The Crowd (1928)

The Crowd (1928)

„The Crowd“ is a 1928 silent romance film directed by King Vidor. The screenplay was written by King Vidor and John V.A. Weaver, based on an adaptation of a story by King Vidor by Harry Behn.

Born on the Fourth of July, 1900, John Sims loses his father when he is twelve. At 21, he sets out for New York City, where he is sure he will become somebody important, just as his father had always believed. Another boat passenger tells him he will have to be good in order to stand out from the crowd.

John gets a job as one of many office workers of the Atlas Insurance Company. Fellow employee Bert talks him into a double date to Coney Island. John is so smitten with Mary, he proposes to her at the end of the date. She accepts. Bert predicts the marriage will last a year or two.

A Christmas Eve dinner in their tiny apartment with Mary’s mother and two brothers, Jim, and Dick with whom John is not on friendly terms, ends badly. John goes to Bert’s to get some liquor. A young woman there throws herself at him, complimenting him on his looks, and starts to dance with him. John returns home very late and very drunk. Mary’s family has gone home, and she tells him that they do not understand him. They exchange Christmas gifts and John compliments her, but yells at her when she does something trivial.

In April, they quarrel and Mary threatens to leave, and is shocked and hurt by John’s apathy when he does not try to stop her. The couple reconciles when Mary tells John that she is pregnant. She gives birth to a son. Over the next five years, the couple have a daughter and an $8 raise, but Mary is dissatisfied with John’s lack of advancement, in light of John’s big talk about his prospects.

Finally, John wins $500 for an advertising slogan, and buys presents for his family. When he and Mary urge their children to rush home to see their gifts, their daughter is killed by a truck. John is overcome with grief, cannot function at work, is reprimanded, then quits.

John gets other jobs, but can’t hold any of them. Mary’s brothers reluctantly offer him a position, but John is too proud to accept a „charity job“. In a fit of rage, Mary slaps him. John goes for a walk, contemplates suicide, but his son goes with him. The child’s unconditional love makes him rethink his situation, and he changes his mind. John gets work as a sandwich board carrier and returns home, his optimism renewed, only to find Mary about to leave with her brothers. She steps out of the house, but no further. She loves John too much to abandon him. The reconciled family attends a vaudeville comedy show, with the final shot showing them overcome with laughter, and lost in the crowded audience of laughing people.

A 1928 American silent romance film directed by King Vidor, produced by Irving Thalberg, screenplay by King Vidor and John V.A. Weaver, intertirles by Joseph Farnham, story by King Vidor and Harry Behn, cinematography by Henry Sharp, starring James Murray, Eleanor Boardman, Bert Roach, Estelle Clark, Daniel G. Tomlinson, Dell Henderson, Lucy Beaumont, Freddie Burke Frederick, and Alice Mildred Puter.

Conceived by director Vidor and filmed after the box office success of his critically acclaimed previous film, „The Big Parade“. Vidor wanted it to be innovative in its story, acting, and cinematography. The film mixes striking visual styles, moving as well as hidden camera cinematography, and subtle use of scale models and dissolves. Influenced by 1920s German cinema and F.W. Murnau in particular, with intense, intimate scenes of the family’s struggle. Vidor avoided casting big-name stars in the film to attain greater authenticity. Murray had started as a studio extra, and had appeared in featured roles already, but had made his way to California riding boxcars and doing odd jobs such as shoveling coal and washing dishes. His female lead, Eleanor Boardman, was an MGM contract actress and also Vidor’s second wife.

Vidor’s financial success at MGM in the 1920s allowed him to sell the unusual scenario to production head Irving Thalberg as an experimental film. MGM chief Louis B. Mayer disliked the film for its bleak subject matter and lack of a happy ending, and the studio held the film from release for almost a year. At the studio’s insistence, seven alternate upbeat endings were filmed, and previewed in small towns. The film was finally released with two endings, one Vidor’s original ending, and another with the family gathered around a Christmas tree after John has gotten a job with an advertising agency. Exhibitors could choose which version to show, but, at least according to Vidor, the happy ending was rarely shown.

Vidor used the John and Mary Sims characters again, with different actors, in „Our Daily Bread“ (1934).

This was nominated at the very first Academy Award presentation in 1929, for Unique and Artistic Production for MGM and Best Director for Vidor.

Mordaunt Hall, a reviewer for The New York Times in 1928, called it „substantial and worthy“ and „a powerful analysis of a young couple’s struggle for existence in this city“.

Cast:

• Eleanor Boardman – Mary Sims
• James Murray – John Sims
• Bert Roach – Bert
• Estelle Clark – Jane
• Daniel G. Tomlinson – Jim, Mary’s Brother
• Dell Henderson – Dick, Mary’s Brother
• Lucy Beaumont – Mary’s Mother
• Freddie Burke Frederick – Junior Sims
• Alice Mildred Puter – Baby Sims
• John D. Bloss – Boy on Fence
• Roy Bloss – Boy on Fence
• Larry Steers – Doctor at Hospital
• Johnny Downs – John, Age 12
• Sidney Bracey – John’s Supervisor
• Virginia Sale – Mary’s Sister-in-Law
• Joseph W. Girard – Member of Board of Directors
• Warner Richmond – Mr. Sims, John’s Father
• Sally Eilers – Party Girl at Bert’s Place
• Pat Harmon – Truck Driver
• Claude Payton – Undetermined Secondary Role
• Chris-Pin Martin – Worker in Hallway

„Ein Mensch der Masse“ (The Crowd) ist ein romantischer Stummfilm aus dem Jahr 1928 unter der Regie von King Vidor. Das Drehbuch schrieben King Vidor und John V.A. Weaver, basierend auf der Adaption einer Geschichte von King Vidor von Harry Behn.
Geboren am vierten Juli 1900, verliert John Sims seinen Vater, als er zwölf Jahre alt ist. Mit 21 Jahren macht er sich auf den Weg nach New York City, wo er sicher ist, dass er es zu etwas Bedeutendem bringen wird, so wie es sein Vater immer geglaubt hatte. Ein anderer Schiffspassagier sagt ihm, dass er gut sein muss, um sich von der Masse abzuheben.