A Face in the Crowd

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More timely now, perhaps, than when it was first released in 1957, Elia Kazan's overheated political melodrama explores the dangerous manipulative power of pop culture. It exposes the underside of Capra-corn populism, as exemplified in the optimistic fable of grassroots punditry Meet John Doe. In Kazan's account, scripted by Budd Schulberg, the common-man pontificator (Andy Griffith) is no Gary Cooper-style aw-shucks paragon. Promoted to national fame as a folksy TV idol by radio producer Patricia Neal, Griffith's Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes turns out to be a megalomaniacal rat bastard. The film turns apocalyptic as Rhodes exploits his power to sway the masses, helping to elect a reactionary presidential candidate. The parodies of television commercials and opinion polling were cutting edge in their day (Face in the Crowd was the Network of the Eisenhower era), and there are some startling, near-documentary sequences shot on location in Arkansas. An extraordinary supporting cast (led by Walter Matthau and Lee Remick) helps keep the energy level high, even when the satire turns shrill and unpersuasive in the final reel. There's an interesting parallel in Tim Robbins's snide pseudodocumentary Bob Roberts: both these pictures have almost as much contempt for the lemmings in the audience as for the manipulative monsters who herd them over the cliff. --David Chute

Customer Reviews:

Face the music.......2007-08-23

A Face in the Crowd is a gripping commentary on the possible excesses of television. A veritable nobody rises from the drunk tank up the ladder of media cause he has a voice and a face that sells. At first unassuming and naive Andy Griffith combines homespun values with a winning wit. The listening public falls in love with a manufactured image that gives them a false sense of security. He can do no wrong and events take an absurd turn as national media adopts the country boy and corrupts him with accolades and profitable bogus products. It reaches a stunning climax where he will sit with heads of state and influence policy. An open mike and a lose tongue lead to his downfall betrayed by his mentor. It exposes the shallow nature of television and the fickleness of it. A drunk rises from jail to high ratings and then crashes. There is a lesson to be learned, but it is lost on the powers that be. Even before the dust settles a new evangelist is being groomed to fool the people once more. This is a jaundiced portrait of television that has lofty aspirations. The public has a short memory and a sucker is born every minute.

Citizen Kane and Being There mixed together.......2007-08-07

A cross between Citizen Kane and Being There, by way of the Deep South. It is both a rise-and-fall story AND a parody of politics in the Big Media age. Biting satire of the Establishment.

Movie Buff.......2007-07-19

Definitely not a role you would expect for Andy Griffith. This film classic highlights the danger of how the public can be easily misled by the media and how the public can be manipulated into a frenzied adoration for "stars". Wonderfully acted and a film with a timeless and strong message.

More Relevant Today Than Ever.......2007-07-17

With all the remakes, I can't believe that this movie has never been remade, but how can you beat perfection? However, this film is actually more relevant today than it was in the 50's because it deals with the power of celebrity and how it can control not only everyday life, but also politics. Andy Griffith stars as a country bumpkin singer who is discovered by Patricia Neal while he is in an Arkansas jail after having been arrested for being drunk and disorderly. He is somewhat of a nomad who she convinces to stick around and host a local radio show. He becomes a beloved figure among the locals and finds that he has the power to influence people to do as he says as he dispenses advice in a friendly and folksy way over the radio. Word spreads and his fame grows and he is offered a television job in New York City where he becomes more power hungry, believing his own publicity. He is easily able to manipulate the public and because of this ability, political powers are clamoring for his advice and patronage. He wasn't a nice guy to begin with and finds this power more than intoxicating. The movie has a wonderful ending that should never be tampered with. In addition to Andy Griffith's perfect and stellar performance, there are some wonderful supporting performances that more than hold their own against him. You have a very young Walter Matthau as an idealistic writer who sees right through him from the start. You have a beautiful young Lee Remick in her first acting role as a teenager who is infatuated with him. Patricia Neal, who believes she can tame the wild beast, and Anthony Franciosa as a young advertising exec who wants to ride the waves of fame right with him. With people so influenced and starved for celebrity today, you can see how this kind of media manipulation could take place. Parts of the film are very dated and corny, but it only adds to the charm and effect. Brilliantly directed by Elia Kazan. This is one of my all time favorite black and white movies and there is nothing about it I would change. As I said, how can you tamper with perfection? It's definitely one not to miss.

