Larry Rhodes (Andy Griffith) is a shiftless drifter. A lay-about. A no-account. He is also one heck of a performer. Man alive can he strum that guitar! He can belt out the Country Blues with conviction too, but it’s the way he spins a story out of thin air, keeping folks hanging on his every word, that’s special.
But Larry drinks–a lot. Plus he’s a hot head, a letch, impulsive and–Damn!–he’s got a big mouth. It’s no wonder that when he’s discovered by an ambitious radio programmer he’s in jail.
Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) roams the backwoods and small town streets of rural Arkansas looking for talent for her radio program “A Face in the Crowd”. Smart, industrious and eager to prove herself as something more than just the boss’ niece (her uncle owns the small town radio station where she works) Marcia talks a local yokel sheriff into letting her record some of the prisoners in the drunk tank. She’s got her eye out for the next Will Rodgers or Lead Belly.
Initially, Rhodes–nursing a hangover–is cantankerous and uncooperative, but he eventually warms to the opportunity to show off. What’s more, this is his big chance to embarrass the sheriff in front of the pretty lady and that’s just what he does. He makes up a bawdy little number on the fly with witty lyrics that rubs the sheriff’s nose in his lack of sophistication. He works the room–stalks it, is a more apt description–with a beguiling confidence.
The gall of the man to strut like a king when he’s in vagrant’s clothes. So arrogant and yet so accessible, he wins over the occupants of the drunk tank and Marcia Jeffries too. She knows the it factor when she see’s it and Rhodes has got it. But he also has penchant for cruelty, which she quickly recognizes, though his gargantuan charm bats down the red flags–at first.
Ms. Jeffries uses her own considerable attributes, convincing the sheriff who is sweet on her, to let Rhodes out early and–yes, you guessed it–they embark in a business relationship that, initially, takes them to nearby Memphis and then all the way to the big time of national television vis-a-vis New York City, and in an ill advised affair that very nearly destroys them both.
Director Elia Kazan’s naturalistic signatures, e.g., sweat streaked shirts, unshaven faces, the curve of a woman’s breast straining against flimsy fabric, torn wall paper and grimy fixtures pulse like a carnival midway in A Face in the Crowd. So much so that during the arc of the film when opulence bests squalor it’s obvious that Kazan preferred the gritter canvas where his visual artistry gleamed.
Even so, visual artistry is/was not the essence of Kazan’s genius. Instead his brilliance was in his ability to bare and dissect the human condition in order to persuade the audience–with compassion and dignity for the subjects–to think.
And the instrument of this persuasion? The actors from whom he was able to coax magnificent performances.
As Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, Andy Griffith is no exception to this most prominent feature of Kazan’s methodology, though at first glance it is easy to dismiss his performance as a gluttonous case of scenery chewing. But to do so would be to ignore the most obvious trait of the portrait. Lonesome Rhodes is a grotesque and Griffith conveys this essential quality with unabashed brio.
Rhodes is obnoxious in every sense of the word. He’s a big guy, so he makes himself even larger by taking up as much space as he possibly can. He sprawls, rather than sits. He towers rather than stands.
Then there’s his laugh. It too is big.
No, I take that back. It’s enormous. When he laughs his face distorts into a cavernous mouth with wild, leering eyes.
Even so, Lonesome Rhodes is funny. He really is. And his wit is as sharp as a scalpel; his talent and charisma are undeniable. Possessing both eloquence and folksy charm, he sets his ire on the rich and powerful, which ingratiates him to everyone else.
As his influence grows so does his bank account, his malignant ego, his cruelty and dishonesty. And, most ominously, his misanthropic disdain intensifies for the very people who have lifted him to his throne, those that he has supposedly championed–“the common man.”
Patricia Neal, always wonderfully reliable, does not stray from her usual earthy, practical elegance. As Marcia Jeffries, there is no snobbery in her educated, cultured Southern draw. Hardly a pushover, she is initially mesmerized by Rhodes’ sheer force of personality even as she is a little leery of his sincerity, or lack thereof.
So when Lonesome Rhodes plunges into a decent of decadence and self delusion, threatening to take down much of the country that is under his sway, Marcia has long abandoned any romantic notions of the man. She stays on, firstly, because she feels responsible for unleashing this monster on an adoring and completely buffaloed populace. Secondly, because he has offered to buy her out at a paltry ten percent and she wants and deserves an equal partnership and lastly, because, in spite of his tyrannical abuse, she pities Rhodes, the lonely, hateful pariah, who loathes everyone, but not as much as he loathes himself.
A Face in the Crowd launched the career of then fledgling comedian/ musician Andy Griffith, introducing him to his most diverse and largest audience yet. But the film tanked at the box office and received lack luster reviews.
Modern audiences, however, especially cinephiles, have been captivated by this very timely film that, with the explosion of social media, has become even more relevant today than when it was released some sixty years ago. In 2008 it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”.
In his 1986 Guide for the Film Fanatic author Danny Peary prophetically wrote,
“Lonesome Rhodes is guilty of taking advantage of the medium – through which you can fool all the people all of the time – but (screenwriter) Budd Schulberg is attacking us, the ignorant public who sits like sheep and believes whatever it sees on the tube. The scary thing is that if today Rhodes were caught expressing his real thoughts while thinking the mike was off, his popularity would probably go up.”
Pam, your words draw me right into these movies. You are such a gifted writer! I don’t think I need to see another film. I’ll just read your posts! Blessings to you!
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You are too kind. That means a lot to me as your are a gifted writer yourself…And you know what they say, “It takes one to know one.” Ha!
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That’s right! Smiling over here!
