A Face In The Crowd

[charliechaplinfan]

I never watched this before, I found it interesting on many levels, perhaps more about what it says about Kazan and Schulberg and what had happened to them.

I'm not sure I've seen Andy Griffiths in anything before, he's someone I know nothing about, he inhabits the central character, I expect him to be Lonesome Rhodes without the excess. Patricia Neal, I thought she was the lynchpin of the piece, I loved her performance, as the upright, college educated woman trying to make her name in radio. She finds Lonesome in jail, he sings, she sees his potential and he's signed up for a early morning radio show where he makes an instant hit with the housewifes by tuning in to their lot in life, his influence soon is felt all over town as dogs are given in to the sheriif and the pool is invaded, both comic scenes. Lonesome is delightful, yet something lurks, he's a little country boy, he likes his booze, he likes his women. He finds himself a slick operator who soon has advertising agencies competing for him landing him a big show on primetime, he's a hit ( am I the only one to see shades of Elvis who must have been pretty well known by this time) a Will Rogers type but a bit less homely and a bit more rough and ready. He becomes a huge star, proposes marriage to Marcia, Patricia Neal and then marries Lee Remick who he met in a majorette competition he went to judge. From here things go downhill, he had been protected by Marcia, she now takes a back seat, Walter Matthau a man who has been trampled on by Rhodes writes an expose, yet it is Marcia who pulls the plug, switching the recording devices back on whilst Rhodes slags off the people at home. He doesn't sense his own downfall and finally goes mad. I thought Walter Matthau was great and the speech he gave at the end.

I thought the film had two halves, the first has a cosy feel of Arkansas, of country, of simplicity, home radio stations and I love the scenes when he goes to Memphis. At first it comes from the heart, he's pure gold, a natural who is a breathe of fresh air, the first half has atomosphere but the second half plunges into satire, sometimes a little too heavily for me, I found the ending a bit too heavy, whe Rhodes goes into meltdown, I felt a bit cheated that he'd taken refuge in madness rather than realise the suffering he has caused. The way he is brought down is terrific and well deserved, no I didn't really like him from the first. I feel the Kazan is trying to lampoon television industry, the advertising giants, the marketing industries and most the people who can be suckered in by whatever they are presented with. I'd love someoe more knowledgeable than me to tell me where Kazan was in his life and how personal this film was to him. I know he named names, On The Waterfront I believe is his defence of that but here, he seems to be saying something more.

[JackFavell]

Someone more knowledgeable than I will have to answer your questions, Alison, but I loved your review!

This is a favorite movie for me. Most of us here in the states know Andy Griffith as a household name... he had a very popular TV show in the sixties (I believe it started directly after this movie came out but I may be wrong) in which he basically played himself, a natural, down home type sheriff, who was able to teach a few homilies to his son, Ron Howard, and also to his country friends and neighbors. His town in the show, Mayberry, was home to all sorts of goofy characters, who usually came to Andy for advice or to get them out of trouble. His excitable deputy, Barney Fife, was played by Don Knotts. The show ran for a number of years, and can still be seen in reruns to this day. It also had a popular theme song.

But getting back to A Face in the Crowd, I just love the irony of this film, and the things it says about TV and image making. I think you are right, the last half lags just a little, but on the whole, it's a great movie. Andy gives a superb performance, I think many people are surprised at how intense Griffith was and how sexy and adult he could be. His acting is fantastic playing by turns sincere and megalo-maniacal. When going back to this movie after seeing him for all those years as a squeaky clean TV sheriff, it's a shocker! I think he and Patricia Neal are first rate - she really runs the gamut of emotions here. Watching her make that agonizing decision to flip the switch on the Frankenstein monster she created, is so painful. I find a lot of truth in this movie, whether it is in the satire, or in the relationships. Her addiction to Lonesome Rhodes is very truthful and real seeming to me, she is invested in someone who she knows is no good, and yet she still can't help herself. No, maybe that is wrong, he's half no good, and that's still half too much. There is something lustful and at the same time deep about their connection. It is so unhealthy.

