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
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
R.G. Armstrong	...	TV Prompter Operator (uncredited)
John Bliss	...	Barefoot Baritone (uncredited)
Walter Cartier	...	(uncredited)
Larry Casazza	...	Second Printer (uncredited)
Bennett Cerf	...	Himself (uncredited)
Lois Chandler	...	Secretary (uncredited)
Carolyn Craig	...	Redheaded filly (uncredited)
John Stuart Dudley	...	(uncredited)
Faye Emerson	...	Herself (uncredited)
Willie Feibel	...	First Printer (uncredited)
Nicholas Frangakis	...	Western Union Messenger (uncredited)
Betty Furness	...	Herself (uncredited)
Art Gilmore	...	Trailer Narrator (uncredited)
Virginia Graham	...	Herself (uncredited)
Burl Ives	...	Himself (uncredited)
Harold Jinks	...	(uncredited)
Sam Levenson	...	Himself (uncredited)
Brownie McGhee	...	Servant with limp (uncredited)
Lois Nettleton	...	Mr. Mason's Nurse (uncredited)
Logan Ramsey	...	TV Director (uncredited)
Charles Nelson Reilly	...	(uncredited)
Diana Sands	...	(uncredited)
Granny Sense	...	(uncredited)
P. Jay Sidney	...	Llewellyn (uncredited)
Fred Stewart	...	(uncredited)
John Cameron Swayze	...	Himself (uncredited)
Rip Torn	...	Barry Mills (uncredited)
Eva Vaughan	...	Mrs. Cooley (uncredited)
Mike Wallace	...	Himself (uncredited)
Vera Walton	...	(uncredited)
Earl Wilson	...	Himself (uncredited)
Walter Winchell	...	Himself (uncredited)
Sandra Wirth	...	A baton twirling champion (uncredited)
Sandy Wirth	...	(uncredited)

Directed by
Elia Kazan

Writing credits
Budd Schulberg		(story)
Budd Schulberg		(screenplay)

Produced by
Elia Kazan	....	producer

Original Music by
Tom Glazer

Cinematography by
Gayne Rescher		(director of photography)
Harry Stradling Sr.		(director of photography) (as Harry Stradling)

Film Editing by
Gene Milford

Art Direction by
Paul Sylbert
Richard Sylbert

Costume Design by
Anna Hill Johnstone

Makeup Department
Willis Hanchett	....	hair stylist
Robert Jiras	....	makeup artist (as Robert E. Jiras)

Production Management
George Justin	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Charles H. Maguire	....	assistant director

Sound Department
Don Olson	....	sound editor
Ernest Zatorsky	....	sound

Camera and Electrical Department
James Fitzsimons	....	assistant camera
Saul Midwall	....	camera operator

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Flo Transfield	....	wardrobe (as Florence Transfield)

Music Department
Tom Glazer	....	composer: songs
Budd Schulberg	....	composer: songs

Other crew
Roberta Hodes	....	continuity
Roberta Hodes	....	script
Charles Irving	....	special assistant

Production Companies

• Newtown Productions

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1957) (USA) (theatrical)
• Warner Home Video (2005) (USA) (DVD)

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:

Lee Remick's film debut

Goofs:

Continuity: When introducing his new bride, Lonesome's jacket goes from being buttoned to being open and back to being buttoned again.

Quotes:

Mel Miller: [of writers] Here you see the lepers of the great television industry. Men without faces. Why, they even slide our paychecks under the door so they can pretend we're not here.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Elia Kazan: A Director's Journey (1995)

A real hidden masterpiece.

I just saw this movie very late the other night, and I must say WOW! Like the rest of you, I saw "A Face In the Crowd" on a regular VHS edition, but it wouldn't matter which edition I saw it in because this was one of the few movies recently that made the jaw of this movie snob literally DROP with amazement over how daring, how edgy, and how much mastery this movie had over the film-making craft.

I'm beginning to realize that in the 1950's there was a short period of time (1955-1960, say) where the world of Broadway and the theater, Television, and Hollywood came together, and the careers of people like Rod Serling, Sidney Lumet, and "A Face In the Crowd"'s own Budd Schulberg were started. The best screenwriters in the movie business became innately aware of the increasing importance and influence of the new media form Television, while the best directors (like Elia Kazan), many of whom had directed numerous plays, knew how to cull the talents of Broadways hottest and most gifted performers, and at least for a couple of years, managed to get some awesome performances out of them. That's why I view this movie in the same sort of category as "The Sweet Smell of Success", that ever so sour and bitingly satiric parable on the corruption of American glamour and fame, and how publicity is just as much of a curse as a blessing. The performances in that film are like few others in the same era, and I think its no coincidence that "A Face In the Crowd" came out the same year as the other film. The main scribes of both those films, Clifford Odets and Budd Schulberg, were experienced with TV work by the time they penned their masterpieces (though Schulberg could also claim as his masterpiece 'On the Waterfront').

So anyway, I suggest to all who can hear me and have a love enough for this film to want to see it given the presentation it deserves, that we all write to the Criterion Collection and other DVD distributing companies and ask, no DEMAND that a restored, cleaned up version of "A Face In the Crowd", with as many special features as can be rustled up, be released as soon as possible. It's like writing your congressman, except instead of asking for a new factory of national park, we're asking for the wider availability of a piece of art that has gone with far too little acclaim for far too long. Who's with me?!?