A Face in the Crowd (1957)

User Rating:

8.1/10   

Director:

Elia Kazan

Writers:

Budd Schulberg (story)
Budd Schulberg (screenplay)

Release Date:

17 October 1957 (Sweden)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

An Arkansas hobo becomes an overnight media sensation. But as he becomes drunk with fame and power, will he ever be exposed as the fraud he has become?

Plot Keywords:

Arkansas | Fame | Contemporary Setting | Political Satire | Based On Short Story

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Andy Griffith	...	Larry 'Lonesome' Rhodes
Patricia Neal	...	Marcia Jeffries
Anthony Franciosa	...	Joey DePalma
Walter Matthau	...	Mel Miller
Lee Remick	...	Betty Lou Fleckum
Percy Waram	...	Gen. Haynesworth
Paul McGrath	...	Macey
Rod Brasfield	...	Beanie
Marshall Neilan	...	Senator Worthington Fuller
Alexander Kirkland	...	Jim Collier
Charles Irving	...	Mr. Luffler
Howard Smith	...	J.B. Jeffries
Kay Medford	...	First Mrs. Rhodes
Big Jeff Bess	...	Sheriff Big Jeff Bess
Henry Sharp	...	Abe Steiner

Also Known As:

Budd Schulberg's A Face in the Crowd (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

125 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (certificate #18502) | Finland:K-8 | Sweden:15

Filming Locations:

Biograph Studios, Bronx, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Newtown Productions

Trivia:

The Vitajex tablets that Lonesome Rhodes hawks have 6 grains of dextrose, 5 grains of inert material, 2.5 grains of caffeine, and 3.5 grains of aspirin. That's roughly equivalent to a 16 oz café latte and two baby aspirin tablets.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): This is not an error. The music used is, indeed, from Beethoven's Seventh Symphony.

Quotes:

Lonesome Rhodes: This whole country's just like my flock of sheep!
Marcia Jeffries: Sheep?
Lonesome Rhodes: Rednecks, crackers, hillbillies, hausfraus, shut-ins, pea-pickers - everybody that's got to jump when somebody else blows the whistle. They don't know it yet, but they're all gonna be 'Fighters for Fuller'. They're mine! I own 'em! They think like I do. Only they're even more stupid than I am, so I gotta think for 'em. Marcia, you just wait and see. I'm gonna be the power behind the president - and you'll be the power behind me!

Movie Connections:

Featured in Facing the Past (2005) (V)

Entertain the ignorant masses and they'll follow you anywhere.

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.