NFR Project: 'A Face in the Crowd' (1957)

NFR Project: “A Face in the Crowd”

Dir: Elia Kazan

Scr: Budd Schulberg

Pho: Gayne Rescher, Harry Stradling

Ed: Gene Milford

Premiere: May 28, 1957

125 min.

The relation of fascism to capitalism has never been so distinctly illuminated as in this film. The combination of a charismatic, ruthless would-be cultural figurehead and the entrepreneurial, martial, and political systems that use him for their own ends results in a scenario frightfully akin to our present national circumstances. It’s a terrifying film.

Kazan, of whom we have written before, is one of American cinema’s flawed geniuses. A Red Scare informer, he defended his position adamantly throughout his career, even as many despised him.

Here he nails Budd Schulberg’s brilliant script, largely due to the amazing performance of film neophyte, standup comedian Andy Griffith, who had recently starred in Ira Levin’s No Time for Sergeants, first on TV and then on Broadway. His embodiment of a villainous character could not be more compelling.

It seems a tragedy that he didn’t reel off any similar film projects – later becoming the familiar Sheriff Taylor in TV’s long-running The Andy Griffith Show. Here he plays Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, a no-good drunken bum with a talent for recycling corny down-home sentiments with a big, fake grin. He draws the attention of radio journalist Marcia (Patricia Neal, never lovelier or more capable as an actress) in the county jail, where he sings some songs and tells some jokes.

 Everyone loves him, and soon he has a spot on the radio station, which grows and swells into fantastic career opportunities. He soon becomes a regional TV star, then a national figure. A raging egomaniac, he wreaks havoc as he rushes blindly forward, accumulating wealth and a fearful respect seemingly overnight. Marcia loves him, but he resolutely indulges in wine, women, and song.

Eventually he marries a 17-year-old (Lee Remick in her first film role) and plans on dispensing his supposed wisdom on political issues in a new nationally broadcast TV show that highlights his musings around a cracker barrel, surrounded by stooges. Marcia finally has enough; she throws open a studio microphone during the end credits of the show, capturing Rhodes as he calls his viewers “idiots” and “sheep.”

Now, in this case, the public rejects him immediately. He loses his show, his influence,, his money, his respect, again overnight. Distraught, he threatens suicide. Marcia’s forlorn suitor Mel (a top-notch Walter Matthau) tells him that he won’t kill himself; he’ll go out of the spotlight for a while but will return in some lower-grade productions. Mel and Marcia walk out.

It’s a corrosive fable that doesn’t fail to lacerate all the players in the drama – the sponsors, the generals, the politicians. Everybody here is out to make a profit – and by attaching themselves to Rhodes’ rising star, they succeed admirably. All is forgiven to those who earn high ratings. The corruption of the system is spelled out plainly. And Griffith makes for a memorable monster.

The NFR Project is one writer’s attempt to review all the films listed in the National Film Registry in chronological order. Next time: Glimpse of the Garden.