All the Fine Young Cannibals

Director:  Michael Anderson
Year Released:  1960
Rating:  1.5

Young lovers Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood go in separate directions after Wood becomes pregnant - she weds a Yale student only for Wagner to date his sister. Tragedy follows, naturally, and Anderson overemphasizes the parallels between the two couples, juxtaposing their lives (Natalie writes a letter; Robert writes a letter!) and turning up the melodrama. Wagner is probably the least obvious choice for a jazz musician (he 'shows' a mostly African American audience what the blues are really like … uh-huh) and the ending tries to implausibly patch up all of these misguided lives when the likelihood of it working out is less than likely.

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