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| A Face in the Crowd (1957) | |
| Background
Andy Griffith - in his remarkable screen debut - portrayed the vicious, smiling, ambitious, charismatic, but fraudulent and power-hungry hillbilly philosopher/singer Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes, who used the influential power of the mass media to seduce the gullible population with an anti-elitist and anti-intellectual message.
Budd Schulberg’s heavy-handed, Horatio-Alger (rags to riches) 'message' screenplay was based on his own 1953 short story "Your Arkansas Traveler" (found in a collection of stories titled Some Faces in the Crowd). It was the second collaboration between the screenwriter and director Elia Kazan who had previous worked together on On the Waterfront (1954). Other prescient films that have satirized the corrupting and corrosive power of mass media (usually television or newspapers) to influence celebrity include:
To simulate the political and media landscape, Kazan's film featured cameos by well-known, contemporary TV personalities:
Its taglines expressed how power became an opiate for the protagonist:
In addition to filming in New York City at Biograph Studios and in Memphis, TN, a few of the film's sequences (the fair and the baton-twirling competition) were shot on location in Piggott, Arkansas (in Clay County) - the Piggott Mohawk football field, the old Clay County Courthouse (jail scene), and an outdoor swimming pool at the Hemingway-Pfeiffer residence. The film premiered in the small town (simultaneously with its first showing in New York City, Chicago and Los Angeles), and the town's motto became "Piggott: Where You're Not Just a Face in the Crowd." In the opening sequence of the 126 minute cautionary tale, KGRK radio reporter/producer Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal), a recent graduate from Sarah Lawrence College returned to the South. In the fictional town of Pickett in northeast Arkansas, she was employed by the local radio station owned by her uncle. She brought her local radio show ("A Face in the Crowd") to the inside of the rural jail-cell, where she came upon a promising interview subject - a smiling, drunken cornpone-spouting, back country homeless man named Larry Rhodes (Andy Griffith). He had been incarcerated overnight for being "drunk and disorderly," and opportunistically agreed to be interviewed if promised early release the next morning. She nicknamed him "Lonesome" and became transfixed when she first heard him strumming his bluesy "Mama guitar." She was further transfixed when he ad-libbed and energetically sang the home-spun song "Free Man in the Mornin'." After appearing on her Pickett morning radio show a few times in town, Rhodes' popularity soared and he was invited by a TV program manager to be brought to Memphis, Tennessee to appear live on TV. There, he was introduced to bookish, well-educated, Vanderbilt-educated TV staff scriptwriter Mel Miller (Walter Matthau). 'Lonesome's' fresh, down-home approach to live TV soon brought him adoring audiences although he was soon mercilessly mocking his commercial sponsor. The Luffler Mattress Company threatened him with being fired, although his irreverent ads had the opposite effect of boosting sales. To her later regret, Marcia also entered into an ill-fated affair with 'Lonesome.' The con-artist/star was further promoted by enterprising, opportunistic, ambitious and slimy mattress company 'office boy' Joey DePalma (Anthony Franciosa in his film debut). He acquired work with a 'Madison-Avenue type' ad agency for a sponsored NYC TV variety show ("The Vitajex Hour") to make more effective commercial pitches for a useless product known as Vitajex. Rhodes successfully promoted the worthless dietary supplement as a Viagra-like means to increase energy and sexual virility, under the direction and control of wealthy Vitajex-owner/backer General Haynesworth (Percy Waram), and soon acquired his own coast-to-coast show. In a side story, although Rhodes was secretly married previously but estranged and in the midst of divorce proceedings, he proposed to Marcia, but then immediately scorned her. During a judging competition in Pickett, he became infatuated with teenaged, 17 year-old baton twirler Betty Lou Fleckum (22 year-old Lee Remick in her screen debut) and impulsively eloped with her. Rhodes' power as an influencer was encouraged by Haynesworth - to tutor and support stuffy, right-wing, and dull politician Senator Worthington Fuller (Marshall Neilan) during his bid for the Presidency. On a number of occasions, Rhodes expressed how disrespectful, fraudulent and hypocritical he was. In a revealing scene with Marcia, Rhodes illustrated his disturbing, contemptuous, arrogant and power-hungry beliefs that his audience would sheepishly follow him anywhere, and be directed to wherever he wished:
