A Face in the Crowd (1957)

"I'm not just an entertainer; I'm a force; a power!" Lonesome Rhodes

A Face in the Crowd is a film noir style treatment concerning the phenomenon of crowd psychology and the realization by the nascent television industry that they could become king makers, ruling the masses by the sound bite. It seems remarkably prescient that it was made in 1957 where it only received a tepid reception, but it still seems to be fresh and highly relevant today.

The screenplay was adapted from his own short story The Arkansas Traveler by Budd Schulberg and directed by Elia Kazan, both of whom had worked together in On the Waterfront.

Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) is a radio host in Pickett, Arkansas with a show called A Face in the Crowd, where she tries to get local people to give their views, tell a story, or play a song, as they desire.

The radio station is barely able to keep itself on the air and badly needs sponsors. Marcia is the daughter of the station owner, so she works cheap. The movie opens with her setting up her radio equipment at the county jail and you can tell how pitiful it is that she is trying to get the "captive audience" in the jailhouse to help her fill her air time.

She has tried without success to get somebody to go on and then they remember the prisoner (Andy Griffith) they locked up drunk with a guitar. They wake him up and you can see the wheels turning when they try to get him to sing a song. He makes the sheriff promise to let him out tomorrow rather than the week he was sentenced to. He tells them his name is Larry Rhodes, which Neal translates to "Lonesome Rhodes" for his radio persona.

Before the day is out the radio station is inundated with favorable phone calls and they have a sponsor booking advertising. They quickly begin to look for Griffith, who plays hard to get but goes along and does a daily show. Not too much time goes by until the television market in Memphis hears about him and offers him a show. This begins the slow build up until the whole Frankenstein's monster of Griffith's complex personality is revealed and rears its ugly head in full melt down. I'll let you watch how masterfully it's played out for yourself.

Griffith is the first one to pick up on the power that the blurring of his media persona and his real life affords, through a couple of radio stunts, but he only uses it selfishly for short term gains. The older sponsor (Vitajex) steered Griffith to support the political figure with his show and certainly Anthony Franciosa, as the smart assistant was a jump or two ahead of the hick star and was able to steal a major share of his company out from under him. Walter Matthau plays a writer and Lee Remick plays a high school girl who becomes Lonesome's wife. The acting on all accounts is top notch and Andy Griffith is stunning in his role; manipulative and changing personalities like a chameleon changes colors. What a great actor the movies lost when he decided to do TV.

The movie has lots of references to current events in 1957 with popular television figures such as John Cameron Swayze, Walter Winchell, Mike Wallace, and Bennett Cerf as themselves, commenting on Lonesome Rhodes, giving the movie a documentary aspect.

The Warner Bros DVD contains an excellent copy of the B&W movie lasting 126 minutes. There is a featurette that discusses some of the influences Budd Schulberg used to craft the persona of Lonesome Rhodes, among them Arthur Godfrey, who was a far bigger media personality than I knew. There are also hints of Tennessee Ernie Ford or Jimmy Dean, for the folksy, musical parts of the persona.

This one is a keeper you'll want to see again and again.

See also - Quiz Show

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening