A Face in the Crowd (1957) User Reviews (208)

"A guitar beats a woman every time!"

[ClassicAndCampFilmReviews · 9/10 · 20 January 2005]

This film shows what a fine actor Andy Griffith truly is, and what roles he could have mastered had he not chosen the Mayberry path instead.

Directed by Elia Kazan, the political drama and satire of commercialism "A Face in the Crowd" is the story of Lonesome Rhodes (Griffith), a charismatic guitar-playing drifter who is discovered by radio executive Marcia Jeffries (the husky-voiced Patricia Neal) while in jail on a public drunk charge. He catapults to radio and TV stardom under the guise of being an aw-shucks homeboy who loves his fans. In fact, Lonesome Rhodes is a slimy, greedy, egotistical, manipulative womanizer with underhanded political aspirations and nothing but contempt for his gullible audience. The film was far ahead of its time in its theme and telling, and Andy Griffith gives a blazing performance that rivals Burt Lancaster's in "Elmer Gantry" (for which Lancaster won an Oscar). That this film wasn't even nominated for any awards is very surprising.

I also am saddened that it's never been released on DVD; it's one of the best of its kind I have ever seen, and was certainly Griffith's plum role and best performance. With a stellar supporting cast, including Patricia Neal, Walter Matthau, Tony Franciosa and a beautiful Lee Remick in her first film role, "A Face in the Crowd" is a must-see film, and should eradicate any opinion you may have that Griffith was only capable of his wholesome TV roles of Sheriff Taylor and Ben Matlock.

Stunning departure for Andy Griffith proves he is an actor of merit.

[movieman-200 · 9/10 · 15 June 2005]

If ever there was a film that spoke to the ill advised road toward fame and fortune – paved with its good, but unfortunately corrupting intentions – Elia Kazan's A Face In The Crowd (1957) is that film. It's a sort of perverse Picture of Dorian Gray brought up to, then, contemporary standards, and ramped with all the slick, split and polish of the emerging media age. The film stars the usually wholesome and congenial Andy Griffith as Larry 'Lonesome' Rhodes – an impoverished hobo whose saving grace is that he's got something to say and is certain people are willing to listen. One such interested party is promoter Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal). With her connections and Larry's mouth, the two embark upon a media blitz that transforms Larry from a good time guy into a perverse and power mad media sensation. With the swell of his ego, comes the bitter and reclusive understanding that Larry has been forever changed – and not for the better. It is Larry's own realization and self discovery, that he's become the man he was always destined to be – an unflattering, uncaring and dangerous individual – that tops out this highly strung, gruesome portrait of life without soul or redemption.

Screenwriter Budd Schulberg, on whose story "The Arkansas Traveler" this film is based, keeps the pace of this manic and often oppressive tale up in a way that derives empathy and pity for the character of Larry, while sitting in paralyzed and frightful awe of both Griffith's performance and the prospect that what we are seeing might be true for a good many more Hollywood celebs – both then and now – than we'd care to imagine. Kazan, always the purveyor of 'message pictures', on this occasion is recanting what Shakespeare might have coined 'a tale told by an idiot. Full of sound and fury – signifying nothing' – nothing that is except one of the most exceptional entertainments you are likely to see in your lifetime.

Warner's DVD is very nicely put together. The B&W anamorphically enhanced picture exhibits solid blacks, very clean whites, and an impeccably balanced gray scale. Contrast levels are bang on. Fine details are nicely rendered throughout. The audio has been nicely cleaned up. A documentary, "Facing The Past" takes the place on an audio commentary on this disc. It's short – at 30 min. – but nevertheless provides for a slew of succinct sound bytes from members of the principle cast.

Hilariously dramatic

[helpless_dancer · 8/10 · 25 February 2002]

One of the best pictures I've seen to date. Griffith had the part of the womanizing, opinionated, lazy, loud mouthed bum down pat. In fact, the entire cast was superb in this dynamic, gripping, and in the first half, uproariously funny drama which clearly shows how ego can not only destroy the egotist but those close to him. This film is an equal to Griffith's fine performances as Horton Maddock in "Savages" and Howard Pike in "Hearts of the West". 4 stars.

A real hidden masterpiece.

[syer · 14 August 2004]

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?!?

An outstanding performance by Andy Griffith!