Scandal erupted when he was concluding his national TV show ("Cracker Barrel"), thinking that his microphone had been cut off (although Marcia had turned it back on), and he showed his utter distaste for his mass audience by personally and nastily insulting them in unguarded comments, calling them stupid, gullible, idiotic morons or guinea pigs. Marcia slowly began to see that Lonesome was berating his staff, while hypocritically bashing his loyal followers and seeking political office for himself. She felt compelled to expose his megalomaniacal corruption, since she had discovered him and created his popular persona. And as Dr. Frankenstein had done, she dutifully felt she must destroy or weaken her dangerous white-trash monster. This was her motivation for her betrayal of Rhodes (switching on his microphone), resulting in an embarrassing gaffe and the disillusionment of his base of working-class followers, who quickly were angered by his disrespect and disowned him. In the stunning conclusion of Rhodes' inevitable melt-down and spectacular downfall, the drunken and delusional rabble-rouser was within his penthouse suite (the top two floors of a swanky New York hotel) for a fancy dinner party of political elites to advance his own political agenda, where he found an empty room attended only by black butlers and servants. When he threatened suicide, Marcia encouraged him, and then confronted him face-to-face and admitted that she had betrayed him and would no longer support him. Although Rhodes was finished for the time being and had alienated all of his audiences and advertisers, Miller predicted that it might only be a temporary setback. Waiting in the wings to take Rhodes' place was DePalma's newest younger 'country' star - Barry Mills (Rip Torn). The film's budget was extensive at $1.6 million, but unfortunately, the film was originally a box-office failure, although it has become much more praised and critically important in retrospect in more recent years. The half-hour long documentary Facing the Past (2005), filmed with many of the movie's stars, told about the making of the film. The timing of the film's original release was only a few years after the fall of demagogue Joseph McCarthy, who was responsible for the Communist 'Red Scare' sweeping the country (accentuated by the new medium of TV that broadcast the 1954 Army-McCarthy hearings) during the early 1950s Cold War era, and it prophetically warned against such a reoccurrence. Gayne Rescher's great and stirring B/W cinematography, and the superb performances of the trio of Griffth, Neal, and Matthau were unimpressive to AMPAS, and it received no Academy Award nominations. The Story Opening Titles Sequence: The textual opening credits were underscored by a whistled version of the blues classic "Sittin’ on Top of the World." Larry Rhodes in the Pickett County Jail: In the small-town square of Pickett in rural northeast Arkansas (a fictional place), checkers players, whittlers, and other old-timers sat in the park. Sheriff Big Jeff Bess (as Himself) was summoned from a board game by bubbly KGRK radio reporter/producer Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal), who was driven up in a 1951 Chevrolet Styleline De Luxe Wagon, in preparation for an on-site interview. Her uncle J.B. Jeffries (Howard Smith) owned the radio station in town. The Sheriff promised a good crop of jailed low-level inmates ("a good haul") as prospects, due to the recent 4th of July weekend. The two drove over to the jail house where inside, she was introduced to the incarcerated prisoners available for her radio show. She advertised the show's typical contents: interviews, anecdotes, impromptu songs, or story-telling. She was planning to conduct her informal morning program live on location to find her next "face in the crowd."
