IMDb plot summary: A female radio reporter turns a folk-singing drifter into a powerful media star.
Directed by Elia Kazan. Starring Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, and Anthony Franciosa.
A Face in the Crowd stars Patricia Neal as a young radio journalist and Andy Griffith as the homeless drunk man she finds in jail and turns into a radio star. Together the two of them navigate the path of fame as he gains more and more of a platform. This is a pretty incredible movie, all the more so for being so prescient about "influencer" and "media personality" culture all the way back in the 1950s. Neal and Griffith also turn in some incredible performances here. Griffith's louder-than-life personality as Lonesome Rhodes always teeters on the edge right between charming and threatening, and Neal's confident but compassionate producer is an excellent counterpart. The ending doesn't land exactly where I thought it would and ended up really impressing me -- I'm going to remember that for awhile. An extremely accessible older film with a lot to say about fame and celebrity.
How it entered my Flickchart:
A Face in the Crowd > Julie & Julia
A Face in the Crowd > The Heart is a Lonely Hunter
A Face in the Crowd < Tucker and Dale vs. Evil
A Face in the Crowd > Nope
A Face in the Crowd > The Cat Returns
A Face in the Crowd > The Last Unicorn
A Face in the Crowd > Breaking Away
A Face in the Crowd > Grease
A Face in the Crowd < The Map of Tiny Perfect Things
A Face in the Crowd > Anatomy of a Murder
A Face in the Crowd > Kramer vs. Kramer
Final spot: #495 out of 3889, or 87%.
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