Ho Ho Ho, I'm giving away the ending.......2007-07-13

I am so fond of Budd Schulberg, and Andy Griffith went on to become among our biggest TV stars when I was a youngun, so I expected A FACE IN THE CROWD to keep me entertained. What I hardly expected was that TV would end up being exposed as a medium which thrives on the possibility of turning young people who have a talent for communicating in a way that reminds people of Will Rogers into sales entities for commercial and political hokum. I also watched "Hollywood Ending" (2002) this week, which featured Woody Allen as an aging director who takes multiple medicines to match the activities of his day, and explaining it, says, "And this one keeps me dry when it's raining." Lonesome Rhodes (played by Andy Griffith) gets his start with a New York ad agency pushing pills that pep him up, but his ending is quite abrupt when a microphone is turned on to reveal his contempt for the folks he fools while the credits roll at the end of the show. That is not quite the ending, because after that he is at the top of a tall building and he feels like jumping off and you get to find out which other characters think it is such a good idea, they can hardly wait.

Modern democracy still depends on TV, or bombing television stations, in the case of those enemies who dare to broadcast propaganda about NATO or the sole surviving super power. I don't watch much TV myself, but I see little clips on the internet that engage in demeaning whoever is trashing powerful mainstream media interests at the moment. The global economy is skewed to cater to an audience which has a lot in common with those early TV viewers seeing the Lonesome Rhodes Cracker Barrel and political huckster hour. Politically, Baghdad has turned into a pill that is like the battle of Gettysburg, where people ought to remember which army came the furthest to fight. Political scandals often reveal a character flaw that fits right into Aristotle's views on irreconcilable pride in his theory of tragedy, like President Clinton's sexual pride when a female White House intern turns on the power of her thong underwear, or George W. Bush's power to fire any U.S. Attorney who has some ideas about justice being used as a tool to help American Indians, which he does not personally believe in. Not to mention who commuted Scooter Libby's prison sentence.

Controversial Classics Collection (Advise and Consent / The Americanization of Emily / Bad Day at Black Rock / Blackboard Jungle / A Face in the Crowd / Fury / I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang)

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A controversial seven-pack
WHAT IS THE MEANING OF ORIGINAL THEATRICAL EXHIBITION RATIO?
Controversial Classics Collection
Controversial Classics Collection
Controversial Classics

Controversial Classics Collection (Advise and Consent / The Americanization of Emily / Bad Day at Black Rock / Blackboard Jungle / A Face in the Crowd / Fury / I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang)
Starring: Henry Fonda , Charles Laughton , Don Murray , Walter Pidgeon , and Peter Lawford
Director: Otto Preminger , Arthur Hiller , and John Sturges
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0007TKNKQ
Release Date: 2005-05-10

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Otto Preminger expanded his vision in the 1960s with a whole series of ambitious, expansive dramas with huge casts and big themes. Advise and Consent (1962), an examination of deal making, party politics, and congressional diplomacy in Washington's legislative halls (based on the novel by Allen Drury), is one of his best. Preminger broke the blacklist with his previous film, Exodus, and it rings through in this drama about a controversial nominee for secretary of state (a confident, stately Henry Fonda) accused of being a Communist. The nomination process becomes the center ring of the political circus, with fidgety accuser Burgess Meredith in the spotlight; devious, silver-tongued Charles Laughton cracking the whip as a southern senator with a grudge against Fonda; and party whip Walter Pidgeon lining up votes behind the scenes. Arm twisting and diplomatic hardball turns to perjury and blackmail, and a melodramatic twist gives this lesson in party politics a salacious soap opera dimension.

With The Americanization of Emily (1964), screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky (Marty) sinks his satirical fangs into a story of an American naval officer (James Garner) selected to be the first victim at the invasion of Normandy. Julie Andrews plays a prim, British war widow who falls for him. Cynical in tone, the story becomes an interesting collision of manipulative interests and renewed life, the same formula that worked so well in Chayefsky's scripts for Network and Hospital.