Marcia Jeffries talked about her small-town radio program - "A Face in the Crowd" - to her listeners. She was searching for human interest stories as a way to highlight local undiscovered talent and boost her own ratings:
The Sheriff urged the sole black prisoner (behind bars in a segregated cell) to perform for Marcia, but he refused: "Just because I got black skin, I'm no minstrel man." The Sheriff concluded, with an apology, that the uncooperative inmates were "just an ornery bunch." But then, one of the inmates was suggested - a mean, boisterous and disreputable vagrant with a guitar who was sleeping on the floor. He had been taken in the previous night for being "drunk and disorderly" (and was about to serve a one-week sentence). The back country Arkansas hobo Larry Rhodes (Andy Griffith in his film debut) objected to being bothered: "Get away! Get away!...I don't care if the President of the United States is here. A man can't get a little decent sleep in jail..." She stuck a microphone at him and asked him to "sing a song and spin a yarn...Join me in a little back-fence talkin'." In exchange for being released the next morning by the jailer and Sheriff, Rhodes (egotistically calling himself "Me, Myself, and I") was persuaded to participate. As he prepared for a vocal performance, Marcia Jeffries introduced herself to her listeners:
When he wouldn't give his real name, she nicknamed Rhodes "Lonesome" to his amusement. As he opened his guitar case to take a swig from a bottle of whiskey hidden inside, he bantered: "Give me a chance to lubricate my Adam's apple. Ah! Nothin' like a little snake medicine to put ya in the mood."
The smiling, cornpone-spouting drifter spoke about his love for his 'Mama Guitar' as he warmed up:
He rambled on about his hillbilly, outcast origins in a small town in Arkansas:
He finally decided to compose and sing "Free Man in the Mornin'" - his immediate fate that he wished for: "I'm gonna sing what I'm gonna be! A free man in the morning."
It would mark the beginning of the discovery of his musical talent, plucking him from down-and-out drunkenness and obscurity to fame. When he finished singing, Marcia switched off the recorder. When the tape was later played for her uncle J.B. Jeffries at the radio station, 'Lonesome' was heard asking on the tape: "You mean you had that thing goin' all the time?" Her uncle agreed with her to hire him for the morning show: "I sure would like to use him on our early-bird show from 7:00 to 8:00." However, when she phoned the Sheriff to locate 'Lonesome,' he had already left town. He cautioned her about falling for 'Lonesome': "You know, that boy may be bashful, Marcia, but he's pretty sweet on you." Marcia and her uncle drove out of town on the dusty east road to try and find Rhodes, and they found him hitchhiking with his guitar strapped onto his back. He claimed he was heading to Port St. Joe, Florida, hoping to arrive in four to five days to seek employment, where there was "plenty of water and plenty of fishing bridges and snapper boats and tarpon rolling." Marcia's uncle proposed hiring Rhodes for the morning 7-8 am slot on the radio station, but he outright rejected the offer ("It's too much like work, man"), until Marcia convinced him to give it a trial run to make a little money: "How about if you had a plane ticket to Florida? You can put it in your pocket. If you ever wanna go, you just go." They drove Rhodes back to Pickett where they bought him a hotel room to clean up. The Popularity of Rhodes' Early-Bird Radio Show: While Rhodes was washing up in his bathroom in the hotel very early the next morning, Marcia inspected his suitcase, where she found a pile of dirty, rumpled clothes (and a dirty bra) and a bottle of whiskey. Reclined onto the bed, the rakish and coarse Rhodes attempted to get fresh with her ("How'd you like to come over here and sort of, uh, get acquainted early in the morning?"), but she resisted his seductive come-ons. During his hour-long morning radio show, Rhodes was in the recording studio performing when Marcia reminded him (through the window of the adjoining room) that he had only three minutes remaining. He began rambling about his anti-work philosophy ("That's what I got against workin'. It's all tangled up with that word 'hurry'"). And then he supplemented his earlier rant about his upbringing in his hometown of Riddle, Arkansas with another folksy homespun story about hard-working women - to the delight of Marcia and others in the radio station as well - his newly-charmed audience of listeners:
