A Face in the Crowd

A Face in the Crowd (1957) is an epic motion picture starring Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, and Walter Matthau, directed by Elia Kazan. The screenplay was written by Budd Schulberg, based on his own short story "The Arkansas Traveler". The story centers around a "country" comedian, a common thug named Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes (Griffith, in a role starkly different from his amiable "Sheriff Andy Taylor" persona), who is discovered by the hostess (Neal) of a small-market radio program in Piggott, Arkansas.

Related Topics:
1957 - Andy Griffith - Patricia Neal - Walter Matthau - Elia Kazan - Budd Schulberg - Comedian - "Sheriff Andy Taylor" - Piggott, Arkansas

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The setting for the film is late 1950s America, a time during which television was rapidly replacing radio as the most popular entertainment medium. Although Rhodes is coarse and abusive, he possesses a colloquial, on-air charm that quickly endears him to the hearts and minds of rural listeners. A talent scout invites him to appear on televison in Memphis, Tennessee where Rhodes is introduced to Mel Miller (Matthau), a bookish Vanderbilt graduate who writes his scripts. However, Rhodes makes a name for himself by insulting his sponsor — to the delight of his adoring audience.

Related Topics:
1950s - America - Television - Radio - Memphis, Tennessee - Vanderbilt

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An opportunistic "office boy" (portrayed by Anthony Franciosa) lands Rhodes a contract in New York City, where he becomes the national TV spokesman for Vitajex, an innocuous dietary supplement. A frenetic montage of Rhode's hyperbolic ads for Vitajex is one of the film's most memorable sequences, revealing the gullibility of the American public to a persuasive con-artist. In this repect, the character of Lonesome Rhodes is a chilling precursor to the age of manipulative infomercials and televangelists. As Rhodes' popularity increases, bolstered by his own television variety show ("Lonesome Rhodes' Cracker Barrel"), he becomes a minion in the hands of right-wing, isolationist political forces. In the tradition of classical tragedy, Rhodes is inevitably undone by his own thirst for power.

Related Topics:
Anthony Franciosa - New York City - Dietary supplement - Montage - Infomercials - Televangelists

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The film marked the debut of actress Lee Remick, who plays a teenage baton twirling champion from Arkansas, one of Rhodes' love interests. To underscore the sway of television media in America, Kazan cleverly incorporated several cameos by popular "talking heads," including: Sam Levenson, John Cameron Swayze, Mike Wallace, Earl Wilson, and Walter Winchell.

Related Topics:
Lee Remick - Arkansas - Sam Levenson - John Cameron Swayze - Mike Wallace - Walter Winchell

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Some have suggested that the Rhodes character may have been inspired in part by John Henry Faulk, a country comedian who was long blacklisted as a result of the "Red Scare".

Related Topics:
John Henry Faulk - Blacklist - Red Scare

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