[franco-10 · 10/10 · 16 December 2002]

I just find it hard to believe that Andy Griffith received no kudos or award nominations for his role as Lonesome Rhodes in this movie. His performance is quite amazing. I think that because he played such an obnoxious person, one that we really come to dislike, that people confused the role with the actor. I just saw it on TV (Dec, 2002), and maybe the world of 1957 just was not ready for this kind of realism.

Demagogue in Denim

[pensman · 10/10 · 7 April 2004]

Andy Griffith made this film when he was still an actor and not the aw-shucks sheriff of Mayberry. Lonesome Rhodes (Griffith) is more than a TV personality: he is a media demagogue who understands the manipulative power of language and images. You might think a film made in 1957 would be hopeless dated but not this one. It is almost prophetic in its portrayal of modern media. When Marshall McLuhan-I know, who?-wrote The Medium is the Message, he must have had this film partially in mind.

Griffith is perfect: he is a mixture of cornpone and Satan. Patricia Neal is the woman-frequently abandoned and abused--who discovered the man and loves him for what she thought he was. Walter Matthau is the Princeton man who becomes one of the many faceless writers behind the façade of the county wit-Rhodes: the man admired for his `extempore and natural' humor.

Watch early on in the film for a scene taking place in the local jail. In one quick and brief flash of expression, Griffith reveals the true face of Lonesome Rhodes the rest of the film tries to mask. What brilliant acting by Griffith; what brilliant screen writing by Budd Schulberg; what brilliant directing by Kazan.

Skewering Indictment of Television Comes Blazing Thanks to Peak Work from Kazan, Schulberg, Neal and Griffith

[EUyeshima · 9/10 · 9 July 2006]

There are two major things that I find quite fascinating as I watch this 1957 classic. The first is the prophetic, hyper-realistic portrayal of television as a pervasive medium encroaching upon people's lives in ways unheard of back in the 1950's. The second is Andy Griffith's pull-all-the-stops performance as drunken hobo-turned-media sensation "Lonesome" Rhodes. For those who know Griffith only for his homespun TV portrayals, you will be surprised how remarkably he shows the venal underbelly and high-octane charisma of a character miles away from kindly, soft-spoken Sheriff Andy Taylor.

Master filmmaker Elia Kazan and writer Budd Schulberg, collaborating for the second and last time after their brilliant "On the Waterfront" three years earlier, tell the story of Rhodes, a burgeoning pop-culture phenomenon thanks primarily to the efforts of Marcia Jeffries, a young radio program host who discovers him sprawled in a hangover on the floor of a rural Arkansas jail. He mesmerizes the local radio audience with an improvised country song about his predicament, "Free Man in the Morning", and this marks the beginning of his meteoric rise all the way to his own weekly national TV program. As he capitalizes on his folksy charm and empathetic manner, he becomes a power-crazed tyrant behind the scenes. A corporate tycoon wants to use Rhodes' influence to sway a Presidential campaign in his favor, and Rhodes' megalomania moves him lockstep into a Citizen Kane-like form of paranoia.

It all seems exaggerated but it's brilliantly observed much like a film that covered the same themes twenty years later, Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky's "Network". However, even with strong doses of black comedy sprinkled throughout, Kazan and Schulberg use more melodramatic elements in their skewering until the near-Shakespearian climax when Rhodes' comeuppance takes on a grandly theatrical fervor. In a way, it seems a shame that Griffith never got another chance to bring out his dark side on the big screen. While sometimes wildly undisciplined in his film debut, he dexterously shows the cunning and charisma of his character to a level that makes his national celebrity utterly credible.

Showing his amazing facility to elicit stellar work from a wide variety of actors, Kazan assembled a strong cast to back him up starting with Patricia Neal, who is just as devastating as Marcia, a woman torn between ambition, decency and her fateful attraction to Rhodes. An impossibly young Walter Matthau shows the beginnings of his cynical screen persona as Mel, a crafty television writer who de facto becomes Marcia's conscience. In their film debuts and making indelible impressions, Anthony Franciosa and Lee Remick play Joey, an office lackey who turns into Rhodes' immoral agent, and Betty Lou, a teenaged baton twirler seduced easily by Rhodes' power, respectively.

