Today’s Classic Movie Tuesday is All The Fine Young Cannibals (1960), which falls into the category of I Watched It So You Don’t Have To (#yourewelcome)
It might be a total cringefest but it stars my all-time favourite actress, NATALIE WOOD.
‘All The Fine Young Cannibals’ is based on the novel, The Bixby Girls by ROSAMOND MARSHALL (1902-57) and is the 2nd movie based on a novel by Rosamond. The 1st was Kitty (1945), which starred PAULETTE GODDARD (1910-90) as Kitty and RAY MILLAND (1907-86) as Sir Hugh Marcy.
PLOT
Photo Credit: Reynold Brown, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
17-year-old, Sarah Davies (NATALIE WOOD) (who prefers to be called “Salome”) is frustrated with her life in the rural community of Pine Alley, Texas, caring for her many brothers & sisters. She’s in love with troubled minister’s son, Chad Bixby (ROBERT WAGNER).
On the night of Chad’s father’s funeral, he persuades Salome to defy her father and spend the night with him. Chad takes Salome to a honky-tonk in nearby Deep Elm and he’s encouraged to play his trumpet by the club’s proprietor, Rose (LOUISE BEAVERS).
Tony McDowall (GEORGE HAMILTON) is on vacation from Yale and approaches Salome mistakenly thinking that she’s one of the club’s hostesses.
Later on, Salome tells Chad that she’s pregnant with his child but when he offers to marry her, she refuses because he hasn’t got a job. She takes $20 from Chad and boards a train to New York where she reconnects with Tony, who offers to take her to Connecticut with him.
In Deep Elm, Chad meets Rose’s sister, Ruby (PEARL BAILEY). Ruby used to be a celebrated jazz singer but is now determined to drink herself to death after being dumped by her trumpet-playing beau. Chad convinces Ruby to take him with her to New York and introduce him to her agent.
At Yale, Tony’s spoiled sister, Catherine (SUSAN KOHNER) moves in with Tony and Salome, causing tension between the newly-married couple. After Salome catches Catherine listening to a recording of Chad’s trumpet-playing, she asks Tony to take her to New York to hear him play.
At the club, Chad is surprised to see Salome in the audience but ends up leaving with Catherine. Consumed with jealousy, Salome meets up with Chad the following day but when he asks her to leave Tony, she tells him that she can’t because Tony thinks their son, Peter is his. Determined to get his own back at Salome, Chad marries Catherine and she moves into the apartment he shares with Ruby.
Catherine is in love with Chad but can tell that her feelings aren’t reciprocated. During an argument, Chad confesses that he’s Peter’s biological father and only married Catherine to hurt Salome. Catherine attempts suicide and while she’s recovering in hospital, Tony asks Salome if she’s in love with Chad. She says she was and admits that Peter is Chad’s son. After Tony leaves, Salome gets drunk and tells Chad that she’s in love with Tony. He responds by writing on the wall in lipstick that he loves Catherine.
When Ruby passes away, Chad keeps his promise and takes her back to Deep Elm for burial. On his return to New York, he reunites with Catherine. Salome (who wants to be called Sarah again) and Peter are living with her family in Pine Alley when Tony arrives and says that he wants her back.
CHET BAKER (1929-88)
GEORGE HAMILTON, who plays Tony McDowall, described the plot of ‘All The Fine Young Cannibals’ as Southern Gothic vs CHET BAKER (1929-88) Biopic.
However, the only similarities between the fictional Chad Bixby and the real Chet Baker (aka “The Prince of Cool”) are that they’ve got the same initials and they were both American jazz trumpeters.
Chet’s signature song was ‘My Funny Valentine’ which was written by RICHARD RODGERS (1902-79) & LORENZ HART (1895-1943) for the 1937 Broadway musical, ‘Babes in Arms’.
On 13 May 1988, Chet was found deceased on the street below his (2nd floor) room at the Hotel Prins Hendrik in Amsterdam, The Netherlands with serious head injuries. Heroin and cocaine were found in both his bloodstream and hotel room and his death was ruled an accident.
CAST
Chad Bixby… ROBERT WAGNER
Sarah (Salome) Davis… NATALIE WOOD
Tony McDowall… GEORGE HAMILTON
Catherine McDowall… SUSAN KOHNER
Ruby Jones… PEARL BAILEY
Putney Tinker… JACK MULLANEY
Joshua Davis… ONSLOW STEVENS
Mrs Bixby… ANNE SEYMOUR
Ada Davis… VIRGINIA GREGG
Mrs McDowall… MABEL ALBERTSON
Rose… LOUISE BEAVERS
The rights to ‘The Bixby Girls’ were originally purchased for ELVIS PRESLEY (1935-77) & ELIZABETH TAYLOR (1932-2011) to co-star in and in 1957 The Hollywood Reporter announced that JAMES STEWART (1908-97) & LAUREN BACALL (1924-2014) would star in ‘All The Fine Young Cannibals.’
