Memorable, crazy movie

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Receiving an issue of film magazine Retro Cinema from a family friend,I took a look at movie reviewer Raymond Benson's best of 1958 films list,and was taken by a title that he said continued to be politically relevant today. A few days later I saw former IMDber MikeF list it as one of his best viewings of the month,which along with Benson's list led to me looking to the crowd.View on the film:Meeting future President LBJ a number of times for research into his speaking style and mannerisms, Budd Schulberg reunites with director Elia Kazan for a jet-black satire of populism in the TV age. Pulling Larry 'Lonesome' Rhodes out of the blue-collar grass-roots of On The Waterfront, Schulberg warns of the instant fame TV can give by dicing Lonesome from a good olde Southern boy just happy to hear his tune on the radio, to his bigly gain in popularity from starring in trash TV shows powering Lonesome towards politics and becoming a demagogue who is top of the world ma!Whilst the way he is caught out rings as a false,rushed move in the tale, Schulberg follows the puppet-strings of Lonesome that go up to the dry wit of politicians trying to get Lonesome's populism to rub off on them, and Lonesome's romance with Marcia Jeffries's crumbles as he becomes surrounded by power. Continuing his trademark theme of "social issues" films, director Elia Kazan brings a giddy excitement to Lonesome's early days with flashing TV studio lights and signs, that starkly dim to a black screen transmitting the empty space now at the core of Lonesome. Joined by the fellow debut of Lee Remick as the high-kicking Betty Lou Fleckum, Andy Griffith gives a magnetic debut performance as Lonesome, whose laid-back style Griffith uses to charm the crowds and the viewers, that Griffith sours into a cold sweat,as Lonesome looks out and sees no faces in the crowd.

. . . is the underlying theme of not only A FACE IN THE CROWD, but also in most of the other cinematic offerings from FACE's director. FACE came out a few years after this duplicitous Fascist snitch won a rigged "Best Picture" Oscar election for ON THE WATERFRONT--a film which failed to crush the Solidarity of America's Progressive Union Label Patriotic Working Class. Trying to mine that same vein of elitist hatred by expanding it to the rest of We 99 Per Centers, this demonic director once again depicts Average Joes as sheep-like automaton dupes, easily bamboozled by any cackling scam artist with access to the airwaves (that is, Rich People and their flunky tools). A FACE IN THE CROWD portrays women as particularly vulnerable to the "Loathsome Rhodes" character. But many viewers will get sidetracked by the tubs containing 37,082 silver half dollars which Loathsome fund-raises for the homeless lady through his early crowd-sourcing campaign. The average viewer will wonder whether her nest egg would be worth more in 2018 if she A)Put it in a simple inflation-indexed account, B)Invested it at a 5% return rate compounded annually, or C)Stuffed it inside her mattress (or sacked it up in her commandeered grocery cart)? Simple math yields these results: A)$164,289.76, B)$202,846.19, or C)at least $284,418.94 (but the sky's the limit on possible numismatic values here).

This sat in my DVR Cache for a bit, before I cued it up - it's an absolute 10/10. Andy Griffith, before he moved into Aunt Bea's house in Mayberry, is electrifying on screen. Other great performances by Walter Matthau, Patricia Neal, Lee Remick and even Tony Franciosa (before he became an ubiquitous TV co-star on things like Hotel and The Love Boat). The director Elia Kazan had previously directed one of the greatest films ever filmed, "On the Waterfront" and other classics (Streetcar/Desire, Tree/Brooklyn . . . ). Put this one alongside those films. Well-filmed, well-acted, well-written. Imaginative. Still relevant. Running out of superlatives. WOW!!!!!!

I'm no longer a young man, yet this is the very first time I've seen or even heard about this movie that was made a few years before I was even born. My interest was kindled by the story of the Director himself, Elia Kazah. The air-heads who infest Hollywood generally know little about economics or history but know enough in their ignorant Utopian filled heads to try to tell the rest of us how things should be run. It is because so many people in Hollywierd despised Elia Kazah I figured I'd probably like him.I was not disappointed. This movie is prophetic. Imagine a slick talking crook from Arkansas. A womanizing liar pushed forward by a manipulative female self-publicist who masters the TV-Government- Business iron triangle. This charismatic country-boy woes millions with his smooth down-home delivery. He makes love to the TV camera and convinces you he loves you more than that rotten spouse you are stuck with at home . Sounds familiar don't it? You don't need to imagine that because you already know a certain disbarred impeached ex-president ! Now you know why this movie stuck pay dirt with me : this movie nailed the truth even before it came true by 50 years!Kazah was brutal and mean, but that was part of the technique he perfected. By getting an actor to feel the way a scene called for he got the camera to record it. He brought out the very best performance an Actor had in him. You've never seen how good Andy Griffith could be until you've seen this movie . Kazah was a true master of his craft and this movie easily is in my top 10 of all time favorites now.Just a few words about the Kazah-Commie controversy. My version of the DVD had a feature on this history. Historic Soviet records now prove Hollywood was infiltrated with Soviet agents. Agents who attacked Kazah and whom he owed nothing but payback. Agents who were working for the most evil country on Earth. Agents who Kazah knew Congress knew. He loved America and he defended it by naming those agents.What angered the Hollywierd crowd most was Kazan's defiance. He was right and he knew he was right. That shined the light back on them and there is nothing that gets a self righteous know-nothing-at-all more angry than to have their cherished beliefs deflated by someone they once liked. Rather than admit THEY were the problem they will blame the person who points it out . Kazah become the scapegoat of choice . That is why I think Kazah is an American hero. It takes a tough man to confront his enemies, it takes a stronger one to confront his friends. Oh, and by the way, did I mention Kazah made GREAT movies? This one is my favorite Kazah flick. So far. I'm still have a few more to see!