A Face in the Crowd (film)
- Andy Griffith: Larry Lonesome Rhodes
- Patricia Neal: Marcia Jeffries
- Anthony Franciosa: Joey DePalma
- Walter Matthau: Mel Miller
- Lee Remick: Betty Lou Fleckum
- Percy Waram: General Haynesworth
- Howard Smith: J. B. Jeffries
A Face in the Crowd is an American film directed by Elia Kazan in 1957. It is based on the history Your Arkansas Traveller by Budd Schulberg, who also wrote the screenplay.
Action
The film is set in the late 1950s in the United States. The television overtaken slowly the radio as the most popular medium of Americans. Marcia Jeffries, a radio reporter from a small town in Arkansas, discovered in a prison Larry Lonesome Rhodes. Larry Rhodes gained through his rough charm quickly on his radio show popularity. A talent scout invites him to Memphis to perform there on television. There, Mel Miller writes lyrics and screenplays for Rhodes, now provide for a nationwide popularity. At the same applies Rhodes in its programs intensively its sponsor, its products are selling very fast suddenly better. Joey DePalma recognizes the chances of success when they advertise on TV with a figure such as Rhodes and hired him for a dietary supplement. The simple Rhodes thirsts it now for even greater power, and he is of the opinion that the policy uses an advertisement that is as easy knit. Content plays no role for him. He is convinced that only his character enough to convince voters. And so it is for advertising figure of right-wing, conservative politician.
Background
A Face in the Crowd is an early satire on the risk of mass manipulation through television. The writer Budd Schulberg had the film been made with Kazan On the Waterfront on corruption in unions and received an Oscar. This second film of the duo Kazan / Schulberg is no less political and critical of American society. The figure of Larry Rhodes is closely applied to the popular presenter Arthur Godfrey. The production design for the film created Richard Sylbert.
Reviews
- Filmdienst: The omnipotence of management and the personality manipulation in show business and the mass media are sharp, often glossed satirical. Formal and dramatically brilliant, sometimes a little too gimmicky and melodramatic.
- Protestant observers movie ( criticism No 762/ 1957): exposure and criticism of American " publicity " methods. Worth from 18.
Awards
In 2008 the film was added to the National Film Registry.