NR | Romance/Drama | 1 Hour 38 Minutes | $6.00 General Admission/ Members
“To conclude you are ‘nothing special,’ to accept your fate as one of the many blades of grass in a field stirred by the wind, is to see the world with new eyes.”
“The crowd laughs with you always… but it will cry with you for only a day.’
“The Crowd” is among the finest films produced by MGM’s “Wonder Boy” Irving Thalberg during the silent era’s golden age.
John and Mary meet in NYC, fall in love and become engaged in just one night on their first date at Coney Island. John wants to make it big–to be somebody. He is the victim of the almost manic optimism of the 1920’s that believed that anyone can succeed in America – if you have enough “gumption”. Therefore, John looks down on those who, he feels, have failed and ridicules those (in his opinion) with low and demeaning jobs. But, after marriage and two kids, he’s still stuck in the same dead-end job and sees no way out. Then tragedy strikes and John starts to crack. Will John stay in his self-destructive spiral? Or, will he become part of “The Crowd”.
Director Vidor and cinematographer Henry Sharp treat the viewer to breathtaking moments: The magical lights of Coney Island at night, the roaring grandeur of Niagara Falls and the famous opening shot which shows the terrifying enormity of New York City, full of cold, sterile skyscrapers full of equally, cold, sterile companies; where people either thrive or are swallowed up. One look and you know John’s office is not Dunder-Mifflin. Also shown is DW Griffith’s film short of 1912 – “The Musketeers of Pig Alley”.
Sunday Silents is made possible by the generous support of Jim Demaio, State Farm Insurance Agent, New Paltz