All the Kind Strangers, the 1974 movie from director Burt Kennedy and screenwriter Clyde Ware, is a movie hampered by its medium. It’s an American network television movie, therefore subject to Standards and Practices. An unconscionable level of restrictions on content and story was the norm on American television at the time, and it shows in All the Kind Strangers. A movie that could have had teeth was instead dumbed down.
Stacy Keach plays Jimmy Wheeler, a photojournalist taking a road trip across America in search of…well, that’s never explained. But it looks as if he’s taking the back roads, searching for some gritty Americana he can put on film and maybe turn into a touching piece for Harper’s or The New Yorker.
Opportunity presents itself when Jimmy spots young Gilbert (Tim Parkison), an eight-year old boy lugging a bag of groceries along a rural road. Jimmy offers Gilbert a ride back to his family’s farm, where we meet the rest of the Jenner or Janner family, depending on how one hears Gilbert pronounce the name. There are six others of them, the oldest being Peter (John Savage, in one of the first of his over 200 roles). He’s followed by buxom and mute Martha (Arlene Farber), whose obvious subplot never materializes; sinister John (Robby Benson); and a gaggle of prepubescents that don’t have much in the way of dialogue in Rita, James, and Baby, who was never given a name after his birth (Patti Parkison, Brent Campbell, and John Connell).
It’s clear early on that these kids don’t have parents. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t an adult in the house. The conceit behind the film is that, desperate to keep the family together, the Jenners (or Janners), have decided to hold hostage any adult that they can lure to their farm to become their surrogate parents. Jimmy Wheeler is not the first, nor is he alone. Carol Ann (Samantha Eggar) is already being held at the farmhouse, acting as the family’s new mother. Jimmy isn’t having any of this nonsense, 
so rarely a scene goes by where he isn’t plotting an escape, or actually carrying one out. It never goes well, mostly because there are seven kids wandering around ready to rat him out, and a pack of mean dogs guarding the house’s perimeter.
Over the course of these attempted escapes, we learn of the sinister fate of earlier adults who have rejected the family’s compulsory offer of home and hearth. When the kids are displeased, they hold a vote on whether or not to keep the current pair of parents, and woe be should the vote come out a ‘no.’
With that kind of setup, a wild film could have been made. The possibilities are far ranging. Savage plays Peter as a restless youth being held back by circumstances. He wants nothing more than to get the hell off of the farm, but he needs to feel his siblings are in good hands before he does so. He’s a dreamer, but he’s also an incredible hayseed, and his character could have been a focal point of emotional manipulation by Jimmy.
As mentioned above, Martha was primed to be a jejune teen seductress, but the premise was never explored.
Whereas Peter is a tightly wound and desperate character, John is menacing, in a Patrick Bateman kind of way. In the lore of the film, the family has been on their own for five years, making it look as if John was around eleven when his parents died. That’s right into the age when hormones play absolute hell with a boy’s mind, and, realistic or not, it’s easy to picture a boy this age developing sociopathic tendencies due to the lack of adult guidance. John always has a smile, but it’s the kind that clues audiences into bad intentions. Again, it’s never explored. By the end of the movie, it’s shown that John is as innocent as a newborn babe. Another lost opportunity.
This is a movie that feels like it has high stakes for Jimmy and Carol Ann. In the end, it does not. The story resolves itself without a drop of blood, and with a reasoned plea for moral righteousness. In fact, it’s about as happy and forthright an ending as this story could have, and is probably the last one which most filmmakers would choose. Either Kennedy and Ware didn’t realize this, so shame on them, or they were subject to those dreaded Standards and Practices. I think it’s the latter. Storytelling decisions like this are only made by men in suits. The only subversive aspect of the movie is that at every step it takes the lamest path, and that’s something audiences would never expect. All the good acting, dialogue, and above average presentation for a television movie of the day, was wasted. The creepy kids in this creepy kid flick turn out not to be creepy at all. What’s the point of that?
Because it’s frustrating watching so much opportunity slip by, All the Kind Strangers slips into the lower half of the Watchability Index, displacing Detour at #284.