A Face in the Crowd

Most know Andy Griffith best from his popular show, The Andy Griffith Show, and his later years on Matlock.  However, few realize that his screen debut came in 1957 in the film by Elia Kazan, A Face in the Crowd.  Here, Griffith is a downtrodden young man found in jail with enormous talent for winning over his audience.  The story is a tale of the rise and fall of a star.

In rural Arkansas, Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) runs a radio show called A Face in the Crowd, where the focus is to feature everyday individuals from all walks of life.  Looking for interesting characters to entertain her listeners in the local jail, she finds Larry (Griffith), locked up for being drunk and disorderly.  Without putting on any aires, he is a naturally charismatic entertainer and becomes a regular on Marcia’s radio station.  He begins to test his influence and power and outright tells off his advertisers, gaining greater and wider popularity with his audience.  Soon, he gets his own television show, becomes the face advertising a new product and starts throwing his influence into politics.  All the while, he and Marcia have a painful, complicated romance and she can’t stand to watch him become everything he once resented.

 In this film, Andy Griffith is a very different character than most may be used to seeing him.  He’s not at all like wholesome Sheriff Taylor, but loud, boisterous and often drunk, sometimes off of his own power.  I was stunned and captivated by his opening scene in the jail; he’s half drunk, sweaty, loud, surprisingly cheerful and openly rebellious to his jailers.  From there on, Lonesome only got more interesting.  While in front of his audience, he can always keep up his act, winning them over every time.  He becomes a savvy advertising man, reeling people in for a bogus product.  There are scenes where he is lost in emotional pain and others where he is full of wolf-like lust for teenage girls.  Like Marcia, who also sees all sides of Larry, we begin to love him but can’t believe how low he can go.

A Face in the Crowd was completely snubbed at the Oscars.  I’ll admit, that I see many flaws in the film.  Pacing towards the end becomes a monotonous whirlwind of Lonesome’s rise and the advertisement montage for Vitajex feels silly and could now be a mock ad for Viagra.  However, I cannot believe Andy Griffith received no recognition for his stunning lead performance.  Kazan was nominated for outstanding directorial achievement by the Director’s Guild of America and the film has been added to the National Film Registry.

This film may be hit and miss with film fans.  I would wholly recommend this for any Elia Kazan, Andy Griffith or Patricia Neal fans.  This may not be the best of Kazan’s films, but it’s still powerful with strong themes about power and the influence of mass media.

“I’m not just an entertainer. I’m an influence, a wielder of opinion, a force… a force!”

East of Eden

Based off the second half of John Steinbeck’s novel and directed by Elia Kazan, East of Eden is a retelling of Cain and Abel set around the beginning of World War I.  The biblical references are easy to notice; Cal and Aron are sons of Adam, competing for their father’s love.  What is surprising, and rather fitting, is where Eve plays in this scheme.

Cal (James Dean) believes that he and his twin brother Aron (Richard Davalos) are opposites, good and bad.  Aron is the obvious good one, always winning his father’s love and going steady with a sweet girl, Abra (Julie Harris).  Cal is self loathing and fixated on the bad he sees in himself.  His father, Adam (Raymond Massey), is the most well loved, righteous Christian men in town.  Cal concludes that all the bad within him must have come from his mother, who died after giving birth, so he and Aron were told.  In his troubled wanderings, Cal finds a businesswoman (Jo Van Fleet), who he finds far too much in common with.  His yearning to find where he comes from and win his father’s approval may destroy his family.

Dean portrays a troubled teen perfectly, with plenty of passion and no cliche.  He shows curiosity, confusion and self loathing in a way that helps us connect with Cal.  He turns Cal into a very sympathetic character, always bringing the audience in, even when it feels like he is pushing away from everything.  He brings the pain of feeling unloved by his father to a heartbreaking climax.  It’s a role Dean similar to his later film, Rebel Without a Cause, yet Dean not at all the same.  Sadly, East of Eden was Dean’s only major film released before his death.  His nomination for best lead actor was the Academy’s first posthumous nomination.

Along with Dean’s Oscar nomination were three others for East of Eden.  Elia Kazan was nominated for best director and Paul Osborn for best adapted screenplay.  Jo Van Fleet won the award for best supporting actress in her role as the secretive business woman who turns out to have quite an impact on Cal’s life.

East of Eden is an essential film of the 1950s.  To think that it lost a best picture nomination to Picnic saddens me.  The story is compelling and thought provoking.  The acting is riveting and the cast works beautifully together.  Kazan’s direction is at the same amazing level as his best picture nominated films.  When discussing James Dean, it’s a shame not to mention his performance here.

“Man has a choice and it’s a choice that makes him a man.”

