LYCOS RETRIEVER 
King Vidor: Crowd
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In this provocative study of the films of King Wallis Vidor (1894-1982), a noted French critic and an American filmologist try to clarify the paradoxes and conflicts that comprised Vidor's idyllic and recriminatory love affair with America. A third-generation Texan, who early saw the hand of fate calling him to reform the world, Vidor started directing in 1914, but it was not until his MGM films of the mid-1920s (The Big Parade, The Crowd) that he became a major figure. Durgnat and Simmon analyze his "populist" films of the 1930s (Street Scene, The Champ, Stella Dallas, The Citadel) and those (such as The Fountainhead) in which he criticized the cynicism of a corrupt social order. They regard even his later films (the "unapologetic melodramas" with a "wild flair," such as Duel in the Sun, as well as War and Peace and Solomon and Sheba) as closer to Griffith and Chaplin than to his contemporaries Wellman and Hawks. Filmography, photos.
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King Vidor's career was a long one, stretching from the 'teens to Duel in the Sun and The Fountainhead in the 1950s. The late 1920s was a time of extraordinary creativity for him, in a few short years, among others, he directed the first film to deal realistically with the doughboy's experience in WWI, The Big Parade, (and made John Gilbert a huge star) brought a distinct style of naturalism to the screen with The Crowd, and made a comedy, Show People, that represents the best of its stars, Marion Davies and William Haines.
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King Vidor filmed many scenes in New York City streets using real crowds instead of extras, real buses and trains, and even real traffic cops. In one scene, a police officer is looking toward the camera, admonishing someone to "move along". In fact, he was actually addressing Vidor and his disguised film crew. Vidor cleverly incorporated it into the scene.
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Vidor went on to direct a number of notable pictures including the film Irving Thalberg dubbed Vidor’s “experimental” work, The Crowd (1928), whose star James Murray would end up an alcoholic suicide. Equally innovative was Vidor’s first sound film, the all-black musical Hallelujah! (1929), although some felt it was condescending toward its characters. The Champ (1931), Stella Dallas (1937), Duel in the Sun (1946) and The Fountainhead (1949) all followed.
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Certainly one of Vidor's best films, a silent masterpiece which turns a realistically caustic eye on the illusionism of the American dream. A young man ('born on America's 124th birthday') arrives in the big city convinced that he is going to set the world on fire, only to find that life isn't quite like that. A humble but steady job leads to love, marriage, kids and a happiness arbitrarily cut short by an accident (one of the children is run over and killed) which leads to the loss of his job, despairing unemployment, and impossible tensions starting to erode the marriage. The performances are absolutely flawless, and astonishing location work in the busy New York streets (including a giddy tour of Coney Island on a blind date) lends a gritty ring of truth to his intensely human odyssey, bounded by his eager arrival among the skyscrapers (the camera slowly panning up the side of a vast office block to discover him at work, lost in a sea of identical desks), and the last shot that has him merging as just another face in the crowd. Simple but superb.
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One of Vidor's themes... particularly present in his underrated Street Scenes, is the conflict between the framework of the society and the needs of the individual. He's sees people criticizing one another based on what they are supposed to do, how they are supposed to act, and what they are supposed to achieve. Lost in all this is the individual, who the person really is. In this regard, The Crowd is actually hopeful while Street Scenes is tragic. In The Crowd, John's wife Mary (note the ordinary names) does understand him rather than cut on him, which is why she always winds up sticking by him despite his inability to earn, several near breakups, and his often demeaning manner toward people like her who are "beneath him".
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