The Crowd (1928)

“The crowd laughs with you always… but it will cry with you for only a day.” – Title Card

Number of Times Seen – 1 (25 Oct 2018)

Brief Synopsis – A young man tries to make his mark on the world in order to ensure that he doesn’t just remain one voice in the crowd.

My Take on it – This is yet another film that I had never heard of before seeing that King Vidor was nominated for Best Director fr this film at the very first Oscar Ceremony in 1928.

The film is truly amazing and despite the fact that on the surface it seems very simplistic, it is in fact quite complex in its themes and messages.

Vidor does a wonderful job telling this story in a way that it feels so relatable to the viewer.

The fact that even after over 90 years later it still feels relevant says so much about the film and Vidor’s vision.

This film deals with the premise that most people want to find a ways to stand out from everyone else and be deemed unique but the fact that we are all always surrounded by so many other people makes that uniqueness much harder to be see that uniqueness unless it is some how highlighted.

The story is told very realistically and that helps make the characters and story seem as if they are based on factual people and events that happened.

Vidor was quite deserving of his Oscar nomination for Best Director for this work but since he was at odds with others in the studio due to the lack of an upbeat story.

This is the kind of film that I’ll definitely need to see again in order to try and catch all that I must have missed along the way.

Bottom Line – Amazing film that on the surface seems to be quite simplistic yet is in reality quite complex. Vidor does a wonderful job telling this story in a way that it can be so relatable to just about anyone. Ironically, it’s still feels that way after over 90 years. This movie deals with the idea that people want to each find a way to be unique and stand out from everyone else, but the vast number of people that surround us make it even more difficult to spot the special-ness of each person if it isn’t highlighted some how.  The story is told in a very realistic fashion which helps make it seem like these people and events actually occurred at some point. Vidor was deservingly nominated for Best Director (Drama) at the Oscars that year, but lost due to studio infighting since the film was viewed by some as being too bleak instead of upbeat.  Can’t wait to see this again one day to catch all that I must have missed along the way. Highly Recommended!

MovieRob’s Favorite Trivia – Several years after the film was made, alcoholism had taken its toll on lead actor James Murray, who was reduced to panhandling in the street. Ironically, one of the passers-by he solicited for money turned out to be King Vidor, who offered him a part in the film’s semi-sequel, Our Daily Bread (1934). Murray declined the offer, thinking it was only made out of pity. He died in 1936 at the age of 35 in a drowning incident. Vidor was sufficiently compelled to write his life story as an unrealized screenplay, which he called “The Actor” (From IMDB)

Rating – Oscar Worthy (9/10)

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