A Face in the Crowd (1957) - Springtime for Classics

Springtime for Classics (2023)

Spring is upon us though my local weather would suggest otherwise. I certainly have a lot going on this season, including the arrival of a new baby... coming soon. 

In the meantime (while I still have some meantime left) I want to kick back every so often when I'm able to this spring and watch the classic movies. 

By "classic," I mean films that have a timeless quality to them. These are films that came out 40, 50, 60 + years ago and have withstood time. Some of these classics probably couldn't be made today because their stories, portrayals, and depictions make some people's "progressive" tummies hurt. To hell with trigger warnings.

But I'm not watching them for that reason. I'm watching them precisely because they're considered "classics," and rightly so for the most part. 

For me, these classics were filmed prior to 1980. I have to have a cutoff date somewhere though I may break that "rule" once in a while. 

Some are more talked about than others. Some were controversial for their time. Others were just emotional grabbers. Some are loved simply because of an actor or two who just nailed their respective role, and then some. And some simply deserve much more attention, which may have waned as the decades progressed. That happens.

I'm picking these cinematic classics up as I find them. There are titles I have seen before, and I am anxious to comment on. Otherwise, I'm mostly interested in watching those I've never seen before. 

"This whole country's like my flock of sheep."

Director

Elia Kazan

Cast

Andy Griffith - 'Lonesome' Rhodes

Patricia Neal - Marcia Jeffries

Walter Matthau - Mel Miller

Lee Remick - Betty Lou Fleckum

Anthony Franciosa - Joey DePalma
Marshall Neilan - Sen. Worthington Fuller

"A Face in the Crowd" is a title I've heard of but have never seen before. Honestly, I never gave the film any thought until I stumbled upon it at the library. 

It has been praised quite extensively since its release in 1957. Although, at that time, many folks on the right didn't like it as much as audiences on the left. 

The movie is based on Budd Schulberg's short story "Your Arkansas Traveler" found in his collection of works, "Some Faces in the Crowd." Schulberg wrote the screenplay for the film adaptation. 

"A Face in the Crowd" takes place in rural Arkansas during the 1950s. The story begins as radio journalist Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) visits a prison in search of a talented inmate to perform whatever talent they might have on her show. 

She finds a loquacious guitar playing drifter named Larry Rhodes (Andy Griffith) who has a lot of small-town charm, humor and personality. 

He agrees to sing and play his guitar on Jeffries' program. 

Listeners love his performance and down-to-earth philosophy so much that Rhodes gets his very own radio show. 

Jeffries also gives him the nickname "Lonesome." 

With the help of the station's staff writer, Mel Miller (Walter Matthau), Rhodes garners a lot of popularity in the Memphis area. 

His program includes ad-libbed chats mixed with his ribbing of politicians. 

After he makes fun of the mattress company that's sponsoring his show, resulting in their pulling ads, his audience protests by burning mattresses in the streets. 

However, the mattress company sales go up substantially after Rhodes pokes fun at them. 

So, he returns to television and his personality gains an increasing audience. 

Rhodes also begins an affair with Jeffries. The romantic tension between the two begins pretty much the moment they met. 

He ends up starring in a show broadcasting out of New York, sponsored by an energy supplement called Vitajex, all thanks to an eager mattress worker named Joey DePalma (Anthony Franciosa) who helps get him in this successful situation.

With his increasing fame and influence, Rhodes becomes more and more arrogant. 

His influence grows to such an extent that he's called to assist with improving the public image of California Senator Worthington Fuller (Marshall Neilan). 

Meanwhile, as Jeffries proposes to Rhodes since the two are clearly in a relationship, Rhodes ends up marrying a 17-year-old blond-haired, blue-eyed baton twirling drum major named Betty Lou Fleckum (Lee Remick). Fleckum is smitten by him and caught his eye during a rally in his honor. 

The two elope in Mexico much to the heartbreak of Jeffries. 

However, Jeffries and Rhodes enter a profit-sharing agreement as she's the one who discovered him. 

His ego inflates drastically which works against him. Also, Betty Lou ends up cheating on Rhodes with DePalma. 

Jeffries soon realizes that Lonesome has become a sort of Frankenstein creation as far as personality, media and influence goes. And she deems herself responsible. This "monster" got away from her. 

Jeffries' finds herself in an instance where she can stop him for good. And that's what she does.

My Thoughts

 

Andy Griffith as 'Lonesome' Rhodes in "A Face in the Crowd."

Rhodes starts off by gaining the esteem of audiences before they realize he is far from deserving of it. His audience, though, put him on his grand pedestal.

Back then, "A Face in the Crowd" was seen as a critique of Capitalism by those who praised the movie. It was critiqued by the right for precisely that reason, as well as for being skeptical of government and media. 

