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A Face in the Crowd

1957 · 125 min

A sharp, unsettling rise-and-fall drama that exposes the seductive danger of media fame and the emptiness behind a charismatic smile.

Directed by
Elia Kazan
Genres
Drama
Tagline
POWER! He loved it! He took it raw in big gulpfuls … he liked the taste, the way it mixed with the bourbon and the sin in his blood!
Overview
The rise of a raucous hayseed named Lonesome Rhodes from itinerant Ozark guitar picker to local media rabble-rouser to TV superstar and political king-maker. Marcia Jeffries is the innocent Sarah Lawrence girl who discovers the great man in a back-country jail and is the first to fall under his spell.

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Directed by
Elia Kazan
Genres
Drama
In your watch list

How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone
  • satiricalstrength 3 of 3
  • darkstrength 2 of 3
  • cynicalstrength 2 of 3
  • tensestrength 2 of 3
Pacing
measured, 2 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention
engaged, 3 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes
  • power
  • media
  • corruption
  • ambition
  • betrayal
Places
  • big city
  • small town
  • workplace
Era
period
Audience
adult
Form
  • nonlinear
Content intensity
  • Gore none
  • Language mild
  • Violence mild
  • Sex mild
All scales, 0 to 10
Scales, 0 to 10
ScaleValue0 to 10
Action2
Horror1
Humour4
Realism8
Romance3
Tension6
Darkness7
Complexity7
Emotional weight8

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Cast

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Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres
drama
Directed by
Elia Kazan
Written by
Budd Schulberg
Starring
Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau, Lee Remick, Percy Waram, Paul McGrath, Rod Brasfield
Music
Tom Glazer
Cinematography
Gayne Rescher, Harry Stradling Sr.
Runtime
125 min
Country
United States of America
Languages
English

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