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A FACE IN THE CROWD
July 5, 2012  | By David Bianculli

TCM, 1:45 a.m. ET

 

Spike Lee’s final choice as tonight’s TCM guest programmer, selected months ago, has special resonance this week. It’s the 1957 movie that made a star of Andy Griffith, who died Tuesday. Elia Kazan directed this film, released three years before The Andy Griith Show. It tells of an aimless, unknown folksinger – Larry “Lonesome” Rhodes, played by Griffith – who becomes a national singing and TV star, and reacts to fame less than graciously. The screenplay was written by Budd Schulberg, whose ability to predict, and comment cynically upon, the future of television makes this a worthy precursor of Paddy Chayefsky’s Network. Co-stars include Patricia Neal, Lee Remick and Walter Matthau.

 
 
 
 
 
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