All the Way Home

When it came time to casting for All The Way Home, Tad Mosel's Broadway success based on James Agee's novel A Death In The Family, Robert Preston was considered and got the lead. Ironic because a year before Preston had to fight to get the lead in the film version of The Music Man which was his career role. He wasn't considered box office enough. But the huge success The Music Man was convinced Hollywood's elite he was indeed box office again. Preston and Jean Simmons got the leads in place of Arthur Hill and Colleen Dewhurst despite the fact that Dewhurst had won a Ton Award on Broadway. The play ran 333 performances on Broadway in the 1960-1961 season.

Agee's autobiographical work is set in Knoxville, Tennessee and concerns the reactions of the family nuclear and extended to the death of the father and breadwinner. The first half gives you a picture of the various family members and the second half deals with the sudden death of Preston playing the father. Ironically his father survives Preston in the play and in my family my grandmother survived mine and my mother survived my sister. So my family dynamic is similar to that of the Follets of Knoxville. Hence I could identify personally in a way with what was going on. Fate makes an additional point here by having Preston visit his father on a health related issue.

Shot in Agee's own Knoxville they got a good sense of what it was like in 1915 when the story is set. I get the feeling Knoxville hadn't changed that much in the interim years. One wonders what the area looks like now. The authenticity is stamped into the film.

Preston and Simmons are great in their roles. The highlight of the film is Simmons dealing with their young son played by Michael Kearney. This is one of the great performances given by a child actor because Kearney comes off as a real kid not some Hollywood kid. Simmons herself was brilliant throughout, but especially here.

All The Way Home missed a Tony, but got the Pulitzer Prize for drama for Tad Mosel as it had for James Agee in his original novel. The film is great and moving drama and highly recommended for family audiences dealing with what the Follet family deals with in the film.