A Face in the Crowd is a 1957 American satirical drama film directed by Elia Kazan and starring Andy Griffith (in his film debut), Patricia Neal, and Walter Matthau. The screenplay by Budd Schulberg is based on his short story "Your Arkansas Traveler" from the 1953 collection Some Faces in the Crowd.

The story centers on Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, a drifter who is discovered by the producer (Neal) of a small-market radio program in rural northeast Arkansas, and who rises to great fame and influence on national television. The character was a composite of various public figures, including Will Rogers, Huey Long, Arthur Godfrey and Tennessee Ernie Ford.

The film launched Griffith into stardom, but it received mixed reviews on its release. Subsequent reappraisals have been kinder to the film. In 2008, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot

In late 1950s America, radio journalist Marcia Jeffries encounters drunken drifter Larry Rhodes while recording a segment at a rural Arkansas jail. She invites him to speak to the audience and sing while playing his guitar, and he becomes instantly popular. Marcia dubs him "Lonesome" Rhodes and fast-tracks him onto his own local radio program. Marcia enlists the support of the show's writer Mel Miller and witnesses the charismatic Rhodes ad-lib his way to Memphis-area television popularity, effectively criticizing local politicians along the way.

When Rhodes pokes fun at his sponsor, a mattress company, it initially pulls its ads, but when his adoring audience revolts by burning mattresses in the street, the sponsor discovers that the issue actually increased sales. Rhodes returns to the air with a new awareness of his persuasive power. He begins an affair with Marcia and proposes marriage to her.

Rhodes is offered a deal—put together without his knowledge by Joey, the overambitious assistant to the owner of the mattress company—to star in a new television show in New York; the rising star accepts the offer and signs a contract that allows Joey to manage him. Rhodes also becomes the national spokesman for the energy supplement firm that sponsors his show, selling Vitajex as a faux male enhancement product, and his buoyant charisma tremendously increases their sales. As his fame, influence and ego increase, Rhodes is enlisted to improve the appeal of a presidential hopeful, Senator Worthington Fuller of California, and rebrands Fuller as an everyman with the folksy nickname "Curly".

In contrast to his friendly onscreen persona, Rhodes has become an egomaniac who berates his staff. Marcia's hopes of marrying Rhodes are dashed, first when a woman claims to be his legitimate wife, and again when he returns from Mexico married to 17-year-old drum majorette Betty Lou. Rhodes and Marcia enter into a profit-sharing agreement after she reminds him of her role in his success. Mel, who loves Marcia, leaves to write an exposé on Rhodes. Joey has an affair with Rhodes's young wife, and Rhodes sends her back to Arkansas. However, he cannot extricate himself from the business arrangement with Joey, as Joey owns 51% of the company. Rhodes goes to Marcia's home, where he tells her about his political ambitions and admits that she helped him become who he is. While he falls asleep, Marcia gets dressed and leaves.

Disgusted with Rhodes's behavior, Marcia activates a live microphone during the end credits of Rhodes's television show, which reveals him contemptuously mocking Fuller and the station's "idiot" viewers. His popularity and the show's ratings plummet, advertisers cancel their sponsorships, and the audience and public turn against him. When Rhodes reaches his penthouse home, he finds nobody there, except for his friend Beanie and a handful of African American servants, whom he dismisses when they do not respond to his demands. Rhodes threatens suicide by jumping from the penthouse roof, causing Marcia to goad him, telling him to get out of everyone's lives, especially hers.

Having waited for Marcia to break free from Rhodes's spell, Mel insists that Marcia tell Rhodes that she exposed his rant. At Rhodes's home, Mel and Marcia find Rhodes speaking to the empty room, with an applause machine replacing the people whose support he has lost. Marcia tells Rhodes that she was responsible for the open-microphone incident and demands that he never call her again.

