moonspinner55 Review of A Face in the Crowd

A Face in the Crowd (1957)

Rabble-rouser leans too heavily on melodrama for its content

[6/10 · 2 March 2007]

Radio producer discovers a rabble-rousing hick from Arkansas who excites the local crowds with his cynical blend of idealism and the truth; if she can parlay that into a commercially viable package, they might all end up rich. Almost for a full hour, this Elia Kazan-directed melodrama is a blistering account of celebrity on the Everyman. Unfortunately, in its second-half rendering of the proverbial too much-too soon cliché, the screenplay by Budd Schulberg (based on his own short story) reveals itself to be a house of cards--and when it crashes, there's no collective feelings of mourning. These are just despicable people exploiting current events (and the public) by using broadcasting as a personal sounding-board. Kazan shows an eagerness early on in his introduction scenes with Patricia Neal and Andy Griffith which is exciting (and Griffith is rather astounding here, displaying a rare dark side that suits him). Soon, however, Kazan gets completely swallowed up in the diatribes, while Schulberg dishearteningly turn his characters into bad examples. **1/2 from ****