Caught Elia Kazan's A Face in the Crowd
a couple of weeks ago. I would not have guessed that Andy Griffith had it in him to smolder and make a girl feel dirty but he did.(Or check out the first two minutes here.) A good flick to revisit in our time: the tale of a 2-bit, womanizing Arkansas schmuck who can turn on the folksy charm and thus rises from obscurity to demagogic greatness. It's terrific, even though it edges over into too much in the final act. Patricia Neal looks so fresh and Walter Matthau is so young!
The morning after we watched it, Mr. W. came down to coffee and asked, "Who is 'Lonsome Rhodes' (the Griffith character) today?" He anticipated Bill Clinton by about 35 years --it's astonishing the similarity. But no: "Oprah."
And behold, she's moving to my burg to be close to The One. Has she jumped the shark or what?
Still: perhaps she'd like to trade mansions with us. We might be willing to leave town for a period of time.