[ChiO]

Wow! To able to watch A FACE IN THE CROWD without the filter of What It Was, Was Football, NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS and The Andy Griffith Show. It is so difficult for me to watch it and try to erase preconceived notions garnered from earlier exposure to Andy Griffith. Add ON THE WATERFRONT and this becomes a movie I find very tough to watch in any quasi-objective way. Thanks for the fresh look.

[Mr. Arkadin]

Here's an older post I made about Face in the Crowd for Prof. ChiO's "Voyeurism in Film" class, held on SSO a few years back:

I see a common thread running through Network (1976), Face in the Crowd (1957), and Triumph of the Will (1934). All deal with voyeurism on a grand scale, but it is the viewer--not the subject—that becomes the ultimate victim.

The focus of each film is self-identification. The subject viewed, becomes a mirror in which the viewer sees himself. Individual hopes and dreams are transferred and projected in the viewers gaze. In short, the viewer loses his identity, which is the actual objective of the subject. Identifying with the audience (in pretense) is the secret of the manipulators initial appeal. Lonesome Rhodes uses his down to earth charm to relate to the common man, while Howard Beal articulates the public’s rage in a cynical post-Nixon era. Hitler by contrast, is seen in Triumph of the Will as a man of the people who has become deity. Nothing less than a Christ figure.

Note that each film works from the same principal: to stifle individualism and independence. Hitler, like Lenin, actually created a situation of dependence. The viewer is encouraged not to think, but to instead project all upon the subject. The subject embodies one’s feelings and needs. The subject tells one how to think. The bottom line is removal of choice and control. The hunter becomes the hunted and like most prey, is unaware of danger because attention is cleverly focused elsewhere. Howard Beal’s title “The Mad Prophet of the Airwaves” is a perfect example (along with Sybil the Soothsayer), in that it offers the idea of predestination. Why make choices if the future can be foretold? This also feeds the illusion that the viewer can be in charge of his own destiny when in fact, he is more tightly bound to his subject. Face in the Crowd offers a similar temptation with Vitajix, a product hawked by Lonesome Rhodes that is sold as a means of sexual prowess (the pills are actually just caffeine) for domination of the fairer sex. Here we see enslavement of the mind extending to the body as well.

The use of live audience is also an essential component. Live crowds affirm statements and prime the mind for suggestion. In the fictitious works, signs are actually used to tell the public when to applaud or laugh. Face in the Crowd has Rhodes developing a machine with canned crowd noise to eliminate a live audience altogether. This technique has been used for years, namely in situation comedies where if we hear someone else laughing, the joke must be funny. If thousands say Sieg Heil—it must be truth.

Youth is connected in each film as well. Hitler is seen inspecting German youth as Lonesome Rhodes judges baton twirlers. Network has younger executive Diana corrupting old guard Max, who should know better. Of the three, Network is different in the fact that Beal is still essentially a puppet. Lonesome Rhodes and Hitler began in this manner and it was assumed they could be easily managed and controlled, but tables were turned when the creations outgrew their masters. All three became demagogues that ultimately had to be destroyed.

Whoever knows he is deep, strives for clarity. Whoever would like to appear deep for the crowd, strives for obscurity. For the crowd considers anything deep if only it cannot see the bottom: the crowd is so timid and afraid of going into the water.--Nietzche

[JackFavell]

That's a great post, Arkadin! I wish I'd known you when I wrote my high school paper comparing Hitler and his staff to purveyors of magic - sleight of hand magicians, who direct their audience to look elsewhere while maneuvering behind the scenes, and fortune tellers, who "read" their marks and are able to spit back what they have seen as if they "knew" their marks. They all gain their audience's trust by telling them what they want to hear.

[charliechaplinfan]

Wow! To able to watch A FACE IN THE CROWD without the filter of What It Was, Was Football, NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS and The Andy Griffith Show. It is so difficult for me to watch it and try to erase preconceived notions garnered from earlier exposure to Andy Griffith. Add ON THE WATERFRONT and this becomes a movie I find very tough to watch in any quasi-objective way. Thanks for the fresh look.