If the film has one flaw, it's that it runs on a bit long for the parable it tells especially since Rhodes' moral ambiguity is pretty much settled in the first half of the story. Nevertheless, this movie is essential viewing as it not only shows a powerful early indictment of television (and supports Marshall McLuhan's mantra, "The medium is the message") but provides another example of the under-appreciated artistry of Kazan and Schulberg. The 2005 DVD has unfortunately no commentary track but one strong extra, a half-hour 2005 featurette, "Facing the Past", which spotlights Kazan's polarizing testimony in front of the House Committee on Un-American Activities and the threatening role of television in the 1950's, both major factors in making the film. Griffith, Neal, Schulberg are interviewed. There is also a widescreen version of the original film trailer.

The dark side of power

[TheLittleSongbird · 9/10 · 29 May 2020]

It is surprising that 'A Face in the Crowd' only got a mixed critical reception when it first came out, though can actually understand why some were not so taken with it. It is great though that 'A Face in the Crowd' has gotten the acclaim it deserves over-time and is so highly regarded here. Anybody that wants to see every film directed by Elia Kazan, see a different side to star Andy Griffith and see a very interesting subject being addressed should absolutely watch this film.

As far as Kazan's films go (all of which are woth watching, even if for a couple of them just the once though to me he never made a "bad" film), 'A Face in the Crowd' is not as iconic as 'On the Waterfront', 'A Streetcar Named Desire' or 'East of Eden' or as emotionally powerful as 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn', 'Pinky' and 'Man on a Tightrope'. It is still up there as one of his better films in my view, but he is not the only reason to see it. It was really interesting to see Griffith in such a different role and do it so well and in terms of subject matter it is one of the bravest ones of Kazan's films along with 'Pinky'.

With the exception of 'The Visitors', one of the few films from Kazan that didn't feel like it came from him, Kazan's films were very well made visually. That is the case with 'A Face in the Crowd', it is shot intimately without being static and opened up enough without being heavy or trying to do too much. While having the right amount of audacious style and grit. The editing is sharp and fluid and the locations are made good use of. The music is effective enough, isn't overused and at least fits the mood, wouldn't have said no to Alfred Newman or Alex North scoring though.

Kazan's direction is typically on the money, apart from the rare occasions where a film of his doesn't feel like it was directed by him (i.e. 'The Visitors'). He has great visual style, gives so much dramatic impact to scenes and his famously peerless direction of actors and how he got such great performances from actors against type or inexperienced is all on display here in 'A Face in the Crowd'. The script is razor sharp and has scathing bite as ought for a film with a satirical edge, and provokes a lot of though. Although it is very scathing to the extent that it's almost scary, it is done in good taste too.

The story is a compelling and brave one, really admire it when any film or anything take on this subject and represent the media in this way (a truthful one by the way and should be portrayed a lot more) and it has aged incredibly well. Namely because, sadly, the subject is still very relevant today (just like when 'Pinky' tackled racism). Anybody who has read any of my previous reviews will notice my admiration for films handling difficult but worth addressing topics and exploring them in an uncompromising way, which 'A Face in the Crowd' does and brilliantly, and if anybody feels uncomfortable after watching that is a good thing.

Furthermore, the characters are interesting. Can understand where some critics are coming from when they feel that with Rhodes being such a juicy and larger than life character with an incredibly powerful presence in a quite scary way that he dominates everything else too much, but personally don't agree so much. Although it is Rhodes that everybody remembers, one shouldn't overlook the other characters as Marcia brings a lot of heart to the film. He also doesn't feel too much of a cartoon at all and is quite accurate too. Griffith is absolutely brilliant and was never better, while there is also a fine performance from an emotive Patricia Neal. All the performances are very good.

My only complaint is the slightly too drawn out ending.

Otherwise, this is absolutely great in almost every way. 9/10

Underrated Masterpiece!

[ManCalldHorseonaHorseWitNoName · 10/10 · 25 September 2003]

If you think that the extend of Andy Griffith's acting ability is playing a good old boy sheriff or aging lawyer. Do yourself a favor and watch this movie. In it he shows the many shades of the character Lonesome Rhodes, pulling you in with his charm amd homespun philosophy until you realize that there is a snake hiding in that Downhome sheeps clothing.

I have watch this film many times and am always fascinated by the subtle hints early in the film to what he eventually reveals to the world.

a five star movie that was way ahead of it's time.

