Face in the Crowd

Some say this is not a true film noir. Nevertheless, it’s as downright cynical and pessimistic as you could want. If you know Andy Griffith only as a good ole boy single-dad Sheriff, this movie will shock you. It shocked him, too. Griffith - in his first screen performance - found the role of amoral, narcissistic charlatan “Lonesome” Rhodes so personally distasteful he declared never to play such a character again.  In 1960, he moved permanently to Mayberry.

Co-starring Patricia Neal and Walter Matthau, directed by Elia Kazan, written by Bud Schulberg (On the Waterfront), it caused a national stir when released in 1957. A critique of mass media, mass manipulation, mass corruption. A thick slice of sour American pie.