Thanks, I have absolutely no preconceptions although I think I've seen pictures of the older TV version of Griffiths in which he looks more goofy and less sexy than he did in a Face in the Crowd. He did age in this film, he was the raw product in the beginning and he fills out, he becomes bigger, commerical , more acceptable to society. It made me smile that he was soon accepted by politicians showing just how happy they are to have their name linked to someone who is riding the wave of popularity. As he becomes bigger he looses that sexiness, the edge he has and begins to look like a product which of course he is.

I'm puzzled by the ending, for me Lonesome in his apartment going mad reminds me of another film which I can place with a man ranting in an office or penthouse after being really powerful, it hasn't come to me quite what film it is or if Kazan might have borrowed from a previous or someone borrowed from Kazan.

I loved Patricia Neal here, she has a quality in her face which has an uncanny ability to convey passion, tenderness, hardness, madness, anxiety, she does have the most expressive face. Walter Matthau for years was a comedian for me but he's great in straight roles, quite superb here.

I loved the bit about Vitajex, a bet there was a fair amount of that going on in the early days of TV advertising, it may still go on but it seems that Kazan is shovelling a bit of dirt on more than one source.

[RedRiver]

Intriguing discussion on a fascinating film. As others have noted, most of us had a more loveable stereotype burned into our minds long before seeing this earlier work by the sheriff of Mayberry. CharlieChaplinFan, a European if I'm not mistaken, did not. I like this challenging story a lot. I agree that it consists of two halves of somewhat contrasting styles. Somewhat, but not entirely.

From the start, there's an air of hypocrisy. Of turning dust into gold. That theme simply gets darker and more prominent as the story progresses. It does get a little thick before it's over. It starts with a bang and fails to maintain that level of excitement. But sadly, that's true of most movies. Even the good ones. This mild criticism is not meant to detract from a most entertaining and thought provoking work by Kazan and his colleagues.

The similarity to the later NETWORK, even ELMER GANTRY, can't be ignored. The figurehead, the marketing, the public thirst for something to believe in. Kazan's film compares favorably to both those classics.

[CineMaven]

One of my favorite films is "A Face in the Crowd." Griffith and Neal and Matthau were great. In fact, I enjoyed everyone’s characterizations and Kazan’s messages and cynicism. I think he was spot on. I have no info on where Kazan was at this point of his life (enjoyed your warm critique of “A Face..." Charlie). All I know is his film is more relevant today than ever before. False prophets...charlatans and snake oil salesmen. And that’s just politicians to start.


MIGHT AS WELL FACE IT, I’M ADDICTED TO LOVE.

It wasn’t hard for me to reconcile Griffith’s Sheriff Taylor of Mayberry persona, with the megalomaniac he was about to become in “A Face in the Crowd.” I thought Griffith gave a towering performance in this film. His lusty heat obliterates all thoughts of him and Opie and Aunt Bee and Goober/Gomer Pyle, for me. If that big laugh of his isn’t indicative of a large...uhm... ‘appetite’, then I don’t know my megalomaniacs. Clearly, Lonesome Rhodes was a drug for Marcia! Marcia! Marcia! (Charlie..."Marcia! Marcia! Marcia!" is a reference to another U.S. childhood favorite tv show of mine: "The Brady Bunch").


MARCIA FACES HER ADDICTION WITH STRONG SUPPORT

I find the ending has two beats: Marcia facing her “addiction” with all the strength she could muster (with the help of the fantastic Walter Matthau)...and still finding it a little hard to leave him. And secondly, Lonesome screaming into the night like the mighty King Kong having a tantrum. This time his call will go unanswered. I loved how Kazan ends the movie with his screams. The screams should resoundingly ring in our ears...as either screamer, or getting screamed at.

Her addiction to Lonesome Rhodes is very truthful and real seeming to me, she is invested in someone who she knows is no good, and yet she still can't help herself. No, maybe that is wrong, he's half no good, and that's still half too much. There is something lustful and at the same time deep about their connection. It is so unhealthy.

