Better In Your Head?--ALL FALL DOWN

 

Spoiler Alert: I will not be reviewing Midnight Cowboy.

THE BOOK-Written by James Leo Herlihy, released 1960

THE MOVIE-Directed by John Frankenheimer, written by William Inge, released 1962

THE STORY-Fathoming adolescent angst through a personal journal is hardly an original technique, but Clinton Williams isn't worried about prototypes and patents. He's worried about his older brother, Berry-berry, a vice-ridden, violence-prone vagabond whose misdeeds render aimless his adoring family.

MIND THE GAP-What the shit kinda name is "Berry-berry"? Oh, beri-beri is a disease? Subtle!

So much of All Fall Down is a first novel. The blatant author avatar. Riding commas like rolling waves. Flirtations with all three POVs. Shouldn't work. Does. A sorely-overlooked gem. 

Second book in the BIYH series featuring a young man who smashes a storefront window in a fit of rancid petulance.

John Frankenheimer's 1962 is a classic case of "One Of These Things Is Not Like The Other." That year, three of his films hit movie theaters: Birdman of Alcatraz, The Manchurian Candidate, and All Fall Down. What a range of subject matter! Prison, politics, problematic Midwestern American family. 

Why'd All Fall Down break the streak? Why's it nearly as forgotten as the book is these days? The cast is...good. No one does their best, since the script doesn't demand anyone's best be done. Karl Malden and Angela Lansbury are commendable as the baffled parents (save for some dramatic overkill in Act Three concocted solely for the purpose of pummeling less-perceptive viewers with the movie's messages--negligence expedites ruin! A lack of boundaries means a lack of morals!). Warren Beatty, five years away from Bonnie and Clyde, is a physical no-brainer for Berry-beri, the half-ass asshole with a killer smile. Brandon DeWilde plays sensitive, reverent little brother Clinton, and it is in his performance the script's shortcomings shine dullest. Yeah, Clinton in the book is long-winded and short-sighted but he's also sixteen. I remember that age, and no matter the differences in experiences, one desire shared by teenage boys and girls is the desire for control, illusory though it may be. As Clinton documents, Clinton discovers. Some revelations hit harder than others, such as the fact our world's packed sick with liars--his idol among them. In the movie, Clinton's journal-keeping comes off as idiosyncratic, no more meaningful than cutting the crust off of one's sandwiches. 

Also didn't help that I had flashbacks to The Final Sacrifice every time Clinton said his brother's name.

Oh what a waste, Eva Marie Saint as sweet-hearted enchantress Echo. A restorative influence for a family in dire need, she's a heart waiting to break. I never envisioned her as airy or stylized--a movie star. And yet! What a gaffe.

BETTER IN YOUR HEAD-The book is alive. I could feel its pulse underneath my fingertips, smell its chlorinated breath tickling my cheek. The film merely lives, a prosy little thing. Watch Midnight Cowboy instead.