NATALIE WOOD & ROBERT WAGNER
ROBERT WAGNER (1930+) is best known for playing Jonathan Hart in Hart to Hart (1979-84).
Robert & Natalie were married from 1957-62 (divorced) & 1972-81 (Natalie’s death) and they had a daughter together, COURTNEY WAGNER (1974+).
‘All The Fine Young Cannibals’ was the 1st time that Robert & Natalie appeared on screen together. They later co-starred in The Affair (1973). Natalie also appeared in 2 x episodes (S1, E9 & S3, E20) of Switch (1975-8) & 1 episode of ‘Hart to Hart’ both of which starred Robert.
Photo Credit (Natalie Wood): Studio Publicity Still, Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
After a successful career as a child actress in movies such as Miracle on 34th Street (1947) (Classic Movie Tuesday), NATALIE WOOD’s (1938-81) breakthrough adult performance was as Judy in Rebel Without a Cause (1955) (Classic Movie Tuesday). She was nominated for the 1956 Academy Award (Best Actress in a Supporting Role) for ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ but lost out to JO VAN FLEET (1915-96) as Kate in East of Eden (1955).
Natalie was also nominated for the 1962 Academy Award (Best Actress in a Leading Role) as Wilma Dean Loomis in Splendor in the Grass (1961) losing out to SOPHIA LOREN as Cesira in Two Women (1960) and the 1964 Academy Award (Best Actress in a Leading Role) as Angie Rossini in Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) losing out to PATRICIA NEAL (1926-2010) as Alma Brown in Hud (1963).
On 28 November 1981, Natalie was on a weekend boat trip to Santa Catalina Island on board the yacht, Splendour with Robert, CHRISTOPHER WALKEN (her co-star in Brainstorm (1983)) and the yacht’s captain, DENNIS DAVERN.
Side Note: Christopher’s older brother, KEN WALKEN had an uncredited role in ‘All The Fine Young Cannibals.’
At 8am on 29 November, Natalie’s body was recovered a mile away from the Splendour with a small dinghy beached nearby. The cause of death was initially given as accidental drowning and hypothermia. There’s been plenty of speculation as to how Natalie ended up in the water given that she had a much-publicised fear of open water.
For more information, check out Natalie Wood: A Life in Books.
In 2012, the L.A. County Chief Coroner amended her death certificate, replacing accidental drowning as the cause of death to “drowning and other undetermined factors.” In February 2018, Robert (who denies any wrongdoing) was named as a person of interest in the police investigation into Natalie’s death.
SUSAN KOHNER & GEORGE HAMILTON
Photo Credit (Susan Kohner): Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
SUSAN KOHNER (1936+). Susan was nominated for the 1960 Academy Award (Best Actress in a Supporting Role) as Sarah Jane in Imitation of Life (1959) but lost out to SHELLEY WINTERS (1920-2006) as Mrs Petronella Van Daan in The Diary of Anne Frank (1959).
This was the 2nd movie adaptation of the 1932 bestselling novel, Imitation of Life by FANNIE HURST (1889-1968) after Imitation of Life (1939) (Classic Movie Tuesday). LOUISE BEAVERS (1902-62), who plays Rose in ‘All The Fine Young Cannibals’ co-stars as Delilah in the original ‘Imitation of Life.’
Susan’s casting in ‘Imitation of Life’ was controversial because the character of Sarah Jane is supposed to be a light-skinned, African-American woman (played brilliantly by FREDI WASHINGTON (1903-94) in the original) but although production notes show that 100 Black performers auditioned for the role, Susan was cast even though she isn’t of African descent – her parents were LUPITA TOVAR (1910-2016) (Mexican) and PAUL KOHNER (1902-88) (Czech Jewish) (JSTOR Daily).
At the 1960 Golden Globe Awards, whilst Susan won Best Supporting Actress for ‘Imitation of Life,’ GEORGE HAMILTON (1939+) won Most Promising Newcomer – Male for his role as Robert in Crime & Punishment, USA (1959). George is now better known for his “jet-setting playboy image and perpetually bronzed skin tones in commercials, film spoofs and reality shows” (IMDb).
