Cradle Will Rock
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- For the original 1937 musical, see The Cradle Will Rock.
Cradle Will Rock is a 1999 movie written and directed by Tim Robbins. Set in 1937, it is a somewhat fictionalized account of the genesis and first performance of Marc Blitzstein's musical The Cradle Will Rock, which was directed by Orson Welles.
Cradle Will Rock is Tim Robbins' third film as director. Robbins has often been compared with Welles. Back in 1992, Robbins directed his first movie, Bob Roberts, and acted in Robert Altman's The Player. Altman saw Bob Roberts and dubbed Robbins "the next Orson Welles". His second film, the award-winning Dead Man Walking (1995) survived with its non-happy ending intact, unlike Welles' second film The Magnificent Ambersons (1942) which was taken out of his hands and re-cut.
More than that, Cradle Will Rock was meant to be Welles' last film as director. It went into pre-production in 1983 (with Rupert Everett on board to play Welles) before the backers pulled out and the production collapsed.
Cradle Will Rock follows a myriad of characters, all connected in varying degrees to Welles' production of the play. Just before the play opens, cutbacks in the Federal Theater Project force it to shut down. Welles (Angus Macfadyen) and his producer John Houseman (Cary Elwes) move the play to another theater. The cast, forbidden by their union to go on stage, performs the show from the audience.
Cast
| Hank Azaria | Marc Blitzstein |
| Rubén Blades | Diego Rivera |
| Joan Cusack | Hazel Huffman |
| John Cusack | Nelson Rockefeller |
| Cary Elwes | John Houseman |
| Philip Baker Hall | Gray Mathers |
| Cherry Jones | Hallie Flanagan |
| Angus Macfadyen | Orson Welles |
| Bill Murray | Tommy Crickshaw |
| Vanessa Redgrave | Countess LaGrange |
| Susan Sarandon | Margherita Sarfatti |
| Jamey Sheridan | John Adair |
| John Turturro | Aldo Silvano |
| Emily Watson | Olive Stanton |
| Bob Balaban | Harry Hopkins |
| Jack Black | Sid |
| Kyle Gass | Larry |
| Paul Giamatti | Carlo |