“Under the tumbling variegated flow of characters in A Face in the Crowd is a sharp warning,” wrote director Elia Kazan shortly before the film's premiere in 1957. “There is power in television. It can be perverted.”
One of the films unjustly overlooked over the years, A Face in the Crowd does have its dated aspects--but in some ways, it is more pertinent now than ever. Inspired by the TV performances of Nixon and McCarthy, Kazan and writer Budd Schulberg decided to explore the dangerous power of communication media which can sell politicians like soap. Andy Griffith stars as Lonesome Rhodes, discovered drunk in an Arkansas jail and “chosen” to become a popular hero on television and radio, whence he wields great commercial and thus political influence. Lonesome Rhodes plays the guitar (not well but loudly); exudes and extols the homely virtues (not eloquently but persistently); and applauds political ignorance as he plays on it. He joins an (unspecified) Fascist group that manipulates his megalomania to a climax after which Lonesome Rhodes ends up on the trash-heap of forgotten heroes. Patricia Neal gives a memorable performance as the radio reporter who helps create the monster, and Lee Remick and Walter Matthau are also featured in the cast.