Memorable quotes for
A Face in the Crowd (1957) More at IMDbPro »

Joey DePalma: Illegal? Honey, nothing's illegal if they don't catch you!
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Marcia Jeffries: You put your whole self into that laugh, don't you?
Lonesome Rhodes: Marcia, I put my whole self into everything I do.
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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!
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Lonesome Rhodes: A guitar beats a woman every time.
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Lonesome Rhodes: Listen, I'm not through yet. You know what's gonna to happen to me?
Mel Miller: Suppose I tell you exactly what's gonna happen to you. You're gonna be back in television. Only it won't be quite the same as it was before. There'll be a reasonable cooling-off period and then somebody will say: "Why don't we try him again in a inexpensive format. People's memories aren't too long." And you know, in a way, he'll be right. Some of the people will forget, and some of them won't. Oh, you'll have a show. Maybe not the best hour or, you know, top 10. Maybe not even in the top 35. But you'll have a show. It just won't be quite the same as it was before. Then a couple of new fellas will come along. And pretty soon, a lot of your fans will be flocking around them. And then one day, somebody'll ask: "Whatever happened to, a, whatshisname? You know, the one who was so big. The number-one fella a couple of years ago. He was famous. How can we forget a name like that? Oh by the way, have you seen, a, Barry Mills? I think he's the greatest thing since Will Rogers."
[Mel turns and starts to leave. Then, he turns back towards Lonesome]
Mel Miller: Beanie!
[Beanie, who is manning the automatic appalause machine, instinctively pulls the switch, unleashing a massive abundance of cheers. The machanical jubilation continues as Mel joins Marcia in the waiting elevator, leaving Lonesome alone in the empty penthouse with his broken dreams]
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Lonesome Rhodes: I'm not just an entertainer. I'm an influence, a wielder of opinion, a force... a force!
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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.
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Mel Miller: [of TV] You gotta be a saint to stand all the power that little box can give you.
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Marcia Jeffries: Betty Lou is your public, all wrapped up with yellow ribbons into one cute little package. She's the logical culmination of the great 20th-centure love affair between Lonesome Rhodes and his mass audience.
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Lonesome Rhodes: There's always Vanderbilt '44.
Marcia Jeffries: He's gone back to Memphis. I think he wants to forget us both.
Lonesome Rhodes: I thought he'd wait for you till there was ice on the equator.
Marcia Jeffries: That's how long he did wait.
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Mel Miller: Didn't you know? All mild men are vicious. They hate themselves for being mild, and they hate the windy extroverts whose violence seems to have a strange attraction for nice girls. You should know better.
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Mel Miller: [commenting on one of Lonesome Rhodes' on-air tirades after the two have had a falling out] I'll say one thing for him, he's got the courage of his ignorance.
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Marcia Jeffries: You always drink like that?
Lonesome Rhodes: Not always. Back in Riddle they was pretty strict. Didn't allow us to touch hard liquor till we was 10 or 11.
Marcia Jeffries: Now is there really a town called Riddle?
Lonesome Rhodes: Well, tell you the flat truth, it's just a sort of a whatchacallit, a...
Marcia Jeffries: ...Composite?
Lonesome Rhodes: Compost heap's more like it.
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Lonesome Rhodes: Can't keep anything alive up here. Dust in this city kills everything.
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