All Fall Down is a 1962 American drama film, adapted from the novel All Fall Down (1960) by James Leo Herlihy, the author of Midnight Cowboy (1965). It was directed by John Frankenheimer and produced by John Houseman. The screenplay was adapted by playwright William Inge from the novel and the film starred Eva Marie Saint and Warren Beatty. Upon its release, the film was a minor box-office hit. Together with her performance in Frankenheimer's The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Angela Lansbury (who played a destructively manipulative mother in both films) won the year's National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. The film was entered in the 1962 Cannes Film Festival.
Plot
Berry-Berry Willart (Beatty) is a young, handsome hedonistic drifter who hates life and who has no trouble living off the women of all ages he seduces. When the women become too attached to him, his charm turns sadistic and frequently lands him in jail for battery. Berry-Berry is always on the road far from home, is rarely seen by his drunken father Ralph (Karl Malden), his controlling, manipulative mother, Annabel (Angela Lansbury), and his sixteen-year-old brother Clinton (Brandon deWilde). The story follows Clinton, who idolizes Berry-Berry but soon finds out his brother's darker side during the many times he has to bail Berry-Berry out of jail. Clinton is in love with a family friend, Echo O'Brien (Saint), and is forced to realize the type of person his brother is when Berry-Berry tragically sets his sights on Echo.
Cast
Eva Marie Saint as Echo O'Brien
Warren Beatty as Berry-Berry Willart
Karl Malden as Ralph Willart
Angela Lansbury as Annabel Willart
Brandon deWilde as Clinton Willart
Constance Ford as Mrs. Mandel
Barbara Baxley as School Teacher
Evans Evans as Hedy
Madame Spivy as Bouncer
Albert Paulsen as Capt. Ramirez
Robert Sorrells as Waiter at Sweet Shop
Reception
Critical
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times panned the film, describing it as "distasteful and full of cheap situations and dialogue". He found the premise of the movie—that "everyone in the story is madly in love with a disgusting young man who is virtually a cretin"—fatally flawed.
Box office
According to MGM records, the movie recorded a loss of $1,048,000.
Home media
Video
Warner Home Video released the film on Region 1 DVD as part of its "Archive Collection" on June 22, 2009.
Soundtrack
Its score had music composed and conducted by Alex North, whose other scores include Spartacus (1960) and Cleopatra (1963).
North's score was released for the first time on CD in April 2003, on the Film Score Monthly (FSM) label in association with Turner Classic Movies Music, as FSM0606, a limited-release of 3,000, along with North's suite for the film The Outrage (1964), directed by Martin Ritt. FSM described North's soundtrack as a "poignant, sweetly jazzy score...full of hushed, haunting textures, with lovely themes drawing the pained connections between the characters, delicately balanced between love and pain".
Plot
Berry-Berry Willart (Beatty) is a young, handsome hedonistic drifter who hates life and who has no trouble living off the women of all ages he seduces. When the women become too attached to him, his charm turns sadistic and frequently lands him in jail for battery. Berry-Berry is always on the road far from home, is rarely seen by his drunken father Ralph (Karl Malden), his controlling, manipulative mother, Annabel (Angela Lansbury), and his sixteen-year-old brother Clinton (Brandon deWilde). The story follows Clinton, who idolizes Berry-Berry but soon finds out his brother's darker side during the many times he has to bail Berry-Berry out of jail. Clinton is in love with a family friend, Echo O'Brien (Saint), and is forced to realize the type of person his brother is when Berry-Berry tragically sets his sights on Echo.
Cast
Eva Marie Saint as Echo O'Brien
Warren Beatty as Berry-Berry Willart
Karl Malden as Ralph Willart
Angela Lansbury as Annabel Willart
Brandon deWilde as Clinton Willart
Constance Ford as Mrs. Mandel
Barbara Baxley as School Teacher
Evans Evans as Hedy
Madame Spivy as Bouncer
Albert Paulsen as Capt. Ramirez
Robert Sorrells as Waiter at Sweet Shop
Reception
Critical
Bosley Crowther of The New York Times panned the film, describing it as "distasteful and full of cheap situations and dialogue". He found the premise of the movie—that "everyone in the story is madly in love with a disgusting young man who is virtually a cretin"—fatally flawed.
Box office
According to MGM records, the movie recorded a loss of $1,048,000.
Home media
Video
Warner Home Video released the film on Region 1 DVD as part of its "Archive Collection" on June 22, 2009.
Soundtrack
Its score had music composed and conducted by Alex North, whose other scores include Spartacus (1960) and Cleopatra (1963).
North's score was released for the first time on CD in April 2003, on the Film Score Monthly (FSM) label in association with Turner Classic Movies Music, as FSM0606, a limited-release of 3,000, along with North's suite for the film The Outrage (1964), directed by Martin Ritt. FSM described North's soundtrack as a "poignant, sweetly jazzy score...full of hushed, haunting textures, with lovely themes drawing the pained connections between the characters, delicately balanced between love and pain".
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