Lustful - deep - unhealthy. Oooh!! That’s good. So good. I like that combination. I want to live that combination. No I don't. (But I do). It’s like Kazan subverted what "Loving" is all about. HA...Behind every great man is a great woman, ey? This time the woman “makes” the man. She gives birth to a persona only to be iced out. Would she have nurtured it and protected it from bastardization? Or was she just like any other guy who wants his piece of the action. She finds out he’s married that pretty little majorette. It's as though Marcia is the “wife” who has helped her husband through medical school...only to be cast her aside like an old Ace bandage, while he takes up with a younger and pretty nurse. (Lee Remick...I’m a big fan). So now Lonesome Rhodes is feeling his oats and he’s making the decisions now? What’s that line in “All About Eve” about the piano thinking its written the concerto? I’m a litle torn. Why shouldn’t one be in control of their own image? Sure, why not. I do think Lonesome could read those that wanted to co-opt him. But he begins to believe the hype and then gets drunk with power. You cannot control a heat-seeking missile.

Yes, Patricia Neal is wonderful in this film; career girl trying to further her career...discovers this diamond in the rough...polishes him and becomes drunk with him. I liked her struggle the further things went along. And I, like you JackaaAaaay, shared her pain when she did the only thing she could do to stop him: let the people hear the truth about how he sees them. (Wake up people. Some of these folks are still lying and laughing at us, but now directly to our faces. Sell me another one "job creators"). But it is Andy Griffith with the lead role, the choice role...a role where he gets to chew up the scenery. Rhodes wallows in his power; he revels and rolls in it. He is besotted with it. But when he gets in the least little trouble he calls for his Mama (Pat Neal) again...suckling her for comfort and reassurance. But alas and alack (especially alas) no one is indispensable. His elevator ride after his final broadcast was a great metaphor. Why, there’s a new Lonesome Rhodes just waiting in the wings. And do not be fooled into thinking Lonesome Rhodes 2.0 WON’T make the same mistakes. He and his handlers most certainly will. (A shout out to a good smarmy performance by Anthony Franciosa. I know...I know...is there any other kind he gives? I like him though). It makes me wonder if that is not human nature; to be doomed to make the same mistakes. (What didn’t Khaddafy learn from seeing Hussein pulled from a deep hole, huh? What a maroon. And then there is Phoebe with Eve Harrington).

The movie never felt to me like it was two halves. It’s always felt (to me) that it was a continuum...the story of a man’s rise and fall. I, too, see the common thread running through “A Face in the Crowd” and “Network.” The cynicism of how people can be lead....and how corrupt the medium is. These two films as a double feature would be a double whammy; a one-two punch right in the gut. And if I were programming it...I'd throw in "Sweet Smell of Success" for good measure!


A DEPUTY AND HIS SHERIFF

It is good not to have had any preconceived notions of a certain star when you see him in a role like this. But I also feel it’s BETTER to see a star you’ve already known, play the hell out of a role like this. Ha....in actuality the time line of Griffith’s career and our coming to ‘Andy Taylor, sheriff of Mayberry’ is reversed since he did Kazan’s film first. Maybe the shock was to the grown-ups who couldn’t see how this lusty, uncouth loud mouth he played as Lonesome Rhodes could ever play a nice loving small-town sheriff with the bungling sidekick, old-maid aunt, an adoring son and virginal girlfriend. (I’m not sure Sheriff Andy got to second base with girlfriend Helen, the way Lonesome Rhodes struck grand slams with Marcia). But truth be told, we cannot change the order of events in which we come to things once it's done. So.........

I didn’t feel cheated that Lonesome was unaware of his “refuge into madness.” Maybe this is Marcia’s story, so we end with her struggle to walk away, a changed woman: battered, bruised, but changed...learning something about herself and people... while Lonesome remains the same. For me Rhodes' screams into the night was enough. He screams into the night air of New York City, the city that doesn’t sleep...the city that (sometimes) doesn’t care, the city that swallows his screams and blends it with the cacophony of noises in the night. His refuge into madness...well, you know what they say:

“Whom the gods would destroy...they first make mad.”

