America, the land of the endless possibilities. The country where there are a lot of “rags to riches” stories. A Face in the Crowd shows one of those stories. The movie is set in the fifties. Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) is a popular radio personality who always travels around with her tape recorder to let her audience listen to her conversations with regular Americans. One of her shows brings her to a prison where she convinces the sheriff to allow her to interview the prisoners.
Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes is one of the prisoners. Initially he’s not interested in being interviewed by Marcia, but after some time and a bit of talking she manages to get his permission to record him. It turns out that “Lonesome” is a very interesting character. Besides his very clear opinions about things, he also sings and his appearance in the radio show results in a lot of request to hear more. It doesn’t take long for him to receive a contract. After making his name on the radio he keeps rising and also gets a television show.
As still is happening now a quick rise to stardom is not always something that people can handle well. This is also the case with Lonesome. His stardom and his many fans make him believe that there are no limits to what he can do, which results in him losing the grip on reality and burning a lot of bridges on the way.
The reason I decided to watch this movie was because Walter Matthau is in it, but unfortunately he only has a small role in it. I thought he was a fantastic actor who was able to play both serious and comedic roles.
A Face in the Crowd is an interesting movie and Rhodes an interesting character. The excellent acting by both Andy Griffith and Patricia Neal impress. Neal manages to show the result of her strong, but stressful relationship with Rhodes on her character. The movie feels big and it manages to paints a very clear picture of what fame can do with a person.
Score: 8