judge's possible wrongdoing a quarter century earlier, he hides it from Stark. Anne gives the evidence to Stark, who uses it against her uncle, and he commits suicide. Anne seems to forgive Stark, but her brother Adam, the surgeon who helped save Tommy's life after the car crash, cannot. After Stark blocks an impeachment investigation, Adam assassinates Stark. The doctor in turn is shot down by Sugar Boy, Stark's assistant. Having lost his respect for Stark, Jack tries to get Anne's agreement to find a way to destroy Stark's reputation just as he dies. Cast Broderick Crawford as Willie Stark John Ireland as Jack Burden Joanne Dru as Anne Stanton John Derek as Tom Stark Mercedes McCambridge as Sadie Burke Shepperd Strudwick as Adam Stanton Ralph Dumke as Tiny Duffy Anne Seymour as Mrs. Lucy Stark Katharine Warren as Mrs. Burden Raymond Greenleaf as Judge Monte Stanton Walter Burke as Sugar Boy Will Wright as Dolph Pillsbury Grandon Rhodes as Floyd McEvoy Larry Steers as Man at Impeachment Hearing (uncredited) Houseley Stevenson as Madison the newspaper editor Paul Ford as State Senator and impeachment prosecutor Production Rossen originally offered the starring role to John Wayne, who found the proposed film script unpatriotic and indignantly refused the part. Crawford, who eventually took the role, won the 1949 Academy Award for Best Actor, beating out Wayne, who had been nominated for his role in Sands of Iwo Jima. The film was shot at various locations in California using local residents, something that was fairly unknown for Hollywood at the time. The old San Joaquin County courthouse in Stockton, built in 1898 and demolished about a dozen years after the film's release, was featured prominently. Paul Tatara, a film reviewer for CNN, describes the film as "one of those pictures that was saved in the editing". Al Clark did the original cut but had trouble putting all the footage that Robert Rossen had shot into a coherent narrative. Robert Parrish was brought on board by Rossen and Columbia Studios head Harry Cohn to see what he could do. Since Rossen had a hard time cutting anything he shot, after several weeks of tinkering and cutting the movie was still over 250 minutes long. Cohn was prepared to release it in this version after one more preview, but this threw Rossen into a panic, so Rossen came up with a novel solution. Rossen told