[charliechaplinfan]

Thank you, all of you for posting new insights.

I am indeed from Europe, good old Blighty in fact and I have more questions Did Kazan pick Andy Griffiths from nowhere, create a persona for television that the TV networks then picked up on or was he on TV and Kazan gave him an added twist by casting him here? It's so creepy when I see our commercial airwaves being dominated by talent or reality type programmes, the X factor and Simon Cowell is the worst example of this and so many are swallowed whole by him, the X Factor is dominated by adverts is strung out for over two hours, is inappropriate for children due to artists like Rhianna and Gaga when it should be clean and aimed at them and dominates our music charts with mostly awful cover versions. Sorry, rant over, I'm so glad my children prefer watching the BBC. looking back at A Face in the Crowd, it was always going on anyway an how Kazan managed to bring it to screen is nothing short of inspired.

I too love Lee Remick, yet have seen her in little but Wild River were she is fabulous.

Is Lonesome Rhodes a combination of real people, I saw Will Rogers and Elvis, anyone else in there?

[CineMaven]

THE LOVELY LEE REMICK

You know, I guess it depends on when someone imprints themselves on you. When I graduated from junior high school, my aunt and uncle took me to see my first Broadway play. It was a big hit...the thriller: "WAIT UNTIL DARK" and it starred LEE REMICK. I've been a fan of hers ever since. I might recommend you check her out in these films: "THE OMEN" 'THE LONG HOT SUMMER" "ANATOMY OF A MURDER" "DAYS OF WINE AND ROSES" "WHEELER DEALERS" "BABY, THE RAIN MUST FALL" "THE DETECTIVE" and "EXPERIMENT IN TERROR." Big parts, small parts...I always thought she was reliable, believable and sincere; she had a distinctive voice, and I thought she was so cleanly pretty.

[youtube][/youtube]

In fact, "The Days of Wine and Roses" will be on TCM Tuesday morning at 11:00AM. (A beautiful theme song it has too. Ohhhhhh, that Master Henry Mancini. He haunts me).

* * *

Re: Kazan, you might just need to find a biography of him Charlie, and get all your questions answered. I've very much enjoyed his films.

[Gary J.]

Thank you, all of you for posting new insights.

I am indeed from Europe, good old Blighty in fact and I have more questions Did Kazan pick Andy Griffiths from nowhere, create a persona for television that the TV networks then picked up on or was he on TV and Kazan gave him an added twist by casting him here?

Griffith was a well known comedy monologuist by the mid 50's, creating a home-spun country rube personae. As was already mentioned here, he made a splash with a comedy record explaining football from a rural point of view. He starred in the television production of NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS, which was such a big hit that it was brought to Broadway with Griffith starring. He also appeared on a various variety shows showcasing his country humor, so it was a big surprise that his film debut was in a dark, satiric drama (of which he acquitted himself very well).

[charliechaplinfan]

Thanks Cinemaven,I'm going to check out those Lee Remick films, she had me the moment I saw her in Wild River. She has such a freshness that would make her hard to dislike. I have Frank Sinatra singing Days of Wine and Roses but for some reason I haven't watched the film yet, something I'll have to remedy. The Kazan book is now on my library list.

That's interested me even more regarding Griffith, the fact he was famous and popular and chose to make a dark film, still directors didn't come much bigger than Kazan in those days.

[RedRiver]

I believe Sheriff Taylor finally married Miss Crump; I assume he rounded second base with a hearty "yee-ha". But give me Ellie anytime! Elinor Donahue, no longer the gawky teen of FATHER KNOWS BEST, played Andy's first love interest, the local pharmacist, with zest and fire. Where are those handcuffs, Barney?

[CineMaven]

Awwwwwww Red. If you have to cuff a girl down...might as well be Ginger, or Ellie May. Or one of those gals wearing petticoats at the junction.