One of the first Hollywood films to deal openly with white racism toward Japanese Americans during World War II, Bad Day at Black Rock (1955) (directed by action maestro John Sturges, The Great Escape) stars Spencer Tracy as a one-armed stranger named MacReedy, who arrives in the tiny town of Black Rock on a hot day in 1945. Seeking a hotel room and the whereabouts of an ethnic Japanese farmer named Komoko, MacReedy runs smack into a wall of hostility that escalates into serious threats. In time it becomes apparent that Komoko has been murdered by a local, racist chieftain, Reno Smith (Robert Ryan), who also plans on dispensing with MacReedy. Tracy's hero is forced to fight his way past Smith's goons (among them Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin) and sundry allies (Anne Francis) to keep alive, setting the stage for memorable suspense crisply orchestrated by Sturges. Casting is the film's principal strength, however: Tracy, the indispensable icon of integrity, and Ryan, the indispensable noir image of spiritual blight, are as creatively unlikely a pairing as Sturges's shotgun marriage of Yul Brynner and Steve McQueen in The Magnificent Seven.

Novelist Evan Hunter burst America's postwar bubble when he described an inner-city school terrorized by switchblade-wielding juvenile delinquents. Director-screenwriter Richard Brooks's 1955 adaptation of Blackboard Jungle still packs a tremendous wallop (even if it was shot mostly on the back lot). A forerunner of Rebel Without a Cause and West Side Story, this black-and-white classic--set to Bill Haley and His Comets' "Rock Around the Clock"--is part exposé, part melodrama, part public-service announcement. Glenn Ford, at his slow-to-rile best, plays Richard Dadier, an incoming English teacher at North Manual High School. An idealist who knows how to handle himself in a dark alley, Dadier stands his ground and earns the begrudging respect of school thugs led by Vic Morrow and Sidney Poitier. Anne Francis plays Ford's especially vulnerable wife; Richard Kiley is the timid math teacher with the priceless jazz-record collection; Louis Calhern and John Hoyt are among the more cynical North Manual High veterans. See if you can ID Jamie Farr and director Paul Mazursky as gang members. The film was nominated for four Oscars.

More timely now, perhaps, than when it was first released in 1957, Elia Kazan's overheated political melodrama Face in the Crowd explores the dangerous manipulative power of pop culture. It exposes the underside of Capra-corn populism, as exemplified in the optimistic fable of grassroots punditry Meet John Doe. In Kazan's account, scripted by Budd Schulberg, the common-man pontificator (Andy Griffith) is no Gary Cooper-style aw-shucks paragon. Promoted to national fame as a folksy TV idol by radio producer Patricia Neal, Griffith's Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes turns out to be a megalomaniacal rat bastard. The film turns apocalyptic as Rhodes exploits his power to sway the masses, helping to elect a reactionary presidential candidate. The parodies of television commercials and opinion polling were cutting edge in their day (Face in the Crowd was the Network of the Eisenhower era), and there are some startling, near-documentary sequences shot on location in Arkansas. An extraordinary supporting cast (led by Walter Matthau and Lee Remick) helps keep the energy level high, even when the satire turns shrill and unpersuasive in the final reel.

Fury is tough stuff from director Fritz Lang (M), making his first American film with this 1936 story of an innocent man (Spencer Tracy) who escapes a lynch mob and then orchestrates his apparent murder at their hands. Tracy is superb, and the film is uncompromising, until studio interference takes some of the wind out of Lang's sails right at the end. But as the portrait of a character who comes to reflect the destiny he is trying to avoid, this is still essential Lang and a pre-noir classic.

I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932) is one of the toughest and most uncompromising movies to ever come out of Hollywood. Paul Muni stars as a regular Joe, just back from World War I, who is unjustly convicted of a crime and sentenced to 10 years of bruisingly unfair treatment on a chain gang. Even a successful escape can't shake the spectre of the chains, nor the amazingly fatalistic twists the screenplay has in store. This picture could only have been made at Warner Bros., where social-justice movies flourished in the 1930s and criticism of judicial systems and prisons was sanctioned. Muni's weird acting style (he was recently off Scarface) somehow fits the film's furious tone, and director Mervyn LeRoy--as in his earlier Little Caesar--was dexterous enough to build the action to an unforgettable ending. It's a film that filters the American Dream through Depression realities and noirish pessimism (with a streak of pre-Code sexual frankness--note the one-night "friend" Muni makes the night of his escape). This one holds up, folks; it's a stunner.

