ALL MY SONS (1948)

Universal Pictures, 94m 13s

The film noir takes on tragic proportions with ALL MY SONS, a powerful anti-war statement from writer/producer Chester Erskine, who adapted the 1947 play of the same title by Arthur Miller (DEATH OF A SALESMAN [1949], THE CRUCIBLE [1953]). This Universal International Pictures production stands as a prime example of a noir film in which events of the past completely rule the present. Also a post-WWII film, it operates under the sound assumption there was no going back to however it was before world conflict. Among the many casualties of world war was an ocean of corruption that seeped into all areas of American existence, including small towns and middle-class suburbs. Though the noir film often is framed as an urban nightmare that primarily plays out within the dark, rainy streets of the largest US cities, genre instances such as ALL MY SONS suggest noir concerns are not limited to an urban ecosystem. The invasive noir atmosphere can be particularly potent in the country's unassuming smaller towns.

The uncompromising realities of post-WWII life are contextualized in terms of an Illinois family. For the past three years, the Kellers have been forced to deal with the MIA status of their son Larry. His brother Chris (Burt Lancaster) plans to marry Annie Deever (Louisa Horton), who once was Larry's girl. In the interest of personal growth rather than financial gain, Chris is prepared to set aside his claim to the family business in favor of domestic bliss with Annie, much to the disappointment of his industrialist father Joe (Edward G. Robinson, top-billed), who hoped Chris would take the reins of the company after him. Soon it is revealed there is more amiss with the Kellers than the son presumed dead and the future of their business. During a family night out, a local woman accuses Joe of being a murderer! Joe is quick to note he was exonerated, but that was not the case with Annie's father Herbert Deever (Frank Conroy), Joe's former business colleague, who is serving a prison term. Annie's brother George (Howard Duff) believes Joe knew all about a batch of defective plane engine cylinders that resulted in Herbert's sentence.

A recurring theme in the film noir is the unusual prominence an object
can have in a shot; sometimes that object displaces or minimizes the
importance of people. In this case the family piano stands in the
place of an absent son.

ALL MY SONS is jam-packed with themes and motifs that imbue the film with an unmistakable noir edge, especially with its drama so entrenched in the past. The circumstances that brought about the deaths of 21 fighter pilots cast an ominous shadow over the proceedings. Past events are accentuated by flashbacks, a technique not uncommon to the noir form. Then there are the characters whose lives have stalled after experiencing horrific loss. Could the world possibly be the same again after the devastation of WWII? The totality of Hollywood's film noir output of the 1940s insists the answer is no. At one interval in ALL MY SONS the cries of an infant are audible through an open window as the next generation voices its objections to a world in transition, one that no doubt will be unfairly burdensome for those who had no say in the state of things. In the film's concluding moments, a step is taken away from the diegesis to reflect upon the great cost of war, to reserve a moment for families torn apart by unacceptable human loss and the long-term suffering that accompanies it. Woven into the film's fabric is an obsession theme, a familiar film noir trope that impacts many of the genre's major characters. In this case the Keller family matriarch Kate (Mady Christians) has been the most obviously scarred of her family. She refuses to accept her son Larry's death and clings to better times, i.e. the value of a bag of potatoes, the preservation of Larry's old bedroom and his place at the family piano. She even takes pills to better cope with the present day. Kate certainly recalls the similarly obsessed family matriarch Hilda Blake (Helene Thimig) from STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT (1944), though Kate is the far more sympathetic character of the two.

The noir staircase obscures a listener.

Edward G. Robinson's disingenuous character is
framed as less important than the emerging couple.

Each character faces the camera in this traditional film noir approach to framing.

This shot's blocking communicates the increasing
distance between Joe Keller and his son Chris.

Part and parcel of the film noir is the traditional family home as breeding ground of problems not resolved easily. A lingering tension since wartime events is palpable, particularly for households in which family needs and business demands are forced to intersect. A major conflict at the Keller residence involves a son who does not wish to follow in his father's footsteps. That amounts to a huge blow against the values embodied by the family patriarch Joe, the working-class man who clawed his way to a higher level. On a level that calls into question the American military industrial complex, Joe profited from the war and became an important man in a business sense, but at what cost to humanity?