Susan & George might have played siblings in ‘All The Fine Young Cannibals’ but they were actually dating during filming and got engaged in 1962. They also co-starred in By Love Possessed (1961).
Susan married JOHN WEITZ (1923-2002) (Fashion Designer) in 1964 and left Hollywood in order to raise her family. Susan & John had 2 x sons: PAUL (1965+) & CHRIS WEITZ (1969+). Like Susan, Paul & Chris were nominated (with PETER HEDGES) for an Academy Award: Best Writing, Adapted Screenplay (2003) for About a Boy (2002) but lost to RONALD HARWOOD (1934-2020) for The Pianist (2002).
PEARL BAILEY (1918-90)
Pearl made her Broadway debut in 1946 as Butterfly in St Louis Woman at the Martin Beck Theatre. ‘St Louis Woman’ was based on God Sends Sunday by ARNA BONTEMPS (1902-73) from the Harlem Renaissance.
From 1967-9, Pearl played Dolly Gallagher Levi with an all-Black cast (including CAB CALLOWAY (1907-94) as Horace Vandergelder) in Hello, Dolly! (Playbill).
She was in esteemed company because during the 6-year run of ‘Hello, Dolly!’ at St James Theatre, Dolly was also played by (1964-5) CAROL CHANNING (1921-2019), (1965-7) GINGER ROGERS (1911-95), (1967) BETTY GRABLE (1916-73), (1969-70) PHYLLIS DILLER (1917-2012) & (1970) ETHEL MERMAN (1908-84). In 1968, Pearl received a Special Tony Award for ‘Hello, Dolly!’
On screen, she appeared as Frankie in Carmen Jones (1954) and Maria in Porgy and Bess (1959). In 1976, she became the 1st African-American to receive the Screen Actors Guild Lifetime Achievement Award
In 1971, she hosted The Pearl Bailey Show on ABC and she won the 1986 Daytime Emmy (Outstanding Performer in Children’s Programming) as Martha Dermody in the ABC Afterschool Special, Cindy Eller: A Modern Fairytale (1985).
Off screen, Pearl was appointed as a Special Ambassador to the United Nations by GERALD FORD (1913-2006) (1974-7) in 1975, awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by RONALD REAGAN (1911-2004) (U.S. President 1981-9) in 1988 and the Women’s International Center Living Legacy Award in 1989. At the age of 67, Pearl graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. with a degree in theology.
REDD FOX (1922-91)
‘All The Fine Young Cannibals’ was the movie debut of pioneering comedian, REDD FOX.
Redd played Fred G. Sanford in Sanford and Son (1972-77), which was a remake of Steptoe and Son (1962-74). Redd’s character would often fake heart attacks. Sadly, whilst filming The Royal Family (1991-2), Redd complained of chest pains but because of the jokes in ‘Sanford and Son’ nobody believed him until it was too late and he passed away from a heart attack.
CREW
(Director) MICHAEL ANDERSON (1920-2018). Michael was nominated for the 1957 Academy Award (Best Director) for Around the World in 80 Days (1956) but lost to GEORGE STEVENS (1904-75) for Giant (1956).
REVIEW
There’s plenty to dislike about ‘All The Fine Young Cannibals’ like Catherine using the n-word to describe Ruby, Chad hitting Catherine and the cringeworthy acting from both Robert & George but Natalie was her usual luminous self and I really enjoyed Susan & Pearl’s performances. The small-town setting reminded me of 2 x other Natalie films: Splendor in the Grass (1961) and This Property is Condemned (1966) and the unplanned pregnancy reminded me of Love with the Proper Stranger (1963) (Classic Movie Tuesday) although these films at least had the benefit of much more charismatic leading men in WARREN BEATTY, ROBERT REDFORD & STEVE McQUEEN (1930-80) respectively.
FINE YOUNG CANNIBALS
British pop-rock band, Fine Young Cannibals took their name from ‘All The Fine Young Cannibals.’
Fine Young Cannibals were formed in 1984 in Birmingham, England by DAVID STEELE (Bassist), ANDY COX (Guitarist) & ROLAND GIFT (Lead Vocalist). They won 2 x 1990 Brit Awards: British Group and British Album of the Year (The Raw & the Cooked).
Their highest charting single in the UK was ‘She Drives Me Crazy’ (1988).
I hope you’ve enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at ‘All The Fine Young Cannibals.’ Check back soon for another Classic Movie Tuesday and if you’ve missed any so far, you can find them in the Archives.
All the best, Louise x
Louise Hall 
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