Un homme dans la foule

A timeless story,as evidenced by all the allegories to recent personalities here ( Howard Stern, Clinton, etc...)...HOWEVER..the film is based (loosely) on a personality of the mid-50s: one Arthur Godfrey..yes, the IL' Redhead himself. Skillfully wrapped in the cliché of 'country boy makes good' story, the Godfrey story was hot news in 1957,and there weren't too many people back then who missed its allusions For those who do not know: Arthur Godfrey was one of THE hottest things in the country in the early to mid 1950's: he literally had about two or three different TV shows on the schedule, plus a radio show that was among the most popular in the day. Godfrey was JUST like this movie in this respect: on the air, he was America's home-spun hero..telling folksy stories....crooning in an off tone baritone, and presenting pure, CLEAN entertainment. OFF the air,however the legend that is Arthur Godfrey to this day is one of THE biggest control freaks in show biz history..to the point of controlling the lives of all of his 'family'..unfortunately that turned out to be downfall...One Julius LaRosa had been a singer that Godfrey had 'discovered' in the US Navy Band...after he was discharged LaRosa became a singer on Godfrey's nighttime TV show "Arthur Godfrey and Friends",where he became an instant star among the bobby sox set. In time, LaRosa started a recording career,and started to have VERY successful records..then suddenly, in 1953, Godfrey suddenly fired LaRosa from his show for the mysterious reason of him having 'no humilty' ...it has been assumed since then that Godfrey was extremely jealous of Larosa's success...Anyways, this exposed the 'real' Godfrey to the public.,and while it didn't happen as quickly or as totally as Lonesome Rhodes' career,Godfrey's career as a superstar was effectively over after that..he eventually was reduced to hosting game shows and such. Writer Schulberg obviously also puts in his 2 cents on fame...politics..the show business...and early television here, but as I said,there wasn't NO ONE in those days who didn't know it was about Godfrey....

Elia Kazan will always be remembered as one of the most important directors of his era. With great movies like A Streetcar Named Desire and On The Waterfront, he forever established his position in cinema history. A Face in the Crowd is one of his lesser known movies that flopped at the box office when it was initially released, and was completely ignored by the Academy. It only got some following much later, when it was released on DVD, which is a shame since A Face in the Crowd doesn't greatly differ from Kazan's more popular movies. To correct this historical injustice, I decided to review this movie and spread the word about it as much as I can.

The movie opens with a young woman, named Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal), visiting the prison in her small town. She is doing a radio show called 'A Face in the Crowd' during which she talks with everyday people, transmitting their stories. In the prison she meets a man who calls himself 'Lonesome' Rhodes (Andy Griffith) – a hobo arrested for drunk and disorderly behavior. She tapes him for her show and the episode becomes a huge hit. Marcia and her uncle, who is the owner of the local radio station on which 'A Face in the Crowd' airs, offer 'Lonesome' a job on the radio station. He accepts and soon becomes a sensation with the local populace – and eventually, with the whole country.

A Face in the crowd is what you may call a movie ahead of its time, and that's maybe why it wasn't recognized when it was initially released. It deals with topics like the media, celebrities, propaganda and politics. And in this day and age, when we are surrounded by the internet and the mass media, A Face in the Crowd may seem more actual than ever. A Face in the Crowd is essentially about a corrupted man who has a gift for public relations, and uses this gift as means to an end – the end being his own benefit. I think every last one of us knows at least one politician, public personality or celebrity who is just like that. A Face in the Crowd is a dark, frighteningly realistic movie which is brilliantly directed and masterfully paced. It runs for over 2 hours but never feels dull or boring.

In a character study movie like this one, the actor portraying the character plays a very important part in the quality of the movie. 'Lonesome' Rhodes is portrayed by Andy Griffith in his first movie performance ever. He did an astonishingly great job and, like I said before, it's a shame that the Academy overlooked this movie, especially his performance. Andy Griffith later went to start in the very popular sitcom 'The Andy Griffith Show', and since his character in the sitcom was much different from his 'Lonesome' Rhodes character, he managed to show his amazing acting range – which makes makes his performance in A Face in the Crowd even more astonishing. Patricia Neal also did a very good job in portraying the character of Marcia Jeffries. Overall, A Face in the Crowd is an amazing movie, made by talented people, which doesn't deserve to be just another face in the crowd – it deserves to be more popular.

Rating: 8/10 Read more at http://passpopcorn.com/

It is surprising that 'A Face in the Crowd' only got a mixed critical reception when it first came out, though can actually understand why some were not so taken with it. It is great though that 'A Face in the Crowd' has gotten the acclaim it deserves over-time and is so highly regarded here. Anybody that wants to see every film directed by Elia Kazan, see a different side to star Andy Griffith and see a very interesting subject being addressed should absolutely watch this film.

As far as Kazan's films go (all of which are woth watching, even if for a couple of them just the once though to me he never made a "bad" film), 'A Face in the Crowd' is not as iconic as 'On the Waterfront', 'A Streetcar Named Desire' or 'East of Eden' or as emotionally powerful as 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn', 'Pinky' and 'Man on a Tightrope'. It is still up there as one of his better films in my view, but he is not the only reason to see it. It was really interesting to see Griffith in such a different role and do it so well and in terms of subject matter it is one of the bravest ones of Kazan's films along with 'Pinky'.

With the exception of 'The Visitors', one of the few films from Kazan that didn't feel like it came from him, Kazan's films were very well made visually. That is the case with 'A Face in the Crowd', it is shot intimately without being static and opened up enough without being heavy or trying to do too much. While having the right amount of audacious style and grit. The editing is sharp and fluid and the locations are made good use of. The music is effective enough, isn't overused and at least fits the mood, wouldn't have said no to Alfred Newman or Alex North scoring though.