On the Waterfront

In On the Waterfront, Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando), once a promising prize fighter, is messenger and errand runner for Johnny Friendly (Lee J. Cobb) and the corrupt men who run the docks.  One night, his job is to coax Joey Doyle, a well liked young man who plans on testifying against the mob, to go up to the roof of his apartment building.  Terry doesn’t realize until it is too late that he is a pawn helping to carry out a murder.  As Joey’s sister, Edie (Eva Marie Saint) and the local priest Father Barry (Karl Malden), start snooping around the dock for answers, Terry becomes conflicted.  He is one of the few lucky men who get to work every day because of his mob connections, yet sees the pain he inadvertently caused through just doing what he was told.  As Terry’s guilt rises, he becomes closer to Edie in a partially romantic, partially protective relationship.

Terry knows he can’t be with Edie or keep her protected from Friendly and his thugs if he doesn’t come forward to help put a stop to them.  But soon, another man seeks out confidence in Father Barry about testifying against Friendly, but he is killed in what is supposed to look like an accident.  “Conscience. That stuff can drive you nuts.”  That is especially hard when the right thing is so dangerous.

For some people, it may be hard to sympathize or identify with Terry, until the iconic “I coulda been a contender” scene in the taxi cab.  It is there that all of Terry’s cards are out on the table and we see that his mob days run back further than just being a messenger boy on the docks.  In his time as a prize fighter, his glory days full of so much potential, he took dives for the mob, just to help Friendly score some petty cash and earn a small climb up the dishonest ladder.  At the time, it seemed like a good idea, but Terry looks around now and realizes that got him nowhere.  He now feels terrible about the dirty work he’s involved with and the potential he threw away.  For anyone who was still on the fence about Terry, their heart aches for him after that scene.

Brando earned his first Oscar win for his driving role as Terry.  He is perfectly unrefined, often chewing with mouth open and leans against things.  Within the workings of the mob, Brando makes Terry too trusting at first, then resentful, and grows to becoming lazy and defiant as his conscience grows.  Around Edie, his guilt pull him towards her and transforms him into a charming young man in his ignorant wise-guy ways.  But the powerful ending, that I dare not ruin for any newbies, is where Brando really gives Terry his finest moment.

Elia Kazan’s On the Waterfront is a story of conscience, courage, integrity and regret.  Not only is the film based off some real life corruption and racketeering in Manhattan and Brooklyn, but Kazan choose to make this film to help illustrate his viewpoint in his decision to identify former Communists in the film industry before the House Committee on Un-American Activities.  Whether or not you keep the film’s realistic or political influences in mind, On the Waterfront is a class must-see for everyone.

“You don’t understand!  I coulda had class.  I coulda been a contender.  I coulda been somebody instead of a bum, which is what I am.”

America, America

In America, America, director Elia Kazan tells the personal story handed down by the elders of his family about his uncle’s dream and journey to America.  At the end of the nineteenth century, Stavros Topouzoglou (Stathis Giallelis) is a young Greek man in a small village in rural Turkey.  Here, the Turks are the upper-class and oppress the Greek and Armenian people.  Tired of being constantly pushed and humiliated, Stavros begins to rebel as Turks become more aggressive.   Afraid of his family being put in more danger, Stavros’s father sends him to a cousin in Constantinople to work and start a better life for the family.  The plan is that one by one, Stavros will send money for a family member to make the journey.  But Stavros has big plans of his own that he is sure will make his family proud.  He is determined to find a way to America.

At first, this big dream of America is just that; a fantasy of a poor boy.  Soon, we realize how brutally serious Stavros is about this, he begins to break his back working for pennies, desperately saving up for the money to make the voyage.  He’s very idealistic, but he soon learns some dark truths about what people will do for money.

Eventually, he turns to his cousin’s original plan for him to be come a gigolo.  Stavros is a handsome enough young man, if he can win the affections of some rich man’s ugly daughter, he will have plenty of money.  However, with this plan comes some heavy moral conflict, especially when the girl’s family is so kind and welcoming.

Filmed in a beautiful, crisp black and white, America, America can feel like a family photo album at times.  The collection of images feels so authentic and lovingly detailed, like suddenly finding yourself in your grandparent’s home decades ago.  They are not always pretty but they’re honest, like when Stavros is living in the streets of Constantinople and working himself to near death.  It’s like seeing tragic stories you may have heard from previous generations about times of war or economic depression.

Kazan has called America, America his favorite of the films he has directed, and I agree with him.  With the compelling story of a youth’s dream that will one day affect the next generations of his family, we feel a deeper connection and support Stavros more.  So many families have stories of the generation who bravely immigrated to America, but sadly, most have become forgotten.  The fact that Kazan’s family passed down this story is amazing enough, but for him to preserve and share it through this beautiful film is a whole other feat.

“Come on you.  Let’s go you.  People waiting.”