by Julian Spivey

In 1957, three years before Andy Griffith would become wholesome sheriff Andy Taylor in the television series The Andy Griffith Show, he was "Lonesome" Rhodes, a character that definitely did not exude Mayberry, U.S.A.

Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd is a superb cautionary tale about the rise and fall of a common man who was thought to be fighting for the people who looked up to him.

The script was penned by Budd Schulberg, adapted from his short story, "The Arkansas Traveler." Schulberg and Kazan had teamed up three years before on the script for On the Waterfront, which won the Oscar for best picture.

Rhodes is discovered drunk, dirty and without a penny to his name by Marcia Jeffries, played by Patricia Neal, in a small Arkansas prison.

Jeffries, a producer for a local radio station, is looking for new talent and the smooth-talking, country bumpkin drifter Rhodes fits the bill.

Rhodes' country humor and down-home Southern attitude goes over well with the common folk of the region. He soon receives his own local television show in Memphis, Tenn.

Rhodes, with his common-man appeal, is helped along the way by Jeffries and writer Mel Miller, played by Walter Matthau in one of his first film roles, eventually making it all the way to a major network in New York.

In New York, the format of Rhodes' show basically remains the same. The show gives the feel of a small-town production, even though it's being broadcast to countless television sets across the country.

The increasing ratings of the show lead to Rhodes' escalating ego. It doesn't take long for the small-town bumpkin to turn into a big-headed superstar.

After Rhodes breaks the heart of Jeffries, the woman who made him who he is, she decides to let the entire world know who Lonesome Rhodes truly is.

After an episode of his live show the credits are running across the scene and Rhodes and the other characters on the show are muted as the theme music plays.

As Rhodes is degrading his viewers to his friends on the show, Jeffries flips a switch in the control room and the true identity of Lonesome Rhodes is finally revealed to his adoring public.

It's obvious that this is the end of Rhodes' career. However, it's only the setup for the greatest scene in the film and arguably one of the most haunting mental breakdown performances by any actor in cinema history.

Jeffries shows up at Rhodes' apartment and reveals to him that she is the one who tore him down, just as she built him up. When Rhodes exclaims that he isn't finished, Matthau as Miller breaks into one of the greatest speeches in film history, acknowledging the fact that there's a poor sucker born every minute and all of them are out for their 15 minutes of fame.

The film ends with a disheveled Rhodes screaming out his window to Jeffries that he desperately needs her as she drives away.