A Face in the Crowd ***

Directed by Elia Kazan.
Story and screenplay written by Budd Schulberg.
Released 1957.
Seen on DVD.
With Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau, Lee Remick

I think the thing that sticks out to me are the over the top performances of Andy Griffith. and in contrast, the much more real-like performance of Patricia Neal. I am very impressed with Neal's performance. In fact I have to say, I have now fallen in love with the second woman who is more than twice my age (Gene Teirny was the first woman from another era that I had fallen in love with). Her smile and twinkle of her eyes just warm my heart. But isn't that what acting is in a way? At least the more realistic acting. An actor plays a character that says and does certain actions. The actor becomes the character, but I also believe the character becomes the actor. In other words, the actor says and does things that the character does, but with the actor's personality intertwined. Patricia Neal played Marcia Jeffries, but Marcia Jeffries was Patricia Neal.

Evidently Neal is a little older in this film. I saw some shots of her when she was younger, like in her early twenties, but that would have been in the decades of the late forties or early fifties. I guess the makers of the movies needed a slightly older actress, since the action covers a decade or two.

Here's a nice tribute. As beautiful as she is, I think that she was actually prettier in her 30's and 40's. Though no one under the age of 50 knows who she was, you can see that worked with some pretty big names.



So a young radio programmer (Neal) from a local Arkansas radio station goes to a jail to record some stories for her show, "A Face in the Crowd". Hence the title of the film. She discovers Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, a unemployed hobo with violent and lecherous tendencies (Andy Griffith). But he can sing and tell stories and jokes, and Neal's character (Marcia Jeffries) is completely charmed . So she convinces him to do a local show on a regular basis. And he does great with his down home country charm. Basically from here it becomes a rags to riches story with "Lonesome" becoming a nation wide craze. But there's a dark side to this story, and I believe the film fore shadows it a bit.

Earlier I said that his performance was over the top a bit. And in these contemporary times, that, I think is the reason many people don't watch old fashioned, classic films. The films don't seem real to them, especially the acting. The acting can seem artificial and melodramatic. Now in Griffith's case, I think that this is a plus. It makes him a scarier character. He seems even more manic. His wild, yet lovable charm is intrinsically tied in with this dark mania he possesses.

The film ends when "Lonesome" gets too big for his britches. He thinks he is so powerful that he can control events including politics and governmental policy. He gets involved with a right wing senator and tries to get him elected using his popularity. And this is where everything comes tumbling down.

Here's a trailer from the film.