If ever there was a film that spoke to the ill advised road toward fame and fortune paved with its good, but unfortunately corrupting intentions Elia Kazan's A Face In The Crowd (1957) is that film. It's a sort of perverse Picture of Dorian Gray brought up to, then, contemporary standards, and ramped with all the slick, split and polish of the emerging media age. The film stars the usually wholesome and congenial Andy Griffith as Larry 'Lonesome' Rhodes an impoverished hobo whose saving grace is that he's got something to say and is certain people are willing to listen. One such interested party is promoter Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal). With her connections and Larry's mouth, the two embark upon a media blitz that transforms Larry from a good time guy into a perverse and power mad media sensation. With the swell of his ego, comes the bitter and reclusive understanding that Larry has been forever changed and not for the better. It is Larry's own realization and self discovery, that he's become the man he was always destined to be an unflattering, uncaring and dangerous individual that tops out this highly strung, gruesome portrait of life without soul or redemption.
Screenwriter Budd Schulberg, on whose story "The Arkansas Traveler" this film is based, keeps the pace of this manic and often oppressive tale up in a way that derives empathy and pity for the character of Larry, while sitting in paralyzed and frightful awe of both Griffith's performance and the prospect that what we are seeing might be true for a good many more Hollywood celebs both then and now than we'd care to imagine. Kazan, always the purveyor of 'message pictures', on this occasion is recanting what Shakespeare might have coined 'a tale told by an idiot. Full of sound and fury signifying nothing' nothing that is except one of the most exceptional entertainments you are likely to see in your lifetime.
Warner's DVD is very nicely put together. The B&W anamorphically enhanced picture exhibits solid blacks, very clean whites, and an impeccably balanced gray scale. Contrast levels are bang on. Fine details are nicely rendered throughout. The audio has been nicely cleaned up. A documentary, "Facing The Past" takes the place on an audio commentary on this disc. It's short at 30 min. but nevertheless provides for a slew of succinct sound bytes from members of the principle cast.
Screenwriter Budd Schulberg, on whose story "The Arkansas Traveler" this film is based, keeps the pace of this manic and often oppressive tale up in a way that derives empathy and pity for the character of Larry, while sitting in paralyzed and frightful awe of both Griffith's performance and the prospect that what we are seeing might be true for a good many more Hollywood celebs both then and now than we'd care to imagine. Kazan, always the purveyor of 'message pictures', on this occasion is recanting what Shakespeare might have coined 'a tale told by an idiot. Full of sound and fury signifying nothing' nothing that is except one of the most exceptional entertainments you are likely to see in your lifetime.
Warner's DVD is very nicely put together. The B&W anamorphically enhanced picture exhibits solid blacks, very clean whites, and an impeccably balanced gray scale. Contrast levels are bang on. Fine details are nicely rendered throughout. The audio has been nicely cleaned up. A documentary, "Facing The Past" takes the place on an audio commentary on this disc. It's short at 30 min. but nevertheless provides for a slew of succinct sound bytes from members of the principle cast.