O Anjo Violento

When you get a writer like William Inge, who is a playwright by nature, to write a screenplay you get a movie like "All Fall Down" that seems like it is an adaptation of a play. The black and white photography and confined spaces provide an air of claustrophobia which is appropriate for this close examination of the Willart family. The father, Ralph (Karl Malden), is an alcoholic real estate broker who is a rather simple but decent soul; Clinton (Brandon De Wilde), the younger son, is a sensitive teenager who likes to write; Berry-Berry (Warren Beatty), the older son, is a handsome wastrel who lives off his good looks; Annabell (Angla Landsbury), is the controlling mother who obsesses over Berry-Berry and has pretty much wrecked the family. Things get off to a rather slow and awkward start, but when you throw Echo (Eva Marie Saint) into the mix, things get rocking when both sons are taken with her.

De Wilde is called upon to carry a good part of this movie. Hardly anyone is better at playing the clean-cut innocent and good natured youth ("Shane, come back!") than De Wilde, and he puts that talent to use here. I was struck by how similar De Wilde's Clinton is to Lonnie, the kid he would play opposite Paul Newman the next year in "Hud." Just as in this movie, in "Hud" he would play a young man who idolizes a more experienced relative, and ultimately comes to be totally disillusioned with him. Overall, the casting for "All Fall Down" is near perfect and the acting excellent.

I was expecting more from the Alex North ("Spartacus", "Goodfellas") score, but it is pretty much early 60s generic. The Sibelius symphony that accompanies the only romantic scene (higly scaled down by modern standards) is a bit over the top.

This movie would appear to be Inge's "Long Day's Journey into Night," but it is not nearly as powerful as the O'Neill play that was made into a brilliant movie in the same year.

I assume there is some significance, lost on me, to the fruit theme and the hyphenated "Berry-Berry." In any case, that name quickly started to bug the hell out of me.

Angela Lansbury is only four or five years older that Warren Beatty (One year older than Laurence Harvey, her son in Manchurian Candidate)and yet, through her performance everything makes sense even the most senseless of acts perpetrated by the characters around her. I wonder if David Lynch has seen this film. I don't know why but I sense a link. Viscerally. Brandon de Wilde, floating through the story, beautifully. Aware, trying to find a way out, lovingly, without destroying anything when everything seems destined to destroy him. I love this film.

This is exactly why I go to the library and rent movies. See all the movies you know about, watch the dreck that questionably pass for entertainment, and sometimes discover buried gems that nobody has heard of, yet stars people like Warren Beatty and Angela Lansbury.

'All Fall Down' is a tale of a family that are about to be ripped apart at the seams because of their oldest son. Warren Beatty plays Berry-Berry, a drifter if there ever was one. Going from town to town, from job to job, and usually winding up in jail, but this is all unknown to his family, who see him as a hero, mainly because he got away from town mostly. When his younger brother, played so achingly innocently by Brandon DeWilde, visits him in Florida only to wind up bailing him out of jail, he still loves him. Berry-Berry does wind up back home though, where Mom and Dad (played excellently here by Lansbury and Karl Malden) and unsettled house-guest Eva Marie-Saint await him diligently. His relationship with all 4 members of the household are all different, which results in the conclusion, which you're wondering what will happen to the family now.

I'm just amazed at Beatty's performance here, smoldering with machismo, yet unsure of everything else, Beatty easily wows everyone he sees, family included. Although Brandon DeWilde is largely ignored now, he was one of the brightest young stars in Hollywood once, and this is a great vehicle for him.

Find this one if you can!

Although this film is meant to be Beatty's showpiece, De Wilde actually carries the film. Lansbury & Malden chew the scenery more often than not, but their performances do eventually fall into place. Eve Marie Saint is wonderful, as are the actresses cast in several minor supporting roles - Evans Evans, Barbara Baxley and Constance Ford. While Beatty is at the height of his youthful beauty, his interpretation of "Berry-Berry" feels undeveloped.

The opening twenty minutes, filmed in Key West, establish a unique atmosphere that is quickly lost, when the film moves to "Ohio" scenes filmed on a studio back lot.

Contrary to a previous posting, Lansbury is thirteen years older than Beatty, who plays her son. Actor Brandon De Wilde died at age thirty, and one wonders what direction his acting career might have taken. His name has been forgotten by most, but his talent is obvious in this film.

Many of the earlier posts on this film mirror my overall impressions as well. I caught this on TCM a few weeks ago and I was compelled to keep watching despite some flaws and very awkward scenes. This film has that distinctive early 60's feel to it and also is lacking certain elements of specificity in its storytelling and character development. The Willart family is dysfunctional but we are not able to put our finger on the dynamics of exactly why. We know the father, Karl Malden, is an alcoholic, yet a noticeably genial and upbeat one. We know the mother, Angela Lansbury, seems perpetually stressed and perhaps emotionally isolated, but the dialogue between the two never gets to the heart of their unhappiness. The late Brandon de Wilde (who died in 1972 in an auto accident) is the younger of two brothers through whose perspective the story is told. He is an aspiring writer who spies and eavesdrops on his parents' conversations and records what he hears in a journal. I thought his overall performance was very effective and believable. A young Warren Beatty in one of his first major roles plays the older son, the wayward Berry-Berry. (His name is puzzling and one wonders why nobody thinks to call him Berry for short.) Eva Marie Saint plays a somewhat mysterious woman, Echo, who provides the basis of the storyline through her involvement with both brothers. I found it to be a flaw of the film, though a minor one, that we never know much about Echo....what her background is, how she came to be close friends with Mrs. Willart, what she does for a living, and why she is driving such an unusual car. An absorbing story once you get drawn into it, with several awkward scenes balanced out by several touching and poignant moments.