Before they leave, Mel predicts Rhodes's future: his career is not completely over, and he will likely find further TV work soon, but will never again enjoy the same level of popularity and prestige. After leaving the building, Mel and Marcia hear Rhodes screaming from the penthouse for Marcia to return to him, but they ignore him as they depart. Marcia expresses guilt for having elevated Rhodes to power, and Mel replies that a faker like Rhodes may fool people for a while, but "we get wise to him―that's our strength".

Cast

Production

thumb|[[Andy Griffith with Patricia Neal (right) and Lee Remick (left) on the set of A Face in the Crowd]]

Development

The film was produced under the working title of The Arkansas Traveler, Schulberg had stated that a conversation with friend Will Rogers Jr., son of Will Rogers—who was known for earthy anecdotes and folksy style—had inspired him to create the Lonesome Rhodes story. During their drunken exchange, the younger Rogers had expressed bitterness about his father, stating that the elder Rogers "was so full of shit, because he pretends he's just one of the people, just one of the guys" whereas privately he associated only with high society.

Director Elia Kazan and Schulberg based the character of Lonesome Rhodes on Arthur Godfrey, as well as on Billy Graham and Huey Long.

Casting

In April 1956, columnist Walter Winchell wrote that Andy Griffith was due to leave the cast of his Broadway show No Time for Sergeants at the end of July, vacation for a month and begin shooting the film. Kazan and Schulberg spent much of July and August in Memphis and in Arkansas.

Filming

thumb|right|[[Patricia Neal and Andy Griffith]]

Location shooting occurred in Memphis, Piggott, Arkansas and Poplar Bluff, Missouri, where the fair and baton-twirling competition scenes were filmed. The Poplar Bluff scenes involved 5,000 extras paid $1 per hour, 380 dogs</blockquote>

Harrison's Reports wrote: "On a whole, however, it is a fascinating picture, superbly directed and finely acted. Much credit for the film's impact is due [to] Andy Griffith, a newcomer to the screen, for his exceptional performance in the principal role. It is not a sympathetic part, but he plays it with explosive vigor and makes the characterization entirely believable. Worthy of special mention, too, is Patricia Neal for her fine portrayal" as Marcia Jeffries.

Hy Hollinger of Variety praised the film as "provocative and hard-hitting", summarizing that "Kazan once again demonstrates his ability as a director and why major studios are willing to give him carte blanche in selecting his own story material and working under his own conditions".

Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times wrote, "Far and away outstanding in their stellar performances are Griffith, Miss Neal and Matthau, with Franciosa also very capable. They are nearly all at their peaks in their interpretations, even though the actual reading of lines is not too easy to understand at times. Schulberg has, however, written a splendid screenplay, and the picture is by far one of Kazan's most penetrating and incidentally ironic."

In his review for Cahiers du cinéma, critic François Truffaut called it "a great and beautiful work whose importance transcends the dimensions of a cinema review".

Karel Reisz, reviewing the film in Sight & Sound, critiqued more harshly, writing, "If we are to accept its attack on the jungle values of American sponsored television then we must be able to sense a more decent, rational tone in the film which is attacking them. And this becomes more and more difficult as the film goes on. When it comes to the test Kazan and Schulberg seem to have little more respect for their audience than the [t]elevision showmen. Dramatic scenes are all played at full blast, while the more intimate scenes are slurred over."

In a 2015 interview, filmmaker Spike Lee credited the film with inspiring his Bamboozled (2000). Writing in The Washington Post in 2020, Ann Hornaday ranked it at number 14 of her list of the best political movies.

Musical

A stage musical version of A Face in the Crowd directed by Kwame Kwei-Armah began a run at the Young Vic in London on September 10, 2024. Its music is composed by Elvis Costello and the script is an adaptation of Budd Schulberg's book by Sarah Ruhl.

See also

  • List of American films of 1957
  • The Great Man

References

</references>

  • A Face in the Crowd at AllMovie
  • "Naming the Fictional Vitajex Pill in A Face in the Crowd (1957)"; Essay by Mark Griep