Cast: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Walter Matthau
Directed by: Elia Kazan
Lonesome Larry Rhodes (Andy Griffith) was just a country boy in A Face in the Crowd. He was a drifter with a guitar found in some little jail in the middle of nowhere in the state of Arkansas by a local radio personality, Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal). Lonesome Rhodes' charm and voice hit the heart of the listeners and he gained fame within the town, then the state and it reached out to Memphis where he was introduced to Mel Miller (Walter Matthau) and his television program. He can be his old country boy self in front of the camera but he also has a script to run by. One day he insulted a mattress company and the company forced to cancel the show but Lonesome Rhodes was becoming too powerful to do that with his followers behind him. A guy within the mattress company signed a contract with Lonesome Rhodes and the two went to New York City where he became a television spokeman for a dietary supplement and did advertisements for them. The ratings boosted for that company and the power grew for Rhodes and he was hungry for more but offscreen he was a rude and an abusive man and can use his listeners and followers to do anything. Marcia Jeffries realized what she had created out of just a drunkard back in a small town and a flick of the switch to hear what he has to say about his followers off-air to broadcast will take all of his power away in just minutes.
Everybody knows Andy Griffith as as good 'ol Sheriff Andy Taylor or Benjamin Matlock from Matlock but those are television shows. If I were to ask you to name a movie, you wouldn't come up with this. I wouldn't either but it would be my first answer because what a memorable role he had in A Face in the Crowd and that was his very first movie role too! He's still living today. Do me a favor and check out A Face in the Crowd once in your lifetime, you won't be disappointed.
8.5/10
