You'll notice a number of long takes in A Face in the Crowd. This Elia Kazan technique is probably the result of his fascination with the work of director John Ford, of whom Kazan claimed, "I got more from Ford than anybody else." In his early years while working on the 20th-Century-Fox lot, Kazan watched Ford direct as often as he could, repeating as his mantra, "I must learn from Ford. I must learn to hold the long shot and trust the long shot, not cut into it."

A Face in the Crowd is given an unmistakable air of authenticity by the presence of a number of well-known television personalities playing themselves - Mike Wallace, John Cameron Swayze, Betty Furness, Fave Emerson, Virginia Graham, and Burl Ives, among others.

Walter Winchell, who also portrays himself in A Face in the Crowd, was the inspiration for another title in TCM's 'The Essentials" series - Sweet Smell of Success, which was released the same year as A Face in the Crowd.

Prior to his acting career, Andy Griffith studied to become a preacher but later abandoned that path to concentrate on his singing and guitar playing. He eventually changed his focus to drama and in the late forties and early fifties played Sir Walter Raleigh in the historical pageant Lost Colony.

by Scott McGee