L'Ange de la violence

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!

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.

All Fall Down...did not live up to its promise... some dramatic scenes are , at times , laughable.. But you keep watching, and waiting. nothing much happens but a good study of a dysfunctional family in early 60's... The cast is probably the reason why we cant stop watching this beautifully photogaphed black &white film.. Angela Lansbury just about steals every scene .. not her best work but always good ! Karl Malden is also very good a Ralph the father... both were much younger than the roles they were playing.. Eva Marie Saint maybe miscast but she played the part very well.. young hunk Warren Beatty plays his confusing role well, and never looked better..what an early 60's masculine masterpiece was he...Barbara Baxley almost steals the show as the schoolteacher lusting after and later beaten and beratted by Beatty (Berry-Berry)..I would meet Ms. Baxley at an NYC bar years later (mid 1980s) and told her how much I admired her work...she replied in a euphoric stupor, & a puff of her cigarette..."I'm glaad someone remembers me darling "... true story.... But most of all .. Brandon De Wilde...growing up in the 1950's he was my teen idol I wanted to be Brandon de Wilde... blonde, beautiful talented making movies with A.Ladd etc.. what a screen talent.. what a loss.. long live Brandon de Wilde !!!

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.

I saw this one when it was first released, responding to some justly deserved positive reviews. Recently Turner Classic Movies showed it and my memories were confirmed: terrific cast beautifully responding to John Frankenheimer's astute direction; impeccable black-and-white cinematography by Lionel Lindon, especially that opening on-location sequence in Key West, Florida; one of Alex North's most apposite scores, not at all too florid (Was any Hollywood composer better at enhancing a story filled with neuroses in full bloom?); and a story whose downward spiral seems inevitable, despite some slight excesses on the part of the scriptwriter.

Minor reservations: Karl Malden's being required to vociferously refer to his son, Berry-Berry, as "The Big Rhinoceros" and as other assorted wildlife creatures (Why? Never really explained and seemingly inappropriate, given Warren Beatty's rather sleek appearance); the given names of the characters played by both Warren Beatty (Berry-Berry) and Eva Marie Saint (Echo O'Brien) - pure flights of fancy on the part of the writer(s), when compared to the more down-to-earth names given the other Midwesterners in the story; the frustration of seeing the doomed character, Echo, often expressing her affection for the younger brother, Clinton, while pathetically succumbing to the brutish abuse of his older brother, Berry-Berry.

But the interplay of all the cast (including some excellent supporting players) makes this somewhat forgotten gem a real must-see. It's one time when Angela Lansbury, running on all cylinders, is easily and compatibly matched by her fellow actors. This one's a keeper!