The radio station was soon flooded by letters of support from adoring Southern female listeners, evidenced by one letter read out-loud by Marcia to her relatives: "Dear Lonesome, though I never set eyes on you...I know you must be a saintly-looking man. Only a saint could understand the burdens of a housewife like you do." Meanwhile, Rhodes snored in an adjoining room with his feet on the table. Marcia proudly extolled Rhodes' popularity to her uncle:
Radio station owner J.B. Jeffries began to receive phone calls from advertisers, vehemently demanding to sponsor ad spots for Rhodes' show, and was amazed by the windfall: "Advertisers actually calling in to buy time. Looks like this station's liable to make a little money yet." He urged Marcia to keep the money flowing by enticing Rhodes to stay: "Marcia, you found him. Now it's your job to keep him here." Rhodes With Marcia in the Local Bar: One night while Marcia and 'Lonesome' sat in a booth in a rowdy country bar, he admitted that his folksy stories about his family in Riddle, Arkansas were very much tall-tales (but still a composite of incidents in his life). He was neglected as a child, due to the fact that his father was a deserter ("a spieler with a two-bit con...Ran off and left us when I was knee-high to a beer barrel"), and his mother was promiscuous with many different men that he called "uncles" ("I wish I had a nickel for every time I fell asleep waitin' for my old lady to come home...Yes, ma'am, my old lady sure was generous about takin' in relatives"). He burst out into boisterous laughter when Marcia called him "happy-go-lucky" despite his deprived and difficult boyhood. He raucously laughed, then asserted he was true to himself, nonetheless:
Nearby, Sheriff Big Jeff was jealously disturbed by Marcia's growing closeness to 'Lonesome.' He approached their booth, chastised Marcia, and called Rhodes a tramp: "You mean you turned down an invite from me to go out with this tramp?", and the two engaged in a fist-fight before the scene faded to black. 'Lonesome's' Growing Radio Popularity: The next day, 'Lonesome' (with a black eye from the fight the previous evening) took a bite from a slice of apple pie (eaten from his bare hand without a plate or fork), sent in by one of his supportive listeners. He thanked them: "You're gonna spoil me!" At the end of his on-air show, the spiteful 'Lonesome' took out his vengeful anger against Big Jeff, who had announced his candidacy for mayor of Pickett. In an insulting monologue, he encouraged the town's citizens to send their stray "mutt" dogs over to the Sheriff's yard - implying that he couldn't even be the town's dogcatcher:
Within a short time, Big Jeff's house yard was crowded with barking dogs from townsfolk, and 'Lonesome' pulled up with Marcia, as both delightfully guffawed at the sight and mocked the Sheriff: "Hey, look at that fool!" Marcia realized that Rhodes possessed tremendous power to cause people to act, to command his audiences to do his bidding, and to sway people's opinions:
Rhodes' Growing Popularity and Power of Persuasion: United Press reporter John Cameron Swayze (as himself) broadcast the phenomenon of 'Lonesome's' populist appeal - an example of "grassroot democracy in action":
Rhodes' popularity extended to other females in town, including pretty waitress Laureen from the local bar whom he seduced early one morning. Marcia discovered the blonde hurriedly leaving Lonesome's hotel room (pretending she had brought him breakfast) as Marcia escorted Mr. Abe Steiner (Henry Sharp) from Memphis, Tennessee in the room to meet with him. Steiner introduced himself as a theatrical agent who offered to hire Rhodes and make him a "star" in Memphis:
'Lonesome's' first reaction was to shrewdly downplay his talent as a good-ol' country boy:
After they shook hands, Steiner departed, claiming he wasn't a 'high-pressure fella,' and asked for permission to call again. Marcia was impressed that 'Lonesome' had wisely played hard-to-get - until he reminded her that it was a similar tactic to her continuing 'cold-fish' reserved attitude toward him (even though he thought she was inwardly craving sex), while he was hungrily romancing other willing females:
