The Crowd (1928) Reviews

• Depressing but fascinating

  preppy-32003-06-20

  Silent drama about John (James Murray) and Mary (Eleanor Boardman) meeting in NYC, falling in love and marrying. John wants to make it big--to be somebody. He looks down on those who, he feels, have failed. 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. A failure when first released (it's easy to see why--it's very depressing) but now considered a masterpiece. The story is grim but the ending is happy and realistic. Murray and Boardman give superb performances (especially Murray during a scene with his son on a bridge) and King Vidor's direction is superb. The visuals in this film are decades ahead of their time. His use of the crowds and the individuals lost among them are just great. Hard to describe but a definite must-see. Just don't expect a barrel of laughs.

• One of the greatest of all American films.

  bgrey5172006-05-13

  "The Crowd" is King Vidor's experimental triumph, a snapshot of the common man that perfectly captured not only the exhilarating whir and unbridled optimism of the Roaring Twenties but also the cruel realities of life without a social safety net. Vidor conned his studio bosses into letting him make this little movie, with a comparatively small budget, in exchange for Vidor's future commitments to commercial, big-budget pictures that were MGM's bread and butter. Vidor cast his wife, the beautiful Eleanor Boardman, as the plain Jane female lead Mary. Reports say Boardman was nonplussed at having to look so ordinary on screen, especially since she was the prototypical movie star -- snooty and obsessed with clothes and all issues of personal style. For the hero, John, Vidor literally picked a face from "the crowd" -- a little-known actor named James Murray whose own life and ultimate fate eerily mirrored those of the character he played. A few years after "The Crowd," the troubled Murray was a suicide, jumping to his drowning death. While his character in the film doesn't kill himself, he does come awfully close -- his suicidal impulse to jump from a railroad trestle is aborted only for the love of an adoring son. I would love this movie if for no other reason than the gorgeous tracking shot up the side of the skyscraper at the beginning, where we meet John at work, a faceless functionary at a giant, depersonalized corporation that seems to be model for modern corporate America. This movie is worth seeing, even with the happy ending Vidor chose from seven he shot. Actually, I kind of like the ending -- John, Mary and son fade back into "the crowd"; it seems like the most logical and happiest fate they could hope to attain. This is truly a great film.

• Ordinary People

  lugonian2002-03-22

  "THE CROWD" (Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1928), directed by King Vidor, is a story about the average man, a born dreamer who promises but doesn't deliver, and his struggle to succeed and fight financial ruin. While top-billing goes to Vidor's wife, Eleanor Boardman, the movie belongs to an unknown named James Murray, who, in his debut performance as a movie actor, gives a remarkable performance as an ordinary American man with high ambitions. The story about this common man begins on the 124th birthday of America, July 4th, 1900, in which a doctor delivers a baby boy to the Sims household. The baby boy is named John. The next scene finds John, now age 12, sitting on a wooden fence with his buddies, all discussing what they want to be when they grow up. John tells the other boys that he has big plans for his future, that he's going to be somebody really big. Suddenly a horse pulling ambulance stops in front of the Sims home. As Johnny rushes to see what's wrong, he is told by his mother that his father has died. Before the fade-out, this scene follows the boy with the shock-filled face walking alongside his mother up a long flight of stairs to be his father for the very last time. Years pass. Now John Sims (James Murray), age 21, has left his small town existence for a new life in New York City with great ambition to succeed. He later obtains an office job by day and goes to school at night. One evening, Bert (Bert Roach), John's co-worker and friend, persuades him to skip his studies and go on a double date with him and Jane (Estelle Clark). John is introduced to Jane's friend, Mary (Eleanor Boardman). John and Mary become acquainted, and after spending the fun evening in Coney Island, John proposes marriage to her as they return home by subway. Against the advise of her brothers (Daniel G. Tomlinson and Dell Henderson), Mary marries John. Over the years John and Mary become the parents of two children, a boy called Junior (Freddie Burke Frederick) and a girl (Alice Mildred Puter). While all seems to be going right for John, his marriage starts to fall apart as Mary gets fed up with John's constant promises he fails to keep, the loss of one of his children followed by the loss of his job, and depression leading John to a brink of suicide. While MGM is best known for producing top-notch films headed by top-named stars, "The Crowd" features none of those elements. Instead of heading the cast with box office draws as John Gilbert and Norma Shearer, who could easily have played John and Mary, director Vidor uses his actress wife, Boardman, and an unknown he picked from the crowd named James Murray, supported by actors not known for anything more than minor character parts, such as Bert Roach, Lucy Beaumont as Mary's mother; and a crowd of street extras. What makes this movie so remarkable today is that the leading players are so real. John and Mary could be anybody watching this film. And the best of all, they aren't faked with glamour and sophistication that best expresses MGM movies. John and Mary are just ordinary people going about their ordinary lives. They love, quarrel and make up again. And whether "The Crowd" was actually filmed on location in New York City or not doesn't really matter. The feel of The Big Apple is there from the early sequence in which John observes New York City from the Hudson River ferry to the family having a picnic gathering on the beach on Coney Island; as well as the camera panning through the skyscrapers of the big city which leads to that now famous shot to the overhead view of a gigantic office with rows of desks and white-collar workers in their nine to five jobs. The characters of John and Mary Sims were presented on film once again by King Vidor in an independent film titled "Our Daily Bread" (United Artists, 1934) starring Karen Morley and Tom Keene in the roles originated by Boardman and Murray. While Morley and Keene almost physically resemble their predecessors, what a treat it would have been if Boardman and Murray reprised their roles in the talkie sequel which depicts the Sims couple (sans children) struggling through the Depression by starting a farming community. By then, Boardman retired from acting and Murray was, like the character he played in "The Crowd," a man with ambition who fails to meet with success. Murray's reported drowning death in 1936 remains a mystery as to whether it was suicide or accidental. It's no wonder why Murray was so good in playing John Sims. He was really starring in his own life story, and didn't know it. "The Crowd" was one of 13 MGM silent features that premiered on New York City's public television station of WNET, Channel 13, September 28, 1973, on MOVIES, GREAT MOVIES, hosted by Richard Schickel, with movie accompanied by an original score produced for this series. It was also one of the movies I recall watching every time it showed mainly because of an ordinary story that succeeds in holding my interest from start to finish. It's still a remarkable even today, ranking it one of the best silent movies ever produced. Out of circulation for more than a decade, "The Crowd" was distributed on video cassette in 1989 with a new Thames Orchestra score conducted by Carl Davis. At the running time of 104 minutes, "The Crowd" currently plays on Turner Classic Movies on a shorter length of 93 minutes. It's been mentioned by TV hosts, including Robert Osborne of TCM, that "The Crowd" was not an initial success, but thanks to frequent revivals in recent decades, it has been hailed, rightfully, as a cinematic masterpiece. (****)