One of the Greatest of ALL films -- now on DVD (and about GD time)!!!

[jim6263 · 10/10 · 19 May 2005]

Having read others' comments here and having just watched its new DVD, I'll add my two cents. This has been one of my faves since first seeing it (too) long ago. Well, it is more relevant than ever and should be seen be everyone (literally)!! I notice some (likely younger) folks mentioned comparisons to some contemporary politicians, but indeed Lonesome Rhodes was based on the phenomenally successful (and notoriously haughty) radio & early TV host Arthur Godfrey. Yes, Godfrey discovered Julius La Rosa, but La Rosa probably got fired for asking for a raise (after becoming very popular, both on the show and solo records). Apparently Arthur, like Lawrence Welk, was a cheap prick skinflint who only paid scale -- no matter what their tenure or how successful were his performers.

"A Face In the Crowd" was most definitely social commentary, NOT satire; although, as one from that era, I can understand why it seemed so to many at the time. And also why it inspired so many talents! That this film was not nominated on its own merits due to political differences/grudges is a GD crime! Can't say why Andy wasn't, but he sure deserved it... Awesome!! So awesome,it actually effected his personal life.

Anyway, re: politicians, "A face In the Crowd" was a prescient warning of the dangers of that new media, thus akin to those who subsequently capitalized on its propaganda value and the *science* of people's weakness of mistaking "image" for truth!

But Kazan was not simply a great director; he was perhaps the most socially conscious of all Hollywood directors!! And he was one of the great actors' directors; hence, why you never saw an Andy Griffith act like in this film again! (The DVD also has an excellent up-to-date documentary about the making of AFITC and its genesis, with many pertinent historical tidbits re: Kazan.)

In just 21 films, Kazan directed at least 10 GREAT films: "America, America" (1963), "Wild River" (1960), "Baby Doll" (1956), "East of Eden" (1955), "On the Waterfront" (1954), "Viva Zapata!" (1952), "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951), "Panic in the Streets" (1950), "Gentleman's Agreement" (1947), and "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" (1945).

In his films, 21 different actors had Oscar-nominated performances: James Dunn, Celeste Holm, Gregory Peck, Dorothy McGuire, Anne Revere, Jeanne Crain, Ethel Barrymore, Ethel Waters, Karl Malden, Vivien Leigh, Kim Hunter, Marlon Brando, Anthony Quinn, Eva Marie Saint, Lee J. Cobb, Rod Steiger, Jo Van Fleet, James Dean, Carroll Baker, Mildred Dunnock, and Natalie Wood -- of which Dunn, Holm, Malden, Leigh, Hunter, Quinn, Brando, Saint and Van Fleet ALL won Oscars for their performances in one of Kazan's movies.

Not too shabby, eh!?

Prescient Television Satire.

[AaronCapenBanner · 7/10 · 8 November 2013]

Elia Kazan directed this prescient satire of television and politics that stars Andy Griffith(his film debut) as guitar playing hobo 'Lonesome' Rhodes, who is in and out of jail when he meets Marcia Jeffries(played by Patricia Neal) a network executive who is amused by his easy charm and extroverted nature, and puts him first on the radio, then television, where he becomes an overnight sensation, and uses his growing influence with the public to gather more power and riches, which alarms Marcia's colleague Mel Miller(played by Walter Matthau). Marcia has sadly fallen for Rhodes, who leaves her when he marries young admirer Betty Lou(played by Lee Remick). Marcia will eventually listen to Mel and make a fateful decision to expose Rhodes for the monster he truly is... Way ahead of its time in terms of how an entertainer(or politician!) can manipulate and fool a gullible public to do and believe what they want, though the more astute viewer will see right through Rhodes' obvious act and superficial charm, and Andy Griffith lays on the act a bit too much after awhile, to the picture's detriment. It is a shame that the general public still haven't wised up as much as they should, enabling and empowering the modern-day versions of Lonesome Rhodes currently among us...

Pass the Popcorn review

[PassPopcorn · 8/10 · 2 November 2013]

Elia Kazan will always be remembered as one of the most important directors of his era. With great movies like A Streetcar Named Desire and On The Waterfront, he forever established his position in cinema history. A Face in the Crowd is one of his lesser known movies that flopped at the box office when it was initially released, and was completely ignored by the Academy. It only got some following much later, when it was released on DVD, which is a shame since A Face in the Crowd doesn't greatly differ from Kazan's more popular movies. To correct this historical injustice, I decided to review this movie and spread the word about it as much as I can.