Description

The Controversial Classics Collection features the debut DVDs of seven groundbreaking motion pictures, released in America over three decades from the '30s to the '60s that had dramatic social impact, changed attitudes and brought important political and social reforms. The films include A Face in the Crowd, Blackboard Jungle, Fury, Bad Day at Black Rock, Advise and Consent, The Americanization of Emily and I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. These films, which all took on hot button -- some even taboo -- topics such as prison injustice, racial tension, juvenile delinquency, homosexuality, mob violence as well as political corruption in Washington, the military and the media, caused America to take notice and do something about the issues the movies raised. Each film features either a commentary or documentary examining the film's historical context and political impact.

Blackboard Jungle (1955)
Richard Dadier, a new teacher at inner city North Manual High, is a man eager to make a difference. Topics such as racial and sexual tensions, gang violence and apathy were topics Blackboard Jungle tackled 50 years ago that are still hot-button issues in schools. Glenn Ford as Dadier clings to his ideals and pays a price vying with teen misfits led by Vic Morrow and, in a star-making performance, a young Sidney Poitier. Featuring Bill Haley's classic "Rock Around the Clock," the film is often remembered as being responsible for the breakthrough of rock 'n' roll to the media and consumer mainstream. Richard Brooks (In Cold Blood) directed, based on Evan Hunter's best seller. DVD special features include: Commentary by co-stars Paul Mazursky and Jamie Farr, Glenn Ford's son Peter Ford and Assistant Director Joel Freeman, Droopy Cartoon Blackboard Jumble, theatrical trailer.

A Face in the Crowd (1957)
Andy Griffith made a stunning movie debut as Lonesome Rhodes, whose meteoric rise to TV fame is paralleled by his plunge into booze, sex and political corruption. From On the Waterfront's Academy Award. -winning collaborators, director Elia Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg, A Face in the Crowd reflects the authenticity of filmmakers who know the media world from the inside out. Lee Remick also made her screen debut in this film which featured cameos from Mike Wallace, Walter Winchell, Betty Furness, Bennett Cerf and Burl Ives as themselves. DVD special features include: New documentary Facing the Past (an all new retrospective with new interviews with stars Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal and screenwriter Budd Schulberg) and theatrical trailer.

Fury (1936)
Joe Wilson, a wrongly jailed man thought to have died in a blaze started by a bloodthirsty lynch mob, is alive. Now, Joe aims to ensure his would-be executioners meet the fate Joe miraculously escaped. Spencer Tracy is Joe, Sylvia Sidney is his bride-to-be and Fury lives up to its volatile name with its searing indictment of mob justice and lynching. In his first American film, director Fritz Lang (Metropolis, The Big Heat) combines a passion for justice and a sharp visual style into a landmark of social-conscience filmmaking. DVD special features include: Commentary by Peter Bogdanovich, with interview excerpts of director Fritz Lang and theatrical trailer.

Bad Day at Black Rock (1955)
Spencer Tracy (a 1955 Best Actor Oscar. nominee for this film) plays World War II veteran John J. Macreedy, who keeps his own counsel about why he's come to Black Rock and who keeps his wits about him when confronted with threats and violence. John Sturges (The Great Escape) directed; Robert Ryan, Walter Brennan, Ernest Borgnine and Lee Marvin are among the town's thugs and other denizens. DVD special features include: commentary by film historian Dana Polan and theatrical trailer.

Advise and Consent (1962)
Three years after Anatomy of a Murder, Otto Preminger examined the body politic in Advise and Consent, a story of power and procedure where deals become extortion, closets reveal skeletons and careers are crushed. It was also one of the first mainstream films to deal with homosexuality. History buffs may think they recall real-life counterparts to the characters depicted while movie fans can revel in a rare array of star power: Henry Fonda, Walter Pidgeon, Don Murray, Gene Tierney, Peter Lawford, Franchot Tone and Charles Laughton in his final role. DVD special features include: Commentary by film historian Drew Casper and theatrical trailer.

