A Face In The Crowd (1957)

A guitar playing drifter (Andy Griffith in his film debut) has been in and out of jails aplenty. It's in jail that he's discovered by a local TV producer (Patricia Neal). Sensing that his down home personality will play on the radio, she builds him into a popular local personality. But his popularity soars beyond the limited Arkansas small town parameters and he becomes a national sensation. Based on the short story YOUR ARKANSAS TRAVELER by Budd Schulberg and directed by Elia Kazan (SPLENDOR IN THE GRASS). If at times overheated, Kazan's film remains a powerful look at how the media and a charismatic con man can dupe a gullible public too eager to fall under its spell. I'd always thought it seemed unlikely the public would fall for a vulgar lout like Griffith's character but this was pre-Trump and his ascension has made the movie prescient. With Walter Matthau, Lee Remick, Anthony Franciosa, Rip Torn, Lois Nettleton, Kay Medford, Faye Emerson and Carolyn Craig.