The Criterion Collection, a continuing series of important classic and contemporary films presents A Face in the Crowd.
Before he brought Mayberry, North Carolina, into American homes and became an icon of moral rectitude as Sheriff Andy Taylor, Andy Griffith burst onto cinema screens as Lonesome Rhodes, a charismatic drifter with a canny, down-home wit and an avaricious taste for status and influence. After charming Arkansas radio reporter Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) and becoming a local media star, Rhodes leverages his growing popularity into national television fame and a trusted position among political and industrial power-brokers. Gradually Rhodes is corrupted by his own success and his laid-back attitude gives way to a monstrous off-camera personality. With stand-out supporting performances by Walter Matthau, Anthony Franciosa, and Lee Remick, director Elia Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg create a roaring statement against grassroots fascism, advertising fakery, and the pernicious influence of television on the political process.
Disc Features:
- New 2K digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack on the Blu-ray
- Introduction by filmmaker Steven Spielberg
- New conversation between filmmaker Martin Scorsese and critic Kent Jones
- Ron Simon on A Face in the Crowd and the Golden Age of Television
- Facing the Past, a 2005 documentary on the making of the film
- Griffith’s 1972 appearance on the television show Morning Exchange
- “What It Was, Was Football,” Griffith’s 1953 comedy monologue
- Afterword by filmmaker Spike Lee
- Trailer
- PLUS: An interview with Elia Kazan on A Face in the Crowd, an essay by historian Foster Hirsch and a reprint of Budd Schulberg’s short source story “Your Arkansas Traveler”