The movie opens with a young woman, named Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal), visiting the prison in her small town. She is doing a radio show called 'A Face in the Crowd' during which she talks with everyday people, transmitting their stories. In the prison she meets a man who calls himself 'Lonesome' Rhodes (Andy Griffith) – a hobo arrested for drunk and disorderly behavior. She tapes him for her show and the episode becomes a huge hit. Marcia and her uncle, who is the owner of the local radio station on which 'A Face in the Crowd' airs, offer 'Lonesome' a job on the radio station. He accepts and soon becomes a sensation with the local populace – and eventually, with the whole country.

A Face in the crowd is what you may call a movie ahead of its time, and that's maybe why it wasn't recognized when it was initially released. It deals with topics like the media, celebrities, propaganda and politics. And in this day and age, when we are surrounded by the internet and the mass media, A Face in the Crowd may seem more actual than ever. A Face in the Crowd is essentially about a corrupted man who has a gift for public relations, and uses this gift as means to an end – the end being his own benefit. I think every last one of us knows at least one politician, public personality or celebrity who is just like that. A Face in the Crowd is a dark, frighteningly realistic movie which is brilliantly directed and masterfully paced. It runs for over 2 hours but never feels dull or boring.

In a character study movie like this one, the actor portraying the character plays a very important part in the quality of the movie. 'Lonesome' Rhodes is portrayed by Andy Griffith in his first movie performance ever. He did an astonishingly great job and, like I said before, it's a shame that the Academy overlooked this movie, especially his performance. Andy Griffith later went to start in the very popular sitcom 'The Andy Griffith Show', and since his character in the sitcom was much different from his 'Lonesome' Rhodes character, he managed to show his amazing acting range – which makes makes his performance in A Face in the Crowd even more astonishing. Patricia Neal also did a very good job in portraying the character of Marcia Jeffries. Overall, A Face in the Crowd is an amazing movie, made by talented people, which doesn't deserve to be just another face in the crowd – it deserves to be more popular.

Rating: 8/10 Read more at http://passpopcorn.com/

Yesterday's satire becomes today's nightmare

[charlesem · 7/10 · 18 March 2017]

I don't know if TCM intentionally "counterprogrammed" the Trump inauguration by scheduling Elia Kazan's film about a faux-populist demagogue on the same day as the ceremony, but it sure looks like it, and I approve. Like Trump, A Face in the Crowd's Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes (Andy Griffith) is a product of the media's amoral pursuit of the colorful character, a man lifted to uncommon power by those entertained by the flamboyance and vulgarity.

Rhodes (perhaps like Trump) isn't so much the villain of Budd Schulberg's story and screenplay as are his enablers, Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) and Mel Miller (Walter Matthau), and his exploiters, like Joey DePalma (Anthony Franciosa), who enrich themselves while discovering the previously untapped potential of mass media. In 1957, this potential was just beginning to be realized, but 60 years later it had taken a dangerous man to the White House. I don't think Kazan and Schulberg fully realized that possibility, just as Sidney Lumet and Paddy Chayefsky didn't fully realize the prescience of Network (Lumet, 1976). Both films should serve as a permanent warning that today's satire is tomorrow's nightmare.

A Face in the Crowd is an important film without being a great one. Schulberg's screenplay falls apart in the middle, and the denouement in which Marcia somehow comes to her senses and exposes Rhodes as a fraud is awkward and mechanical, largely because Marcia herself is something of a mechanical character. An actress of considerable skill, Neal does what she can to make the character live, but the words aren't there in the script to explain why she tolerates Rhodes's fraudulence as long as she does. Matthau and Franciosa come off a little better because their roles are written as stereotypes: Cynical Writer and Go-getting Hot Shot.

So the film really belongs to Griffith, who parlays his dead-eyed shark's grin into something that should have been the foundation of a career with more highlights than a folksy sitcom and an old-fart detective show. It's a charismatic but ragged performance that needed a little more shaping from writer and director, something that Kazan admitted to himself in his diaries when he wrote about Rhodes and the film, "The complexity ... was left out." Rather than having Rhodes revealed as a fraud to his followers, Kazan said, Rhodes should have been allowed to recognize that he had been trapped his own fraudulence.

