All the Fine Young Cannibals

Plot

Robert Wagner plays Chad Bixby, a role reportedly inspired by the life of jazz trumpeter Chet Baker in this romantic drama about two young couples linked by the out-of-wedlock baby spawned by Bixby and Salome Davis (Natalie Wood) before their current marriages. Pearl Bailey appears as a famous blues singer who dies of a broken heart after being jilted by her horn player, and George Hamilton is featured as Wood's current husband. A well-mounted production and potentially interesting idea -- that lives can be irrevoccably changed in one night -- are let down by a soapy and muddled screenplay. The film was suggested by Rosamond Marshall's novel The Bixby Girls. ~ Don Kaye, Rovi

Review

MGM lavished considerably more money and attention on All the Fine Young Cannibals than the material deserves. This tawdry, unbelievable melodrama was given a handsome production and has a high, glossy sheen, but it's all in the service of a "nothing" script. The basic plot is a re-hash of every cliché the authors could tear from numerous steamy southern bodice-rippers, 50's jazz fables and upper class morality tales. The dialogue is banal and obvious, with "snappy" lines that the viewer knows are coming several minutes before they actually slither out of the actors' mouths. With material like this -- and with inept direction from Michael Anderson -- the actors are doomed. Natalie Wood does what she can, but it's nowhere near enough, and Susan Kohner's decision to give the part her all was not wise. (The scenes in which Kohner whips a bare-chested Robert Wagnerand attempts suicide are especially hard to take.) Wagner's performance is all on the surface; he practically seems to be holding up signs that say "sullen" or "vengeful" or "excited" throughout the movie. Only Pearl Bailey comes close to giving what might be called a decent performance, aided by the fact that she at least gets a chance to sing on occasion. Although Wood bounced back the next year with West Side Story and Splendor on the Grass, Bailey would be off the screen for a decade, until 1970's The Landlord. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi

Cast

• Robert Wagner - Chad Bixby
• Natalie Wood - Salome Davis
• Susan Kohner - Catherine McDowall
• George Hamilton - Tony McDowall
• Pearl Bailey - Ruby Jones

Jack Mullaney - Putney Tinker; Onslow Stevens - Joshua Davis; Anne Seymour - Mrs. Bixby; Virginia Gregg - Ada Davis; Mabel Albertson - Mrs. McDowall; Louise Beavers - Rose; Robert A. Davis; Addison Richards - Mr.McDowall

Credit

George W. Davis - Art Director, Edward C. Carfagno - Art Director, Helen Rose - Costume Designer, Michael Anderson - Director, John MacSweeney - Editor, John McSweeney, Jr. - Editor, Jeff Alexander - Composer (Music Score), William J. Tuttle - Makeup, William H. Daniels - Cinematographer, Pandro S. Berman - Producer, Kathryn Hereford - Producer, Henry W. Grace - Set Designer, Rudy Butler - Set Designer, Robert Thom - Screenwriter, Ronald Scott Thorn - Screenwriter, Mrs. Rosamond Marshall - Book Author

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