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Great movie. Lonesome Rhodes was so manipulative that he bordered on evil to me…The movie made me do a double take at some performers. What a performance by Griffith. One of those movies that I will watch every few years.
Your take is great as always.
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I appreciate that. It’s an amazing performance by Griffith no doubt, that I have appreciated more and more over the years. I loved Walter Matthau and the cameos of Mike Wallace and others.
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I saw this film in my teens. I remember being irritated by Griffiths, and admiring Neal. At the time, I didn’t get the allegory, but your great review has brought it all back to me, and I now see it with the benefit of hindsight.
Best wishes, Pete.
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It’s worth a second look, Pete. I have appreciated his performance more and more as I’ve re-watched it (and after we analyzed it in Film Studies in college. Ha!)
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I will certainly keep an eye out for it.
Thanks, Pam.
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I think this is the movie that made my mom stop watching Andy Griffith. She said he was in a movie where he was so evil that she couldn’t trust him anymore, even in Mayberry
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That’s funny. I have a friend, an older gentleman who can tell you about every native tree, plant and animal of Tennessee, about the history of our state in amazing and accurate detail, but he judges the performances of actors in movies by whether or not his likes the character they portray.
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She said she loved the Andy Griffith show, but she couldn’t get it out of her mind how she saw his face in that one.
Was there a movie where Andy was a murderer? I might have the wrong one. Mom’s been gone a long time ^_^
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I bet this is the movie. Yes, I’ve heard that later he did a television movie where he was a murderer and that it was very good. A lot of people didn’t like it because they felt betrayed by “Andy Taylor”.
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I suppose that would be a hard decision to make as an actor. Some say it is a mistake when they get typecast as the good guy.
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I have no idea why this one went under the radar for me. I love Kazan and Andy Griffith. I liked this line of yours “Kazan preferred the gritter canvas where his visual artistry gleamed.” I think that’s telling.
What a great director!
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It’s a very good movie, Cindy. Just remember when–and if- you watch it that the Lonesome Rhodes character is a grotesque. If you over look that, it’s hard to put Griffith’s performance in context. It’s not Kazan’s best film, but I think it’s one of them and, perhaps, it’s his most thought provoking.
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Tbh I don’t think I’ve seen any of Andy Griffith work other than a few episodes of the sitcom an a chunk of Matlock’s. I’d never heard of A Face In the Crowd. LOL every image I look at has Griffith screaming hehe… Liking the sound of the film and love your write up, there’s a line in there which alerted my attention and it wasn’t unshaven faces lol.
I spy Walter Matthau and Lee Remick in the cast too. Superb poster and that tag-line. “POWER! He loved it! He took it raw in big gulpfuls… he liked the taste, the way it mixed with the bourbon and the sin in his blood!”
Thanks for the heads up Pam, it has gone on my kilimanjaro, the mountain sized “to watch” list of mine.
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Thanks Mikey. I know what you mean about your Kilimanjaro heap of films to watch. I’ve got one too. I’m heading over to your site now.
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Great review 🙂 Since Lonesome Rhodes is a nasty character at heart, one wonders If this served as Kazan’s attack on celebrity worship, which would only become more and more open as each decade went by. Also, just out of curiosity, did you write this blog post in conjunction with the 2018 midterm elections? 🙂 Anyway, keep up the great work as always 🙂
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I’m smiling, John, at that question. Feel free to interpret that as you like.
Yes, I think Kazan was making a statement about celebrity in this movie. But, perhaps, more than that, he was making a statement about the dangers of the cult of personality. You could say that is what celebrity is–that they are synonymous. I agree that they are very similar but that there is a thin line of nuance that divides them. Certainly with some celebrities that line is blurred.
Thanks, as always, for commenting.
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This film has become more relevant with age. It reflex’s how important the media has become, or rather how good you the candidate comes off on TV. Great take on a film that has long been undervalued. I attached a link to a review I did some years ago it you are interested.
https://twentyfourframes.wordpress.com/2012/07/06/a-face-in-the-crowd-1957-elia-kazan-2/
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Thanks John. I will definitely read your post. I miss your posts on twenty four frames.
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I have seen this movie a number of times- if I see its on I just have to watch. My wife noticed this- in The Andy Griffith Show- in nearly every show Andy is yelling at someone or losing his temper. I never noticed it until she pointed it out…. also in Season 1 of Andy I think I see a little Lonesome Rhodes in him. Come season 2 he changed and let Don Knotts become more of a focal point.
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Absolutely. I prefer the more restrained Andy with Don Knotts as the foil–like you say.
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Great analysis of a cautionary tale that has, unfortunately, become a reality. Powerful film anticipates Network, The King of Comedy, Broadcast News, etc. …
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Thank you. It is an unfortunate reality that we are immersed in. A Face In the Crowd was/is very prophetic as are the other films you mentioned. Fascinating and scary.
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This was a good one. I had newfound respect for Andy Griffith after watching ‘A Face in the Crowd’.
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Yes. It’s a great film. Very apropos.
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The film of the former vagabond who is attacked by megalomania fits perfectly into the American way of life. I read Budd Schulberg’s book some years ago in german (translated by Harry Rowohlt) and found it more subtle than the film. In the book is the moral of the story discussed, but the film transcend it.
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Yeah. Kazan/Griffith portrayed Rhoads as a grotesque which is appropriate, and, more than that, it’s realistic, i.e., Mussolini, Huey P. Long, Stalin, Castro, Hitler, to name a few.
That said, I take exception to the…”American way of life. Despotic regimes are hardly an American tradition. They are the exception to American ideals. Yes, our ideals are more exceptional than our reality, after all, ideals are something that we aspire to, but our reality is better than you think. With the help of God, we will emerge even better, after this fire.
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Okay, another movie I have to watch…
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