STUFF YOU GOTTA WATCH - A Face in the Crowd

A FACE IN THE CROWD

(1957)
With Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Walter Matthau, Tony Franciosa, Lee Remick, Kay Medford
Directed by Elia Kazan
Black and White
Reviewed by JL

If you've only seen Andy Griffith as either Matlock or Sheriff Andy Taylor, you'll be astounded by his explosive performance in Elia Kazan's A FACE IN THE CROWD. Loosely based on the offscreen persona of Arthur Godfrey (who for a time was regarded as the second most powerful man in America, next to the president), Griffith's character of Lonesome Rhodes is both a fascinating and horrifying portrait of a man gradually consumed by evil and megalomania. His performance continues to carry the film even when Kazan's message (that we are all duped by the power of television) starts to wear thin. Griffith had solid support from Patricia Neal as the talent scout who discovers Rhodes and carries a torch for him even as he becomes more reprehensible, Walter Matthau as the cynical guy who makes cynical speeches, and Lee Remick as the young and nubile cheerleader who becomes Mrs. Rhodes. - JL