The Americanization of Emily (1964)
Julie Andrews and James Garner headline this earlier milestone from screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky (Network) and director Arthur Hiller (also teamed later on The Hospital). Garner plays Charlie Madison, a U.S. Naval officer stationed in London, who cares nothing about glory. That attracts war widow Emily Barham (Andrews), who's had her fill of seeing men go to war and never retim. DVD special features include: Commentary by film historian Drew Casper, featurette Action on the Beach, theatrical trailer.

I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932)
Paul Muni gives a joltingly realistic performance in this powerhouse classic directed by Mervyn LeRoy (Little Caesar), based on autobiographical writings by chain-gang escapee Robert E. Burns. Like many '30s crime sagas, this deals with gritty realities. Yet it also stands apart as a film that made a difference, igniting protests that led to vital penal reforms and Burns himself received a commuted sentence. DVD special features include: Commentary by film historian Richard B. Jewell, vintage musical short 20,000 Cheers for the Chain Gang, and theatrical trailer.

Customer Reviews:

A controversial seven-pack.......2007-05-14

Even in the early days of film, there have always been controversial movies. While the majority of films play it reasonably safe, there is that minority of movies that take risks and generate talk. Nowadays, for better or for worse, the truly controversial movie is a little bit more of a rarity, as there are less taboos that aren't discussed or shown. The Controversial Classics boxed set collects seven older movies that deal with dicey subjects in the Production Code-enforced era that tried to keep everything safe and bland; these films are far from the only ones that could be called controversial or classic, but they are a good sampling.

First (chronologically) is I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, an early talkie with Paul Muni as a man unwittingly implicated in a robbery in the deep South. He is put on a chain gang, and though he eventually escapes and rebuilds his life, his past does catch up with him. This is a powerful but very dark film, with even the last line filled with grimness.

Fury is the first of two starring Spencer Tracy. In the first, Fury, he is a man arrested while driving through a small town. He is suspected of a kidnapping and a lynch mob destroys the jail he is in, apparently killing him. He survives, however, and - now embittered - secretly works to get those responsible tried for his murder. Bad Day at Black Rock has Tracy as a crippled World War II veteran who goes to a small desert community and stirs up memories of an old murder. This one co-stars Robert Ryan, Lee Marvin, Ernest Borgnine and Anne Francis. Both films are decent but far from great.

Things pick up with Blackboard Jungle, which also has Anne Francis, though Glenn Ford is the star as a novice teacher at a tough school. It is one of the earliest films to highlight juvenile delinquency. Sidney Potier, Vic Morrow and Jamie Farr are some of the students, each with their own level of criminality. Although preachy at times, it is still pretty good.

A Face in the Crowd stars Andy Griffith in his earliest movie role. For those used to Griffith from his nice guy roles, particularly in The Andy Griffith Show and Matlock, this is quite a contrast as he plays an utterly amoral man who uses his homespun humor to go from a bum to an immensely powerful entertainment personality. Also starring Patricia Neal, Lee Remick and Walter Matthau, this is both a great movie and an insightful one.

Advise & Consent starts slow but picks up as it moves into its second half. Otto Preminger's adaptation of the best-selling novel presents the inner workings of the Senate in a somewhat darker light than Frank Capra's Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The plot deals with a controversial pick by the President for Secretary of State. This is another great movie, marred only by the ending which wraps things up in a bit too conveniently. Instead of a true star, this features an ensemble cast, including Henry Fonda, Gene Tierney, Walter Pidgeon, Don Murray, Burgess Meredith and Charles Laughton.

If the set begins with a rather depressing movie, it at least ends with a somewhat happier film, the war satire The Americanization of Emily. James Garner is at his most James-Garner-est as the wheeler-dealer Navy Commander serving as a "dog-robber". His job is to make sure that the admiral he works for gets all the pleasures of home. Set in England in the days before D-Day, Garner is a self-admitted coward; he refuses to die just to become a hero. Julie Andrews is the war widow with whom he gets romantically involved. When his admiral decides that the first man to die on Omaha beach must be a Navy man (to help glorify the Navy), Garner is forced to take part in the invasion. As Arthur Hiller relates in the commentary, this is not so much an anti-war film as one opposing the false glorification of war. Not unlike the much more recent Flags of Our Fathers, this film is critical of the manufacturing of heroes; based on recent news stories on Jessica Lynch and Pat Tillman, this lesson still needs to be taught.