Kazan's direction is typically on the money, apart from the rare occasions where a film of his doesn't feel like it was directed by him (i.e. 'The Visitors'). He has great visual style, gives so much dramatic impact to scenes and his famously peerless direction of actors and how he got such great performances from actors against type or inexperienced is all on display here in 'A Face in the Crowd'. The script is razor sharp and has scathing bite as ought for a film with a satirical edge, and provokes a lot of though. Although it is very scathing to the extent that it's almost scary, it is done in good taste too.

The story is a compelling and brave one, really admire it when any film or anything take on this subject and represent the media in this way (a truthful one by the way and should be portrayed a lot more) and it has aged incredibly well. Namely because, sadly, the subject is still very relevant today (just like when 'Pinky' tackled racism). Anybody who has read any of my previous reviews will notice my admiration for films handling difficult but worth addressing topics and exploring them in an uncompromising way, which 'A Face in the Crowd' does and brilliantly, and if anybody feels uncomfortable after watching that is a good thing.

Furthermore, the characters are interesting. Can understand where some critics are coming from when they feel that with Rhodes being such a juicy and larger than life character with an incredibly powerful presence in a quite scary way that he dominates everything else too much, but personally don't agree so much. Although it is Rhodes that everybody remembers, one shouldn't overlook the other characters as Marcia brings a lot of heart to the film. He also doesn't feel too much of a cartoon at all and is quite accurate too. Griffith is absolutely brilliant and was never better, while there is also a fine performance from an emotive Patricia Neal. All the performances are very good.

My only complaint is the slightly too drawn out ending.

Otherwise, this is absolutely great in almost every way. 9/10

There are two major things that I find quite fascinating as I watch this 1957 classic. The first is the prophetic, hyper-realistic portrayal of television as a pervasive medium encroaching upon people's lives in ways unheard of back in the 1950's. The second is Andy Griffith's pull-all-the-stops performance as drunken hobo-turned-media sensation "Lonesome" Rhodes. For those who know Griffith only for his homespun TV portrayals, you will be surprised how remarkably he shows the venal underbelly and high-octane charisma of a character miles away from kindly, soft-spoken Sheriff Andy Taylor.

Master filmmaker Elia Kazan and writer Budd Schulberg, collaborating for the second and last time after their brilliant "On the Waterfront" three years earlier, tell the story of Rhodes, a burgeoning pop-culture phenomenon thanks primarily to the efforts of Marcia Jeffries, a young radio program host who discovers him sprawled in a hangover on the floor of a rural Arkansas jail. He mesmerizes the local radio audience with an improvised country song about his predicament, "Free Man in the Morning", and this marks the beginning of his meteoric rise all the way to his own weekly national TV program. As he capitalizes on his folksy charm and empathetic manner, he becomes a power-crazed tyrant behind the scenes. A corporate tycoon wants to use Rhodes' influence to sway a Presidential campaign in his favor, and Rhodes' megalomania moves him lockstep into a Citizen Kane-like form of paranoia.

It all seems exaggerated but it's brilliantly observed much like a film that covered the same themes twenty years later, Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky's "Network". However, even with strong doses of black comedy sprinkled throughout, Kazan and Schulberg use more melodramatic elements in their skewering until the near-Shakespearian climax when Rhodes' comeuppance takes on a grandly theatrical fervor. In a way, it seems a shame that Griffith never got another chance to bring out his dark side on the big screen. While sometimes wildly undisciplined in his film debut, he dexterously shows the cunning and charisma of his character to a level that makes his national celebrity utterly credible.

Showing his amazing facility to elicit stellar work from a wide variety of actors, Kazan assembled a strong cast to back him up starting with Patricia Neal, who is just as devastating as Marcia, a woman torn between ambition, decency and her fateful attraction to Rhodes. An impossibly young Walter Matthau shows the beginnings of his cynical screen persona as Mel, a crafty television writer who de facto becomes Marcia's conscience. In their film debuts and making indelible impressions, Anthony Franciosa and Lee Remick play Joey, an office lackey who turns into Rhodes' immoral agent, and Betty Lou, a teenaged baton twirler seduced easily by Rhodes' power, respectively.

If the film has one flaw, it's that it runs on a bit long for the parable it tells especially since Rhodes' moral ambiguity is pretty much settled in the first half of the story. Nevertheless, this movie is essential viewing as it not only shows a powerful early indictment of television (and supports Marshall McLuhan's mantra, "The medium is the message") but provides another example of the under-appreciated artistry of Kazan and Schulberg. The 2005 DVD has unfortunately no commentary track but one strong extra, a half-hour 2005 featurette, "Facing the Past", which spotlights Kazan's polarizing testimony in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the threatening role of television in the 1950's, both major factors in making the film. Griffith, Neal, Schulberg are interviewed. There is also a widescreen version of the original film trailer.

The fictional story of a vagabond who is discovered and becomes a mega entertainment star who not only aquires fame and fortune but also political power. I came away from this film with the thinking that in 1957 when the picture came out in a strange way it must have terrified viewers. The film was clearly ahead of its time. By todays standards the egotistical, cynical and power hungry Lonesome Rhodes actually is quite tame but in 57 he must have been viewed as a cross between Hitler and Arthur Godfrey. Andy Griffith is nothing less than brilliant as Rhodes. Superb support from Patricia Neal, Walter Matthau, Anthony Franciosa and Lee Remick in her first motion picture. The movie never lags as it grips the viewer from the opening right to the final scene.