All the Fine Young Cannibals

Posted by Larita Shotwell on Saturday, June 29, 2024

The handsome production surrounds a ludicrous Modern Romances sort of screenplay which was suggested by Rosamond Marshall's novel The Bixby Girls. Under scrutiny is the accelerated world of troubled youth where a one-night stand invariably results in pregnancy, fame or attempted suicide.

The handsome production surrounds a ludicrous Modern Romances sort of screenplay which was suggested by Rosamond Marshall’s novel The Bixby Girls. Under scrutiny is the accelerated world of troubled youth where a one-night stand invariably results in pregnancy, fame or attempted suicide.

More specifically, the scenario explores the affairs of two young couples, (Natalie Wood-George Hamilton and Robert Wagner-Susan Kohner) who eventually learn to live with the fact they share a mutual tax-deduction in the form of a bouncing babe who bounced out of the pre-marital union of one-half of each partnership (Wagner and Wood).

Director Michael Anderson attempts to establish and link the individual personalities of the central foursome by flashing rapidly to and fro from family to family. The technique backfires in that, by attempting to take in too much too swiftly, it leaves the audience out of focus on all four individual sets of motivations.

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Wood is very pleasant to behold, even though a pained expression is about all she is required to project here. Kohner is not very convincing in her efforts to appear alternately gay, bored and distressed. Even less at ease are Wagner and Hamilton in a pair of incredibly unmasculine roles. Best emoting is done by Pearl Bailey, but even she can barely cope with a preposterous role of a celebrated blues singer who dies of a broken heart when jilted by that man who played horn for her.

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All the Fine Young Cannibals

  • Production: M-G-M. Director Michael Anderson; Producer Pandro S. Berman; Writer Robert Thom; Camera William H. Daniels Editor John McSweeney; Music Jeff Alexander Art George W. Davis, Edward Carfagno
  • Crew: (Color) Widescreen. Extract of a review from 1960. Running time: 112 MIN.
  • With: Robert Wagner Natalie Wood Susan Kohner George Hamilton Pearl Bailey

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