Year: 1928
Country: United States
Language: Silent
Number: 38
Written by: King Vidor, John V. A. Weaver
Director: King Vidor
Starring: James Murray, Eleanor Boardman, Bert Roach, Estelle Clark
Oscar nominations: Best Picture - Unique and Artistic Production*, Best Director - Drama*
*there were two best picture and best director categories that time
King Vidor's The Crowd is the story about a young and ambitious hillbilly named John, who at the age of twenty-one goes to New York City, where he finds himself as small and unimportant as all the other ants living there. He works in an office all day. But after one night out on the town with a fellow employee, John meets the love of his life, Mary, whom after one date with, he propose to. Even though their honeymoon was a dance on roses, their marriage is quiet the opposite, with two brothers-in-law that criticizes John all the time. And when their young daughter suddenly get hit by a truck and dies, John becomes so devastated that he looses his office job, and finds it very hard to find a new job.
French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard was once asked why no one was making films about ordinary people. He then replied "Why remake The Crowd? It has already been done." The Crowd is indeed a movie about ordinary people, with all their ups and downs. Vidor also picked unknown amateur actors to play the roles of ordinary people, including his own wife, Eleanor Boardman as Mary. The cinematography is just amazing, with all the tall skyscrapers, all the big crowds, and all the identical office desks, which inspired Billy Wilder's famous opening scene in "The Apartment". The Crowd was suppose to have a dark ending, but the producers wanted a happy ending. So Vidor made seven different endings. And the ending he chose was a great ending, because it was not the perfect ending, but an ironic one, which I truly loved. Thumbs up.
Grade: B+
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