1957 Directed by Elia Kazan
The rise of a raucous hayseed named Lonesome Rhodes from itinerant Ozark guitar picker to local media rabble-rouser to TV superstar and political king-maker. Marcia Jeffries is the innocent Sarah Lawrence girl who discovers the great man in a back-country jail and is the first to fall under his spell.
Andy Griffith Patricia Neal Anthony Franciosa Walter Matthau Lee Remick Percy Waram Paul McGrath Rod Brasfield Marshall Neilan Alexander Kirkland Charles Irving Howard Smith Kay Medford Big Jeff Bess Henry Sharp R. G. Armstrong Lois Nettleton Diana Sands Rip Torn Beverly Bentley John Bliss Noah Keen
Das Gesicht in der Menge, Un rostre en la multitud, Tvář v davu, Ein Gesicht in der Menge, Μια μορφή μέσα στο πλήθος, Un rostro en la multitud, Kasvot väkijoukossa, Un homme dans la foule, Egy arc a tömegben, Un volto nella folla, 군중 속의 얼굴, Twarz w tłumie, Um Rosto na Multidão, Лицо в толпе, Kalabalıkta Bir Yüz, 登龙一梦, 登龍一夢
USA
Chicago, Illinois
USA
USANR
FranceU
France
USA
It's hard to review a movie like this in terms of its theme, as so much of it was simply spelled out for the viewer. This isn't entirely a flaw, but the tragic rise and fall of Lonesome Rhodes pretty clearly depicts the costs of fame, manipulation, power, and so on. It's a bitter and cynical soul that it lays waste to, eventually, and it suggests baldly that this is what America has become. It's a warning and a cry for help.
The performance people talk about is Andy Griffith's, which is fair enough. He puts everything into it, giving us a startling intensity that he would later shy away from with his eponymous television show, and his country howl…
Having failed to see this movie before the 2016 election, I've put off getting around to it owing to my immense, eye-rolling aversion to the insistence of retrofitting every political piece of American culture, no matter how old, to be "about Trump." Yet there's actual truth to that charge here, albeit not, perhaps, in the way people think. Yes, Lonesome Rhodes is a vulgar brute, a snake-oil salesman who uses a cornpone, man-of-the-people image to mask a purely mercenary narcissist in it for the attention, but the film also pointedly contrasts him against his cultural counterweight, businessmen whose stuffy "dignity" barely hides the same base impulses of control and greed. What A Face in the Crowd posits with shocking insight…
Elia Kazan’s “A Face in the Crowd” is a warning shot close enough to graze the temples of anyone watching. Its piercing reverberations on mass media manipulation still ring in the ears over half a century later.
“Face” arrived in cinemas two full decades before “Network;” a thematic successor that shares all the malice, but perhaps more technical mastery than its similarly-themed 1957 predecessor.
Kazan, though, brings a sort of personal pessimism to “Face,” imbuing it with a hostility that seems to have been sloshing around his gullet in the years since he was unable to generate a hit film following his “HUAC” testimony.
Possibly nursing some bitterness about how his own reputation had undergone a trip through the media…
A Face in the Crowd is like standing alone in a crowd and finishing a cigarette in under a minute, then light-headedly glancing at the last cloud of cigarette smoke, wondering where it all went wrong. It is like thinking 'ahh, screw it', and moving your nicotine-caked fingers to take a new cigarette out of the pack, only to realize that it was your last one. The wings of the American Dream can lift you only so high. Your career will soar, but the person you once were will slowly wither inside. Money and fame's charming glitter will fade to expose the naked rottenness underneath, and you'll suddenly be afraid.
Only then will you realize that you were never more…
I didn't read anything about this before watching, and when the titles kicked in had a horrid feeling this was going to be one of those crusty old westerns, full of doddery old men with 'ceeegars' and anxious maids.
Nope.
A Face in the Crowd is pure unadulterated joy, and if you're feeling a little blue or down in the dumps I'd highly recommend a dose of what it has to offer.
It starts nice enough, but as soon as we meet Larry 'Lonesome' Rhodes, the happy gas flicks to 10!
For any of you that have seen this, I'll say one word. Vitajex. That whole scene was absolute sunshine and a glory to behold. While I really enjoyed Andy…
This incendiary story about social influencers, populist rabble-rousing and the fleeting (yet impactful) nature of fame has only become more relevant as time’s gone on, centred around a folksy “man of the people” (played by Andy Griffith) who reaches the top—only for his own hubris to cause everything to crumble around him.
Writer Budd Schulberg based this story on a number of actual cases, and Lonesome Rhodes’ meteoric “famous for being famous” rise & fall feels like a parallel to multiple real life people in the public eye (both before and long after this came out), the character assembling a devoted fanbase before buying into his own hype and losing what connected him to them in the first place.
Griffith brings…
Criterion Collection Spine #970
A washed up ole southern boy becomes an overnight sensation through the power of his dazzling on-air charisma.
"I'm not just an entertainer. I'm an influence, a wielder of opinion, a force... a force!"
Wow, Andy Griffith is a force of nature in his debut performance as Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, in Director Elia Kazan's 'A Face in the Crowd'. In the story a radio show producer named Marcia Jeffries is looking for a unique talent, and comes across Rhodes with his guitar in an Arkansas jail. We really do know what to expect from him as he says whatever comes to mind and sings a little tune. But there is just something about his spontaneous plain-speaking…
"You're going to love me... say you're going to love me!" -Lonesome Rhodes,
Elia Kazan (director) and Budd Shulberg (writer) saw this all coming back in 1957... they tried to warn us!
What an outstanding film about the declining morality of America and the corrupting nature of power and fame. It's simple.. it's to the point... and it has a bite to it. A Face in the Crowd also features one of my new all time favorite performances in Andy Griffith's Lonesome Rhodes.... a character that you love to hate and goes through such a variety of emotions throughout the film. This shouldn't be interpreted to mean that I overlooked the truly wonderful performance of Patricia Neal either, Griffith is just that awe-inspiring. I've seen the ending copied a dozen times but never executed quite so well.
Absolutely you should watch this movie.
