Cinema
The Crowd
King Vidor · 1928
Synopsis
John Sims is born on 4 July 1900; his father, sure that he will make a name for himself, dies when he is twelve. At twenty-one, John arrives in New York and becomes one of the hundreds of employees of an insurance company. A colleague takes him to Coney Island, where he meets Mary; he proposes to her on the way back. They settle in a small apartment beside the elevated railway and have two children. In five years, his salary rises by eight dollars; he still dreams of success, and Mary grows impatient.
Context
After the success of The Big Parade, its maker proposed the subject to Irving Thalberg, who accepted it as an experiment the studio could afford. In the streets of New York, the cameraman filmed hidden in a cart disguised as a pile of crates, from the Bowery to Times Square. Seven endings were shot and tried out at previews; two were distributed, the director's and a happy ending around a Christmas tree, at the exhibitors' choice, and the second was rarely shown. The lead actor, James Murray, made some thirty more films before sinking into alcoholism; he drowned in the Hudson in 1936.
Who it is for
A silent film of about one hour forty minutes, with a highly mobile camera, under the influence of the German cinema of the day.
Prizes and reception
Two nominations at the first Academy Awards ceremony, including directing, and among the first twenty-five films chosen in 1989 by the Library of Congress.
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