At the beginning of The All American I thought it might be a really good film. It has an opening gambit like From Here To Eternity which came out a year later. Tony Curtis an All American quarterback at Mid State is not told of his parent's deaths in a bus crash on the way to see him play. He quits the school and the team and goes to take up an offer of an architecture scholarship at Sheridan University.
Like Monty Clift who didn't want to box, Curtis doesn't want to play football. But after going to a game with Lori Nelson and seeing how lousy Sheridan's team is he decides to suit up after all. After that he's more popular and the film just turns out to be another college movie.
Tony's running feud is with Richard Long who is the son of the man who gave him the architecture scholarship. Both of them really behave quite like juveniles, Long only more so. Mamie Van Doren as a waitress in a local eating and drinking establishment fuels both these guys hormones.
The film must not really have made much of an impression on Curtis because he fails to mention it in his memoirs. Unless you're a big Tony Curtis fan I doubt it will make much of an impression on you.
Now Mamie Van Doren, there's one girl who will always leave a definite impression.
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