2h 6min | Drama, Music | 28 May 1957 | b/w, WS
Director: Elia Kazan
Stars: Andy Griffith, Patricia Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau, Lee Remick.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0050371/
Nearly 2 decades before Network (1976), this cautionary tale about the power of TV, radio, and pop culture in general, was created. Too bad writer Budd Schulberg didn't live to see the current incarnation of Lonesome Rhodes, and where he is now.
Per the featurette, this was not well received at the time. Per IMDb, he did get a DGA nom for best director, one of 17 noms. The only other award is the placement of the film on the National Film Registry in 2008.
Kazan testified before HUAC in '52. In the featurette, someone contrasts his directing style before and after that event by comparing Gentlemen's Agreement ('47) with On the Waterfront ('54), and claims that his films became more nuanced thematically and visually. This one has the extra layer that Lonesome Rhodes is about to endorse and work for a presidential candidate, which says something about anyone elected, including House and Senate members who conduct things like HUAC.
I dreaded watching this, but didn't find it so horrific as I remembered. I rated it 8 on 2016-11-07, 1 day before the presidential election. Too bad I wasn't writing posts like this back then.
The music here is pop country, not my milieu.
Lee Remick's (b. '35) 1st film of 29; she is luminous, and convincing as a 17 yo.
Good writing and performances all around.
Newtown Prod., distr. Warner, dir. Kazan; 8
