A Face in the Crowd (1957)
March 2, 2016 10:14 AM - Subscribe
An Arkansas hobo becomes an overnight media sensation. But as he becomes drunk with fame and power, will he ever be exposed as the fraud he has become?
For those who'd like to discuss the movie itself, rather than just its disturbing parallels to current events...
For those who'd like to discuss the movie itself, rather than just its disturbing parallels to current events...
He's like an older version of the character in the terrifying and totally forgotten Bill Shatner film Pray for the Wildcats, in which Shatner eventually comes to the conclusion that he has to kill Griffith.
posted by maxsparber at 1:41 PM on March 2, 2016
posted by maxsparber at 1:41 PM on March 2, 2016
I may chime in again later but I'm jumping up and down to see this post here so I have to write something now.
Watch Rhodes in his conversations with the power brokers late in the movie. The cold shrewdness in his eyes is scary. I can't say I blame Griffith too much for wanting to back off roles that showcased that quality.. but it's a loss to film posterity.
Fred MacMurray apparently had a similar career arc after "The Apartment," where he played your basic cold corporate asshole. From then on it was Disney.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 9:06 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
Watch Rhodes in his conversations with the power brokers late in the movie. The cold shrewdness in his eyes is scary. I can't say I blame Griffith too much for wanting to back off roles that showcased that quality.. but it's a loss to film posterity.
Fred MacMurray apparently had a similar career arc after "The Apartment," where he played your basic cold corporate asshole. From then on it was Disney.
posted by Sheydem-tants at 9:06 AM on March 3, 2016 [2 favorites]
For people who only know Andy in his iconic roles as genial, middle-aged to elderly community pillars, this volcanic, bilious performance will probably shock their pants off.
I discovered it about 20 years ago in a library and loved it ever since. What makes it especially great is that Andy Griffith's fame was largely built on playing an "aw shucks" folksy-wisdom spouting country boy, so Lonesome Rhodes can read now like the evil dictator of Mayberry. You can really see the way that Griffith sank his teeth into that character too. He just loved playing a baddie. It's like the first time I saw Fred McMurray in "Double Indemnity", seeing Wise Old Dad Guy as a scumbag was a revelation.
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 11:38 PM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
I discovered it about 20 years ago in a library and loved it ever since. What makes it especially great is that Andy Griffith's fame was largely built on playing an "aw shucks" folksy-wisdom spouting country boy, so Lonesome Rhodes can read now like the evil dictator of Mayberry. You can really see the way that Griffith sank his teeth into that character too. He just loved playing a baddie. It's like the first time I saw Fred McMurray in "Double Indemnity", seeing Wise Old Dad Guy as a scumbag was a revelation.
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 11:38 PM on March 3, 2016 [1 favorite]
Such a fantastic movie. It's a tragedy about Kazan, that his reputation as a director has been tainted by his HUAC testimony.
Nthing the others about Griffith. I never was a fan of either of "Matlock" or "The Andy Griffith Show." His Dusty Rhodes character really connected with me, as a cynical kid of the '70s and '80s.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 8:11 PM on March 4, 2016
Nthing the others about Griffith. I never was a fan of either of "Matlock" or "The Andy Griffith Show." His Dusty Rhodes character really connected with me, as a cynical kid of the '70s and '80s.
posted by computech_apolloniajames at 8:11 PM on March 4, 2016
My stupid observation: Andy Griffith yells a lot in this movie, and very loudly. It's kind of perfect that the final scene has two characters on the street hearing the perfectly discernible, sustained shouting of Lonesome Rhodes in a penthouse high above them.
Most insane scene in the movie: Rhodes revisits his home town, where an array of baton-twirling teenage girls is presented for him to judge, and one of whom he selects as his bride. It's like he's crossed over into some sort of tribal caveman reality.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 7:18 AM on March 22, 2016
Most insane scene in the movie: Rhodes revisits his home town, where an array of baton-twirling teenage girls is presented for him to judge, and one of whom he selects as his bride. It's like he's crossed over into some sort of tribal caveman reality.
posted by paper chromatographologist at 7:18 AM on March 22, 2016
The poignancy of the optimistic view implicit in the movie that if people only knew what a charlatan Rhodes was that they'd no longer be under his spell is really getting to me. It seems we're several decades removed from when it was sufficient to expose our leaders as frauds so that we'd no longer follow them.
posted by MoonOrb at 11:07 AM on August 18, 2019
posted by MoonOrb at 11:07 AM on August 18, 2019
I love this film but the yelling omg. It’s such a thing for films of that time and this one really goes for it.
posted by iamkimiam at 1:39 AM on April 9, 2022
posted by iamkimiam at 1:39 AM on April 9, 2022
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posted by DirtyOldTown at 10:22 AM on March 2, 2016 [2 favorites]