Deprived of anagnorisis, a moment of tragic self-recognition, Rhodes becomes a figure of melodrama, bellowing "Marcia!" from the balcony at the end but probably fated to make what Miller suggests to him, the comeback of a has-been. Fortunately, Kazan and Schulberg were wise enough to change their original ending, in which Rhodes commits suicide -- there's not enough tragedy in their conception of the character for that. (charlesmatthews.blogspot.com)

Dreary Message Drama

[kenjha · 3/10 · 28 September 2010]

A country bumpkin randomly picked to appear on a radio show becomes a huge star in the mold of Will Rogers. The film makes no attempt to explain the rise to super-stardom of a man who's loud, unfunny, uncouth, untalented, and self-centered. It seems Schulberg is trying to make some important point about media power, but his dreary, overlong script runs out of ideas and veers into soap opera. In his film debut, Griffith is way over the top and his schtick becomes increasingly annoying but it's probably not his fault. The blame for the melodramatics must go to Kazan, who has always shown a knack for the theatrical. He even encourages Neal, a fine actress, to go a bit overboard.

Just Some Historical Perspective....

[lds3359 · 1 November 2004]

A timeless story,as evidenced by all the allegories to recent personalities here ( Howard Stern, Clinton, etc...)...HOWEVER..the film is based (loosely) on a personality of the mid-50s: one Arthur Godfrey..yes, the IL' Redhead himself. Skillfully wrapped in the cliché of 'country boy makes good' story, the Godfrey story was hot news in 1957,and there weren't too many people back then who missed its allusions For those who do not know: Arthur Godfrey was one of THE hottest things in the country in the early to mid 1950's: he literally had about two or three different TV shows on the schedule, plus a radio show that was among the most popular in the day. Godfrey was JUST like this movie in this respect: on the air, he was America's home-spun hero..telling folksy stories....crooning in an off tone baritone, and presenting pure, CLEAN entertainment. OFF the air,however the legend that is Arthur Godfrey to this day is one of THE biggest control freaks in show biz history..to the point of controlling the lives of all of his 'family'..unfortunately that turned out to be downfall...One Julius LaRosa had been a singer that Godfrey had 'discovered' in the US Navy Band...after he was discharged LaRosa became a singer on Godfrey's nighttime TV show "Arthur Godfrey and Friends",where he became an instant star among the bobby sox set. In time, LaRosa started a recording career,and started to have VERY successful records..then suddenly, in 1953, Godfrey suddenly fired LaRosa from his show for the mysterious reason of him having 'no humilty' ...it has been assumed since then that Godfrey was extremely jealous of Larosa's success...Anyways, this exposed the 'real' Godfrey to the public.,and while it didn't happen as quickly or as totally as Lonesome Rhodes' career,Godfrey's career as a superstar was effectively over after that..he eventually was reduced to hosting game shows and such. Writer Schulberg obviously also puts in his 2 cents on fame...politics..the show business...and early television here, but as I said,there wasn't NO ONE in those days who didn't know it was about Godfrey....

A Masterpiece about the Power of the Television

[claudio_carvalho · 10/10 · 3 September 2014]

In Pickett, Arkansas, Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) goes to the local jail to interview the prisoners for her radio program called "A Face in the Crowd". She finds the boisterous drunken drifter Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes (Andy Griffith) that plays guitar and tells jokes becoming the show a great success. Soon Lonesome becomes popular in the small northeast town and is invited to move to Memphis to have his own television show and receiving a high salary. Lonesome brings his mentor and lover Marcia with him and together with the writer Mel Miller (Walter Matthau), the show is also successful. When he is invited to move to New York, Lonesome realizes how powerful and manipulative he is attracting the attention of politicians. But he changes his personality with arrogant attitude toward his collaborators and disrespecting his audience in the beginning of his fall.

"A Face in the Crowd" is a masterpiece directed by Elia Kazan with a great story about the power of the television. It is impressive the rise and fall of Lonesome and how he manipulates his audience. Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes is inspired in Arthur Godfrey, who worked in CBS radio and television, and in the blacklisted comedian John Henry Faulk. This movie is also the debut of the lovely and gorgeous Lee Remick in the role of Betty Lou Fleckum. My vote is ten.

