All My Sons [Blu-ray]

Director: Irving Reis Irving Reis

Overview

Based on the play by Arthur Miller, All My Sons is a drama of man's duty to man that retains a potent impact. Edward G. Robinson plays a manufacturer of parts for World War II airplanes who lives a full, satisfied life in a small town. But his idyll is shattered by the arrival of the fiancée of the manufacturer's oldest son, who is missing in action. The younger son begins to fall in love with the girl, but her own brother is against the relationship because, he claims, the manufacturer and his partner delivered defective parts to the war effort. The younger son (Burt Lancaster) investigates, even going as far as visit his father's former partner in jail, and discovers the awful truth -- that his father's corrupt actions were responsible for both the partner's incarceration and the deaths of 21 U.S. pilots. The tale ends with a bitter and tragic confrontation that drives home the message that we are all our brother's keepers, and we cannot push aside that responsibility for personal gain. Thoughtful and intense performances by Robinson and Lancaster bring humanity and life to this powerful theme.

Product Details

Release Date:	01/04/2022
UPC:	0738329257316
Original Release:	1948
Rating:	NR
Source:	Kl Studio Classics
Language:	English
Time:	1:34:00
Sales rank:	28,978

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Burt Lancaster	Chris Keller
Edward G. Robinson	Joe Keller
Howard Duff	George Deever
Louisa Horton	Ann Deever
Mady Christians	Kate Keller
Frank Conroy	Herbert Deever
Lloyd Gough	Jim Bayliss
Arlene Francis	Sue Bayliss
Harry Morgan	Frank Lubey
Elisabeth Fraser	Lydia Lubey
Walter Soderling	Charles
Therese Lyon	Minnie
Charles Meredith	Ellsworth
Jack Gargan	Workman
William Johnstone	Attorney
Herb Vigran	Wertheimer
Harry Harvey	Judge
Joe Kerr	Norton,Norton
Pat Flaherty	Bartender
George Sorel	Headwaiter
Helen Brown	Mrs. Hamilton
Herbert Haywood	McGraw
Jerry Hausner	Halliday
Frank Kreig	Foreman
William Ruhl	Ed,Ed
Al Murphy	Tom
Walter Boon	Jorgenson
Richard La Marr	Workman
Victor Zimmerman	Attendant
George Slocum	Attendant

Technical Credits

Chester Erskine

Chester Erskine	Producer,Screenwriter
David S. Horsley	Special Effects
Irving Reis	Director

Editorial Reviews

It's unfortunate that Irving G. Reis, rather than Elia Kazan, who had directed the play on Broadway, was chosen to film Arthur Miller's award-winning social drama. Certainly the latter would have improved on the film's plodding visual qualities, and goosed some of the performances. The Ibsenite theme of family and community tarnished by a corrupt defense contractor was probably more deeply unsettling to an audience in the triumphal post-WWII period than it now seems, and the patches of Odets-like rhetoric that Miller would strip from his mature style can sound like so much hot air, but overall, the writing that established the playwright's reputation has an enduring resonance. Edward G. Robinson dominates the film as the robust, back-slapping contractor, who has almost convinced himself that he's done nothing wrong, when his imprisoned partner's son and daughter come to visit. In one of these early, seemingly innocuous scenes, Miller hints that Robinson's neighbors are aware that he's put something over on the legal system and admire him all the more for it, a surprisingly subversive bit of foreshadowing for the time. But when the veteran actor is offscreen the film seems lifeless, and the earnest scenes between Burt Lancaster, as the frustrated, conscience-stricken son, and Louisa Horton as his lover, seem particularly dated. In its big moments, though, the film delivers, and Robinson's anguished recognition of his guilt can stand with the best work of his career. Miller's insight into the destructively delusional aspect of the desire for a competitive edge is as pointed as ever.

All Movie Guide - Michael Costello