With I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, A Face in the Crowd and The Americanization of Emily all meriting five stars and the rest four, this set gets five stars overall, helped by the numerous extras, most particularly the commentaries (on all films except A Face in the Crowd, which does have a mini-documentary). I don't know if this is the ideal sampling of controversial classics, but it is a set of good-to-great films.

WHAT IS THE MEANING OF ORIGINAL THEATRICAL EXHIBITION RATIO?.......2006-02-01

The butchering of BLACKBOARD JUNGLE is a disgrace. You take a 1.33 picture, mask a large slice at the top and bottom of the screen and, abracadabra, you get an ugly but so modern 1.85 picture. Shame on Warner. Could we have some respect for the industry and the movie buffs?
Thanks to the DVD, we got rid of the dreaded pan and scan. The minority of 1.85 TV screens freaks can enlarge the pictures any way they like. The 1.85 disease infected the films from the sixties, now it's the 50's pictures turn. Some movie buffs are still alive and remember the power of 1.33 ratio.
Same remarks for A FACE IN THE CROWD. THE AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY SHOULD BE SHOWN IN 1.66. The BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK transfer is disappointing, when you have seen a good 35mm print of this wonderful photography.
Do we have to ask the FBI to protect the US film industry from this travesty, as Hollywood is still the main reason why millions of people across the world love America.
Olivier Comte

Controversial Classics Collection.......2005-08-26

What a wonderful treat this collection is....at first I was skeptic because I am a big Film Noir fan...and did not think that this collection would suffice...how wrong I was. The commentaries are crisp, clean and full of information...the movies are some of the Best Produced...Bad Day At Black Rock...starring Tracy as in Spencer...and Ryan. Then there is The Americanization of Emily with a script by one of the best writers: Paddy C......and one of my favorite movies starring Julie Andrews fresh from Mary Poppins..thank God...and James Garner...both of them a treat. A face in the Crowd should be one of the 10 BEST Movies Ever Produced...Andy Griffith is just magnificent along with Patricia Neal...Watch This Movie! I am a Fugituve from a Chain Gang...a must see of what happened in the disgrace of the American Judicial System...Advise and Consent I really did not care for but it was worth watching just to listen to the commentary....and finally Blackboard Jungle which still pulls no punches with a very young Glenn Ford...with funny commentary by the teen-agers (I am not going to tell you who) that were in the movie.

Get this collection and give yourself a Treat that is seldom if ever seen in the Movies now days....

Controversial Classics Collection.......2005-07-11

I purchased this package of movies for my son who is a real movie buff and who has a Degree in Drama. He has watched one of the movies so far and is looking forward to watching rest of them. He is familiar with the Actors and Directors in this set of movies. Very nice to have classics easy to obtain like this. I would highly recommend it.

Controversial Classics.......2005-07-08

I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG (1932)
Controversy: The oldest movie in the controversial classics set, FUGITIVE also lays claim to the most unwieldy title. Chain gang prison labor is the controversial topic.
Strengths: Paul Muni is absolutely riveting, and his final scene is one of the more memorable in movies.
Weaknesses: The last chain gang prison system was outlawed in the 1940s. The oldest title is also the least relevant.
Bottom Line: Inspiration for other classic movies like Cool Hand Luke and O Brother, Where Art Thou? Although severely dated, FUGITIVE still delivers as top-drawer entertainment.

FURY (1936)
Controversy: German director Fritz Lang's first American film is an exposé of lynching, mob violence, and the corrosive effects of living for revenge.
Strengths: Spencer Tracy's transformation from good-natured innocent to bitter victim is breathtaking. Lang's depiction of the mob is still quite strong
Weaknesses: The first and last act tends to stall out the story. The studio imposed ending is unsatisfying.
Bottom Line: Although not quite as powerful as Lang's German film M, which it resembles, FURY still has a number of memorable moments, and Tracy's Jekyll and Hyde transformation works very well.