Title (Brazil): "Um Rosto na Multidão" ("A Face in the Crowd")

A Preview of our Present State of Affairs

[lauradknight · 10/10 · 21 October 2019]

I'll not review Andy Griffith or the other actors or the plot and they have been thoroughly reviewed. However, what has not been discussed is how accurately this film predicts our overwhelming worship of no-talent reality show stars to the point of the Kardashians and the present president. It pulls back the curtain to show how this phenomenon occurs. Is some of it about over the top? Yes (the "vitamin" and going down on the elevator), but isn't our culture's worship of these people also over the top. Enjoy the film and weep for us.

One of the best!

[Roman11 · 10/10 · 11 December 2002]

Not only is this film great but the performance that "our loveable ole boy Andy Griffith" gave was one to remember! His portrayal of "Lonesome Rhodes" was non-pareil in that he was the essence of evil. Griffith was even frightening in this role. Kazan did a superb job of directing. Casting real including Patricia Neal and Walter Matthau, et al. Just one dynamite film!

The Underside of John Doe

[bkoganbing · 10/10 · 20 January 2008]

Just imagine if instead of rebelling against the new order of things that Edward Arnold planned for the country, Gary Cooper had collaborated and eventually took it over in Meet John Doe. Then you have some idea of what Elia Kazan was trying to say in A Face In The Crowd.

A few years later there's no way on the planet that Andy Griffith could have been cast as Larry 'Lonesome' Rhoads the John Doe of American nightmares. Griffith had starred on Broadway in No Time for Sergeants, cut some comedy albums, did some television appearances, but he was not a big or a small screen name. So with no image to counteract, Elia Kazan could cast him and he gives one powerful performance. But it never would have happened had he been Sheriff Andy Taylor first.

Local radio station manager Patricia Neal discovers this country boy philosopher in the local jail in her Arkansas home town. Seeing he's got charisma, she puts him on the air. She figures she has another Will Rogers on her hands, but Griffith proves to be a far more malevolent person than Will Rogers ever was.

Rogers was the guy who said he never met anyone he didn't like. Griffith feels there isn't anyone he ever met he couldn't clip. The frightening thing is he comes real close to proving it.

Some future stars make some early appearances in A Face In The Crowd besides Griffith. Anthony Franciosa is the smooth talking ad man who rides a good thing when he sees it and that comment can be taken a lot of ways. Lee Remick is the wide-eyed cheerleader seduced by Griffith, and the good life. Walter Matthau who in his early years played a lot of hoodlums in this case is the writer who catches on early what Griffith is all about.

My favorite is Kay Medford however. She has only one scene in the film with Patricia Neal. But she really scores with it as Griffith's forgotten wife who even when tipsy knows exactly how much of a piece she can get on his celebrity.

A Face In The Crowd is written by Budd Schulberg who along with Elia Kazan were friendly witnesses at the House Un American Activities Committee. The ironic thing is that both these guys considered themselves as men of the left and certainly A Face In The Crowd wasn't written by any Republican. The unkindest cut of all to Elia Kazan was the fact he got booed at the Oscars when he received a deserved Lifetime Achievement Award and was eulogized eloquently by Pat Buchanan when he died. What a world.

Eleven years after A Face In The Crowd came out, Kazan and Schulberg proved to be prophets of sorts when George C. Wallace ran for president. If his campaign wasn't a 'Lonesome Rhoads' special I don't know what was.

Of course Griffith falls, but how he falls is something else. I won't reveal it, but think back to that much imitated ending from another Elia Kazan masterpiece, A Streetcar Named Desire.

A Face In The Crowd is a very relevant film today considering the influence some of these pious country types have in the religious right of today.

Prophetic

[michaelf · 8/10 · 22 December 1998]

Supposedly critizized for being too unrealistic when first released, "A Face in the Crowd" shows the results of when demagogues and image makers take control of the media. With television ads relying on image and labels over issues, this movie is more relevant today than when it was made. Lonesome Rhodes could very well be working for the RNC today.

Wow!

[adamsandel · 9/10 · 9 March 2021]

To say this film was prophetic in 1957 is an understatement. It draws a straight line from "Meet John Doe" to "Network" to Donald Trump. Andy Griffith's film debut is feral, fearless, and electric.