• When my ship comes in.

  dbdumonteil2001-12-29

  Restored with a very nice score,"the crowd" hasn't aged a bit.The topic is as relevant today as it was in 1928.Do have a look at the first pictures of "the apartment" (1960) or the last ones of "working girl"(1988)and you'll know what I mean. John Sims tries to beat the crowd,this crowd that follows him everywhere,at work,in the streets,at the fair or on the beach.He doesn't even realize his condition :you should see him laughing at the people on the street,behaving like sheep.It's always someone else,his wife says,take a look at yourself. The secondary characters are wonderfully depicted:the well-padded buddy,the mother and brothers-in-law always contemptuous,always putting John down.Lots of sequences are memorable,now comic,now tragic:the tiny flat where even the bed must be folded,the huge office where employees are doing the same job at the same time,where everybody acts alike when they leave their job,like some kind of ballet. John Sims is the embodiment of the American dream,but it has an universal appeal.When he was born,his father promised he would have good prospects,he would become someone big.King Vidor does not show the relationship father/son cause the father disappears when John is still a boy,but we can easily imagine it.So Sims thought NY was depending on him,and he discovers that he will be a wash-out all his life.If it weren't for his little boy who still believes in him(Vittorio de Sica will remember it for his "bicycle thief",he would throw himself under a train. The cinematography is prodigious;two examples : The father is dead, the boy is climbing a stair : stunning high angle shot,enhancing his awful pain. On the contrary,the skyscrapers are filmed from below,showing how lost a human being can feel in this steel and glass world . A detail :the hysterical/historical joke at the fair will be used again by the Beatles themselves in their "magical mystery tour" home-made movie. 1928:the silent era was coming to an end but we had not heard the last of it.

• David Jeffers for SIFFblog

  rdjeffers2005-09-13

  Monday April 18, 7pm, The Paramount, Seattle "The Crowd laughs with you always …. but it will cry with you for only a day." King Vidor's masterpiece, The Crowd, is a landmark of Hollywood's silent era. The delirious joy and horrific sorrow of Johnny Sims (James Murray) and his beautiful Mary (Eleanor Boardman) remains intimate and touching even today. Theatergoers in 1928 were shocked by the visceral impact of this film. It is a simple story of boy meets girl, boy marries girl, love and tragedy amid the humdrum routine of daily life in the big city, told with poetic beauty and startling realism. 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 terrifying enormity of New York City, where people thrive or are swallowed up. "The Crowd" is among the finest films produced by MGM's "Wonder Boy" Irving Thalberg during the silent era's golden age. "So Real It Makes You Part of The Story."" Barely one month after opening, King Vidor's The Crowd, came to Publix-Loew's Seattle Theatre (re-named Paramount in 1932) at 9th and Pine on Thursday, March 29, 1928. The stage show featured Jules Buffano and the Seattle Stage Band offering an updated jazz version of Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado in "Paul Ash's New York Revue starring Bob LaSalle and the Kimawa Troupe." Also on the bill, The Darling Twins, eight Geisha Girls, the Seattle Grand Orchestra conducted by Arthur Clausen performing the overture "Rigoletto", with Ron and Don at the Grand Organ. Admission was 25c from 11:30 to 1, 35c from 1 to 6 and 50c after 6.