BAD DAY AT BLACK ROCK (1955)
Controversy: Xenophobia during World War II and a small southwestern town with a big, ugly secret.
Strengths: Spencer Tracy always adds value to a movie. Robert Ryan, as Tracy's chief nemesis, turns in a typically fine performance, too.
Weaknesses: Anne Francis isn't anything more than a token female and doesn't really seem to fit in the story. A little too much attention paid to the secret keeping, and not enough on what was done that must remain hidden.
Bottom Line: A good Decent Stranger Against the Mob movie that may have dealt a little more directly with the shameful incident everyone was trying to keep buried.

BLACKBOARD JUNGLE (1955)
Controversy: Rock `n roll infected juvenile delinquents are taking over the world.
Strengths: Director Richard Brooks really wades into it, and doesn't pull his punches on some issues one simply didn't talk about in the 1950s - racial tensions, rape, middle class apathy and cynicism. Glenn Ford, Sidney Poitier and especially young Vic Morrow are very good.
Weaknesses: Because it shows few if any female students, no parents and otherwise little of the students' lives away from school this one's a little exploitative.
Bottom Line: Overall an excellent and honest look at urban troubled youth. Probably Glenn Ford's best film.

A FACE IN THE CROWD (1957)
Controversy: Director Elia Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg's warning about the pernicious encroachment of mass media, especially television, in American life.
Strengths: They got it right, although they were about a decade ahead of the rest of us. Patricia Neal and Walter Matthau, as worried onlookers, are very good.
Weaknesses: I may be a minority of one, but Andy Griffith in the lead role too often goes way over the top. Kazan may have wanted to portray him as an irresistible force of nature, but at times he's simply too loud, too out-sized, too outlandish.
Bottom Line: Still fun and entertaining, especially to see how much of it Kazan on got right. After the 2004 elections, it was somewhat chilling to see a politician go geese hunting with the Griffith character in a bid to develop his `common man' credentials.

ADVISE AND CONSENT (1962)
Controversy: Director Otto Preminger's adaptation of best-selling novel and hit play deals with Washington in-fighting over a presidential cabinet nomination.
Strengths: Charles Laughton and Walter Pidgeon as savvy senators give this one backbone and keep it interesting.
Weaknesses: Episodic and ultimately more soap opera than exposé.
Bottom Line: In my opinion this is the weakest entry in the set.

AMERICANIZATION OF EMILY (1964)
Controversy: The Navy needs a hero on D-Day and this movie not only questions hero worship, it pulls it apart and blows it up, bit by bit.
Strengths: Paddy Chayefsky's script is perfect. James Garner and Julie Andrews are perfect as the mismatched lovers.
Weaknesses: Addictive.
Bottom Line: My favorite movie in the bunch, a perfect satire while treating with compassion those it satires. One of the great comedies of the twentieth century.

A Face In The Crowd [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]

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A Face In The Crowd [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - Spain ]
Director: Elia Kazan
Manufacturer: VellaVision
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B000FMU8H8

Product Description

Spain released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada. LANGUAGES: English (Dolby Digital 2.0), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0), English (Subtitles), Spanish (Subtitles), SYNOPSIS: The meteoric popularity of Arthur Godfrey was allegedly the basis of the 1957 drama Face in the Crowd. Andy Griffith makes a spectacular film debut as Lonesome Rhodes, a philosophical country-western singer discovered in a tanktown jail by television talent coordinator Patricia Neal and her assistant Walter Matthau. They decide that Rhodes is worthy of a TV guest spot, the result being that the gangly, aw-shucks entertainer becomes an overnight sensation. As he ascends to stardom, Rhodes attracts fans, sponsors and endorsements by the carload, and soon he is the most powerful and influential entertainer on the airwaves. Beloved by his audience, Rhodes reveals himself to his intimates as a scheming, power-hungry manipulator, with Machiavellian political aspirations. He uses everyone around him, coldly discarding anyone who might impede his climb to the top (one such victim is sexy baton-twirler Lee Remick, likewise making her film debut). Just when it seems that there's no stopping Rhodes' megalomania, his mentor and ex-lover Neal exposes this Idol of Millions as the rat that he is. She arranges to switch on the audio during the closing credits of Rhodes' TV program, allowing the whole nation to hear the grinning, waving Rhodes characterize them as "suckers" and "stupid idiots." Instantly, Rhodes' popularity rating plummets to zero...

SPECIAL FEATURES: Scene Access, Photo Gallery, Interactive Menu, Filmographies, Biographies,

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