Solid

[Cosmoeticadotcom · 6/10 · 21 June 2012]

The film flopped, financially, although it got mostly positive reviews. It then became one of those films that was 'lost.' That means its reputation grew the more people spoke in remembrance of it, mainly because of its then ahead of the curve take, not only on politics, but on sex, drugs, alcohol consumption (see the wild faux television commercials Rhodes makes), and its own skewering of then popular television programs, with its own versions of same. Thus, the reissue of the film had to sate its admirers, even if, it may not wholly win over as many new fans as its champions wish for. Still, A Face In The Crowd is worth seeing, less for any technical or artistic achievement, and more for its prescient place as a predictor of the power of television's role in the decline of intelligent discourse in American society. It may have been too preachy and smug a film to be great, and it certainly has not dated well in many aspects outside of its predictive power, but, no one can deny that, in the main, it was absolutely right about where this nation was headed. And now that we've arrived, one wishes for a similar film that might elucidate a way out. God wot!

Country corruption and TV production

[zappalives · 9/10 · 17 November 2004]

Their collaboration cemented in infamy with "On the Waterfront", Elia Kazan and Budd Schulberg create this thang. And what a thang it is! Andy Griffith gives the performance of his career, and nobody knows it. Much like Lonesome Rhodes'

elusively corrupt character, this film has become one revered by some, and

unseen by those that should see it most.

Schulberg shows a charismatic vagrant and his hayseed charm revolutionize

television. Along with the increased income, fame greedily kills the bumpkin

within, and turns him into something much worse, if you can believe it: a TV star. Schulberg wrote another provocative work, his book about Hollywood and its

dirty denizens, "What Makes Sammy Run?". Study him and this fantastic and

awe inspiring Kazan film, and you will see why great films that followed winked and tipped their hat; films that include Paddy Chayefsky's "Network", Jimmy

Brooks' "Broadcast News", Spike Lee's "Bamboozled" and P.T. Anderson's

"Magnolia".

This film truly is a masterwork and an incredible, incredible performance by

Andy Griffith. 10 outta 10!

Great script and good performances

[JuguAbraham · 7/10 · 17 June 2017]

Wonderful original screenplay by Budd Schulzberg and good performances by the leads. Good film that explores the power of the media on the same lines as Billy Wilder's "Ace in the Hole" made 6 years prior to this work. Only difference was the two films dealt with different media.

Uproariously Funny -- But Not Because It Wants To Be

[Dan1863Sickles · 4/10 · 28 October 2009]

A vicious, criminal southern drifter with a warm, friendly singing style becomes a TV and radio star with disturbing political ambitions in this overblown and melodramatic fifties satire.

Two things spoil this ambitious and admittedly still relevant dark comedy about the negative power of media celebrities.

First of all, whatever you've heard from other reviewers, Andy Griffith is terrible -- and I mean William Shatner terrible -- as the psychotic, power-mad hillbilly, Lonesome Rhoads. The concept of a "Hillbilly Hitler" is smug and patronizing to begin with, but then Andy Griffiths goes so over the top in every scene that the "chilling truth" just makes you roar with laughter.

"Ah'm the only wun what unner-stands these people!" He roars. "They's too igg-nant to speak so I has to speak fur them!!!!!" If this stuff wasn't fall down laughing funny, it would be really, really offensive. Is this really what the elite urban left thinks about rural America? Budd Schulberg is long dead, thankfully, but when you read people like Joel Klein or Joel Stein you get the feeling things haven't changed.

But no matter. Andy Griffiths is so funny (when he is NOT trying to be) that the offensive liberal smugness just backfires completely. Walter Matthau as the "conscience" of the film doesn't help matters much, either. He's much better as a rank creep in KING CREOLE, where he works with the "real" Lonesome Rhoads, a hillbilly cat named Elvis Presley.

Now, is there anything good about this movie? You bet there is -- Patricia Neal. A born southerner, stunningly beautiful, natural in every scene, playing all sides of a woman who is appalled by Lonesome, ashamed of him, and deeply attracted to him, all at the same time. For her sake, I give this movie four stars.

A FACE IN THE CROWD is a magnificent train wreck -- the satire is crude, the underlying snobbery is repellent, but the career-crushing grandstand performance by Andy Griffiths makes it a lot of fun.