During his early morning show just eight minutes later, Lonesome again demonstrated his persuasiveness by inviting the town's kids to swim in J.B. Jeffries' outdoor swimming pool:
Nearby, while the pool was besieged by youngsters, Rhodes broadcast the event live from outdoors: "You hear 'em splashin' and a-yellin'? That's your curly-headed little darlins enjoyin' J.B. Jeffries' kind hospitality." He was interrupted by an urgent phone call from the program manager of a Memphis TV station - Rhodes manipulatively took the call while still on-the-air: ("I can talk to him right here on the air"), to exert more pressure for a better deal. He refused the first offer, shrewdly negotiated for double the initial proposal ($1,000 a week), and added in expenses for himself and Marcia as his 'gal Friday':
Departing Pickett, Arkansas for Memphis, Tennessee: As Marcia (who was leaving her hometown for the first time) anxiously departed with Lonesome from the local train station (where a large crowd of adoring admirers had gathered, with signs: "GOOD LUCK IN MEMPHIS," "PICKETT IS PROUD OF YOU," and "SO LONG LONESOME"), she was cautiously bid farewell by her uncle: "Take good care of yourself." Rhodes called out and waved to everyone: "I'll be thinking of you good people," but then moments later, he turned away as the train was beginning to pull away and cruelly and hypocritically derided the "good people" by muttering under his breath to Marcia:
The train picked up speed, as the camera tracked along with the departing train - capturing the incredible adulation that he was receiving from hundreds of onlookers, as he waved at them from the open train stairway. However, after passing the end of the platform where no more people were cheering him, Rhodes was caught in a slightly cynical pose - staring into the dark silence. Rhodes' First TV Appearance in Memphis: In Memphis, Tennessee, Rhodes was introduced to bookish, pipe-smoking, Vanderbilt (Class of '44)-educated TV show staff writer Mel Miller (Walter Matthau), as he was in a make-up chair complaining: "If I'd known you was gonna put lipstick on me, I'd have never come." Miller explained how his job was only to "block out the continuity" for his scripts, since Rhodes claimed he "never learned much reading" and preferred to ad-lib rather than memorize a script. Rhodes wiped off his distasteful makeup before appearing on-camera for a show known as "VOICE OF THE MID-SOUTH." A show producer encouraged him to "just be perfectly natural, easy and relaxed, and real country" with a piece of straw dangling from his mouth. When the red light came on during 'Lonesome's' first TV appearance, he was introduced as a "newcomer." He was positioned before a farmyard backdrop - wearing a country-shirt and with his guitar strapped over his shoulder:
Feeling awkward and acting naive, he spoke directly toward the camera about being new to the studio. He turned the monitor around so that his audience could see what he was looking at - as one of the producers waved at him to stop going off script. He began a long, freshly-delivered rant to complain about the noisy, big city of Memphis on his first night in town:
He walked off the stage, as Marcia - mesmerized and fascinated by his unpretentious and unpredictable stage presence, partially confirmed for Mel what Rhodes had just said. Mel responded by praising Rhodes' incredibly-appealing persona and skillful dialogue:
Rhodes appeared back on stage, dragging out a "colored woman" named Mrs. Cooley (Eva Vaughan). Mel was astonished: "In Memphis, that takes nerve," to which Marcia added: "I told you, he's his own man." Rhodes encouraged the African-American TV station employee to describe her recent tragedy - her house had been lost in a fire. He made a plea with his large audience of 20,000 viewers to help support the woman and her seven children with small contributions:
Initially, the response from TV viewers was overwhelming. |
A
Face in the Crowd
(1957) is director Elia Kazan's satirical and powerful socio-political
drama that illustrated how a jailed, down-home country boy in the
late 1950s could be transformed overnight into a
media celebrity on the radio, and later become a mean-spirited, opportunistic
political demagogue and megalomaniac as a pop TV show icon. [Note: