I have seen this movie many times and it does not disappoint — as did the pallid and downright uninteresting recent remake!