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. Continue reading →