THE CROWD (1928) B/W "silent" 94m dir: King Vidor

w/James Murray, Eleanor Boardman (Vidor's wife at the time), Bert Roach, Estelle Clark

Director Vidor's masterpiece about a little man lost in the crowd of day-to-day living. This expressionistic film is essential viewing.

From Georges Sadoul's Dictionary of Films : "King Vidor wrote of this film: 'In the opening scenes of The Crowd we showed a group of people entering and leaving a large office building in downtown New York; then the camera tilted up framing a design of multitudinous windows and disclosing the great height of the structure. The camera traveled up the building, passing many floors and windows, until it stopped at one floor and moved into one window. Through the window one could discern hundreds of desks and clerks. The camera moved through the window and started an angled descent toward one desk and one clerk --- our "hero" concentrating on his monotonous duties. This camera maneuvre was designed to illustrate our theme --- one of the mob, one of the crowd ...' Under the influence of Murnau, Dupont, Lang, and Lubitsch, King Vidor made much use of the moving camera as an expressive device. Famous sequences: the shabby apartment of the man; his anxious wait for the birth of his son in a hospital with endless corridors; the crowds in the street indifferent to the death of his son; the final scene. But, according to Vidor, 'Finally the picture was sent out with two endings, so that the exhibitor could take his choice. The realistic ending showed Murray with his wife in a variety theater, laughing at a clown. Since he managed to enjoy life and thereafter conquer it, in this simple and inoffensive way, the camera moved back and up to lose him in the crowd as it had found him. In the course of the narrative he had not made a million dollars or committed a heinous crime, but he had managed to find joy in the face of adversity.' The optimistic interpretation offered by the director of the 'realistic' ending is not the only one possible. Because the 'hero' laughs at a clown dressed up as the kind of out-of-work man he himself had been, he abdicates all human dignity. And, like him, the crowd mocks itself as it is shaken by idiotic laughter. This often bitter film, Vidor's masterpiece, was very courageous in attempting to depict the life of the 'little man.' It was not, as often claimed, a commercial failure: it grossed a million dollars, twice its production costs."

For more about THE CROWD, also consult THE FOUNTAINHEAD.