However, those who didn't care for it still praised the director, Elia Kazan, for turning in eight Communists to the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952. To that, I'll quote Chesterton who said, "There is a thought that stops thought. That is the only thought that ought to be stopped.” 

I have previously seen another of his well-known pictures, "On the Waterfront" (1954) before. And I consider it one of my favorite flicks. That was nearly 20 years ago.

He's directed some other well-known movies such as "East of Eden," "A Streetcar Named Desire," "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" and "Gentleman's Agreement." 

There's a line in "A Face in the Crowd" that sums up Kazan's kind of storytelling. 

"People are fascinating wherever you find 'em." 

While I'm not too familiar with Kazan nor his work having only seen two movies, one of which was 20-years ago, it seems like he's the Norman Rockwell of movie making. Underneath the good ol' American way of life lies an array of hidden things - thoughts and desires. Some of these things can be truly disquieting.

The cultural tables have certainly turned in modern society. Today, the counterculture is the Conservative. They're the new hippie. Tradition and high standards are the counterculture. Morality and decency are the counterculture. The nuclear family holding society together at the seams is the counterculture.  

At the time of this film, the "beat generation" was the counterculture. "Beatniks." 

They rejected the narrative values of the time. They rejected economic materialism and immersed themselves in psychedelic drugs and sexual "liberation." It morphed into the hippie movement of the 1960s and 1970s. The left was down with the system. The right supported the system. Today, we have the "woke" left. 

I can see Conservatives today, in 2023, loving "A Face in the Crowd" for the reasons Conservatives of the day critiqued it. 

Today, Conservatives are weary of government and especially the mainstream media which has mostly become nothing short of a mouthpiece for left-wing politics. 

"A Face in the Crowd" shows how easily manipulated audiences can be when tuned into the media. 

Again, Conservatives are today's counterculture skeptical of leadership and the left-leaning influence the media has gained over audiences. In our current politically driven society where politics is a god, "A Face in the Crowd" is a film that likely would appeal to a whole different audience today than it did in 1957. 

"Lonesome" is his own man. Initially he says what the "ordinary" folks want to hear, but not what sponsors and producers want them to hear. He quickly becomes, as the movie states, "the voice of grassroots wisdom." It culminates to Rhodes giving political advice in order to transform the California Senator into a sellable product that the masses can only think will benefit themselves. 

"Did you ever hear of anyone buying any product - beer, hair rinse, tissue - because they respect it? You gotta be loved," Rhodes tells Sen. Fuller. 

Rhodes soon becomes part of the system he initially critiques. That is, he becomes part of the establishment that strives to "influence the masses" for their own gain at the cost of the masses. 

"This whole country's like my flock of sheep," he says late in the film. "Those morons out there? Shucks, I could take chicken fertilizer and sell it to them as caviar. I could make them eat dog food and think it was steak. You know what the publics' like? A cage of guinea pigs! Good night you stupid idiots. Good night, you miserable slobs. They're a lot of trained seals. I toss them a dead fish and they'll flap their flippers." 

Walter Matthau, Patricia Neal, and Andy Griffith.

Today, it's called "bigotry of low expectations." And there's one political side that depends on it. 

There's also a subtle but apparent sensuality that manifests throughout Lonesome's gradual rise to fame. 

It's seen when he visit's Jeffries in her hotel room. He leaves his suitcase outside her room. It's seen again when he first sees Betty Lou twirling her baton. Later, when he visits Marcia again, she's wearing into a black négligée.  

This movie is Andy Griffith's film debut and his performance is nothing short of phenomenal. He puts so much energy and emotion into his role that I'm struggling to find a performance to compare his to. And the organic transition his character goes through is superb. Lonesome goes from likeable to dejected and unlikeable. 

It's also actress Lee Remick's film debut as well. She went on to star in some notable films such as "Anatomy of a Murder" (1959), "Days of Wine and Roses" (1962) and "The Omen" (1976). Incidentally, "Days of Wine and Roses" which also stars Jack Lemmon, is on my "to watch" list for spring. 

"A Face in the Crowd," reminds me of the 1979 movie "Being There" which has the same sort of premise as far as "influencers" go, as the kids say nowadays. It also reminds me a little of the 1994 movie "Forrest Gump." Maybe it's that southern aspect used in both films.

Like Kazan calling out, or rather cancelling, those Communists back in the 1950s, so does "A Face in the Crowd" call out the powers that be, the elites, the demagogues who consume public trust and produce an intentional general mindlessness among audiences. They run the risk of failing to see that their American way of life is under constant threat by such elites who have nothing whatsoever in common with them, nor have any concern for their well-being. It's all for their own self-gain. 

It's like what William Gaines, founder of "Mad Magazine," once said.

“Don’t believe in ads. Don’t believe in government. Watch yourself - everybody is trying to screw you!”