morrison-dylan-fan Receiving an issue of film magazine Retro Cinema from a family friend,I took a look at movie reviewer Raymond Benson's best of 1958 films list,and was taken by a title that he said continued to be politically relevant today. A few days later I saw former IMDber MikeF list it as one of his best viewings of the month,which along with Benson's list led to me looking to the crowd.View on the film:Meeting future President LBJ a number of times for research into his speaking style and mannerisms, Budd Schulberg reunites with director Elia Kazan for a jet-black satire of populism in the TV age. Pulling Larry 'Lonesome' Rhodes out of the blue-collar grass-roots of On The Waterfront, Schulberg warns of the instant fame TV can give by dicing Lonesome from a good olde Southern boy just happy to hear his tune on the radio, to his bigly gain in popularity from starring in trash TV shows powering Lonesome towards politics and becoming a demagogue who is top of the world ma!Whilst the way he is caught out rings as a false,rushed move in the tale, Schulberg follows the puppet-strings of Lonesome that go up to the dry wit of politicians trying to get Lonesome's populism to rub off on them, and Lonesome's romance with Marcia Jeffries's crumbles as he becomes surrounded by power. Continuing his trademark theme of "social issues" films, director Elia Kazan brings a giddy excitement to Lonesome's early days with flashing TV studio lights and signs, that starkly dim to a black screen transmitting the empty space now at the core of Lonesome. Joined by the fellow debut of Lee Remick as the high-kicking Betty Lou Fleckum, Andy Griffith gives a magnetic debut performance as Lonesome, whose laid-back style Griffith uses to charm the crowds and the viewers, that Griffith sours into a cold sweat,as Lonesome looks out and sees no faces in the crowd.

Edgar Allan Pooh . . . is the underlying theme of not only A FACE IN THE CROWD, but also in most of the other cinematic offerings from FACE's director. FACE came out a few years after this duplicitous Fascist snitch won a rigged "Best Picture" Oscar election for ON THE WATERFRONT--a film which failed to crush the Solidarity of America's Progressive Union Label Patriotic Working Class. Trying to mine that same vein of elitist hatred by expanding it to the rest of We 99 Per Centers, this demonic director once again depicts Average Joes as sheep-like automaton dupes, easily bamboozled by any cackling scam artist with access to the airwaves (that is, Rich People and their flunky tools). A FACE IN THE CROWD portrays women as particularly vulnerable to the "Loathsome Rhodes" character. But many viewers will get sidetracked by the tubs containing 37,082 silver half dollars which Loathsome fund-raises for the homeless lady through his early crowd-sourcing campaign. The average viewer will wonder whether her nest egg would be worth more in 2018 if she A)Put it in a simple inflation-indexed account, B)Invested it at a 5% return rate compounded annually, or C)Stuffed it inside her mattress (or sacked it up in her commandeered grocery cart)? Simple math yields these results: A)$164,289.76, B)$202,846.19, or C)at least $284,418.94 (but the sky's the limit on possible numismatic values here).

Brett Chandler (Thunderbuck) Great. Really great. Deserves wider recognition, because as a study of power and populism it's up there with "Citizen Kane".No, Elia Kazan didn't have Orson Welles' dazzling technical brilliance (though there's a wonderful natural feel of being onstage with the performers throughout), but he was very much an actor's director and brings some spectacular performances to the screen here.I'm a child of the early '60s, so I grew up with The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry RFD, and Matlock. I'd experienced many, many stories on TV with Andy Griffith, and he was a comfortable, familiar presence. Maybe the best compliment I can pay this film and his performance in it was that I quickly forgot he was Andy Griffith at all.Griffith's character of "Lonesome" Rhodes is honestly a performance for the ages. He's by turns charming, pitiful, and terrifying as he quickly ascends from an Arkansas county drunk tank to become a powerful media presence. The story is plotted conveniently but Griffith is utterly believable through the entire climb.Though Rhodes is the focus of the story, there's a great surrounding ensemble, too. The great Walter Mattheau has a strong supporting role as one of Rhodes' writers who eventually becomes disillusioned, and Patricia Neal is fantastic as the reporter who brings attention to Rhodes to begin with and tries to follow him all the way up. The performances are all amazing.Some personal speculation: I understand that Kazan was very demanding on Griffith during shooting, and that Griffith's experience on set was dark and difficult. His subsequent, more prosaic television career may well have been shaped by a desire to atone for his performance here.Kazan did this movie following his classic "On the Waterfront", and perhaps it's overshadowed unfairly. It's a great story of power, populism and corruption and deserves to be known more widely.

PimpinAinttEasy Dear Elia Kazan, Your over the top depiction of the sinister and abnormal marriage between the entertainment industry and the common man is not just prophetic, but influential due to its use of over the top dialogs and imagery. You conjured up a beautiful and loud warning about American culture filled with close ups of Andy Griffith's reptilian smile, hysterical noisy crowds, the sweaty bimbos who flock towards him and the creepy tasteless capitalists who use his celebrity. The noirish imagery is used rather discreetly. There were extremely beautiful women in many of the frames - usually in submissive roles of a secretary or assistants holding banners in a TV show or as objects for entertaining men.Three scenes in the film stood out for me. The first scene was a pretty sober one in a corridor where Patricia Neal seduces Griffith when he is about to leave the business and hit the road. The corridor is beautifully lit and the the background score is melancholic. The only times in the film when Griffith is true to himself is when he interacts with Neal's character whose sober and cold self is like a perfect foil for the film's over the top tone. The second one is the advertisement for the Vitajex tablets with Griffith selling his soul to the advertisement industry. Not only is it vulgar and tasteless, but the scene marks a transformation in Griffith's character from a spirited country singer to a power hungry TV host. The third scene is a beauty contest. In an amazing show of depravity, the female contestants literally launch themselves onto Griffith, almost like an orgy out in the open. It is an extremely entertaining scene with Lee Remick's sweet, beautiful and idiotic sweaty country face ogling at the lecherous Griffith while dull and hypnotized crowds look on at performing women in skimpy clothing. Griffith's must be one of the greatest "over-the-top" performances of all time. He lights up the screen with that smile and body language. But the goodness and dignity in Patricia Neal is also spellbinding. She holds her own even though Griffith has all the best scenes. The excess, greed and debauchery in A Face in the Crowd almost certainly inspired filmmakers like Scorsese (Wolf of Wall Street) and Brian De Palma (Scarface). Best Regards, Pimpin. (9/10)