all my son may have be slightly dilute for the screen a compare to the stage play which implicate corruption and wartime profiteering on a high level than just one or two business men and but it still powerful stuff and extremely well direct by irving real . individual scene have a strength that be impressive and largely due to the excellent central performance of burt lancaster and edward g. robinson and mady christian . robinson and in particular and make the most of a meaty role that have him cocky and confident one moment and then bruise and bitter the next a his past crime catch up with him and his conscience . seem that during wwii and he and his partner ( frank conroy ) be pressure to finish make cylinder part for airplane on the government tight schedule and knowingly send defective part which cause the death of twenty one pilot when their plane go down . robinson have be hide the truth from himself and his neighbor ever since and concern only with make a decent living for himself and his family in suburban america . conflict arise when others around him begin to question his role in the crime that send his partner to jail . the son of the jailed partner and play in rather stiff fashion by howard duff and be unforgiving when he realize robinson share the guilt with his father and yet let his father take the blame for the incident . lancaster and too and and his girlfriend ( louisa horton ) who happen to be duff sister and also bring the conflict into the open when they start ask for answer and probe for the truth . horton be rather colorless in what be mean to be a sympathetic role and spend her remain year in tv role . but it edward g. robinson who make the big impression a the father and proud of his achievement and obviously in denial until his son and lancaster and make him realize why his other son never return from the war which lead to a tragic end . sum up represent somber drama never quite overcome it stage origin but it still powerful stuff . trivia note represent the only implausible factor in the cast the physical impossibility of burt lancaster a robinson son and when he bear no physical resemblance whatsoever to eddie nor mady christian for that matter .