With its downbeat narratives and pessimistic inclinations, the film noir gives notable emphasis to the notion that the WWII era prefigured a period of social and moral decline. A Marxist view of capitalism often claims a significant portion of the noir portrait. An economic system that provides opportunity for everyone encourages immoral behavior with the potential of limitless rewards for the most daring, that risk/reward equation even encourages criminal behavior. Joe claims he only acted in his family's best interests but the truth is his inexcusable business decision was rooted in self-preservation. Through nothing but his own ambition, he accepted a government contract he could not handle in the event something went sideways. Of course that is precisely what happened, and he was ill-equipped to climb out of the impossible situation in which he deposited himself:  either ship the defective cylinders and hope for the best or accept a punishing business setback. Via flashback we learn Joe pledged to take full responsibility for his manufacturing, so Herbert authorized the shipment of cylinders that rightly should have been piled onto the scrapheap. The unfortunate result was 21 deaths and Joe's desperate need for a fall guy. He rationalized a wrongheaded connection between dirty business tactics and family responsibilities (he thought only of his family, not "all my sons"). Joe had every opportunity to do the admirable thing, essentially to choose life over death. He instead optioned to enrich his business and knowingly secure payment for faulty manufacturing. When a film noir character deliberately makes a wrong turn, noir historian Eddie Muller calls that moment "the break." The usual result is a downward spiral designed to hold the character accountable for his (or, less often, her) actions. In one of the genres most telling ironies, it is revealed the irresponsible business call made by Joe factored in his own son's demise. In a related theme, Joe must fall to clear the path for his surviving son. The concluding scenes closely echo the finale of THE OX-BOW INCIDENT (1942), a proto-noir-Western that also features a domineering patriarch intent on compelling his son to fall under his spell.

Director Irving Reis would add to the film noir category with his writing in the early 1950s for ANGEL FACE (1952, story credit), SPLIT SECOND (1953, co-story credit) and WITNESS TO MURDER (1954, original screenplay). Sadly his career was cut short by cancer on July 3, 1953. He was only 47 at the time of his death. Few cinematographers had their fingers on the noir pulse like Russell Metty, who ensured the look of ALL MY SONS was congruent with the noir canon of the mid-to-late 1940s that was engulfed in low-key lighting. His work is excellent here, as it is in his other noir efforts such as THE STRANGER (1946), RIDE THE PINK HORSE (1947), KISS THE BLOOD OFF MY HANDS (1948), THE LADY GAMBLES (1949), NAKED ALIBI (1954) and the end-of-genre-cycle masterpiece TOUCH OF EVIL (1958). Burt Lancaster was drawn to material that resonated with a social consciousness. He delivers one of the great moments of the film when he reads the letter that explains what became of his brother Larry.

The Blu-ray edition of ALL MY SONS released early in 2022 as part of the Kino Lorber Studio Classics product line boasts a new transfer from a new 2K master. Framed at 1.37:1, as the opening credits roll it becomes evident the source material must have been in very good condition. Some sections of the film are more bespeckled than others with artifacts and minor print damage, but overall the transfer looks crisp with a satisfying level of film grain. The main supplement is a new audio commentary track submitted by film critics Kat Ellinger and Lee Gambin. They discuss the feature film in terms of the definition of masculinity, especially in an American sense. There is something both sad and tragic about the Joe Keller character, he is far too nuanced to be considered only in terms of villainy. This is a "quietly subversive" movie according to Ellinger. She makes a great point about the Marxist nature of such narratives in which the only way to advance is to veer away from capitalism.

The usual Kino assortment of trailers is on hand.

As a fan of Tyler Joseph's band twenty øne piløts I was unaware
he borrowed his band's name from the work of Arthur Miller
until reviewing this film adaptation of the Miller play.