A country bumpkin randomly picked to appear on a radio show becomes a huge star in the mold of Will Rogers. The film makes no attempt to explain the rise to super-stardom of a man who's loud, unfunny, uncouth, untalented, and self-centered. It seems Schulberg is trying to make some important point about media power, but his dreary, overlong script runs out of ideas and veers into soap opera. In his film debut, Griffith is way over the top and his schtick becomes increasingly annoying but it's probably not his fault. The blame for the melodramatics must go to Kazan, who has always shown a knack for the theatrical. He even encourages Neal, a fine actress, to go a bit overboard.
Review of A Face in the Crowd
