The Crowd (1928) on Netflix
John Sims comes to New York City to become somebody important and joins the office workers at the Atlas Insurance Company. On a double date to Coney Island he meets Mary.
- Netflix4.4/5
- IMDb8.0/1010,132 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes96%
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Plot summary
John Sims is born on the Fourth of July in 1900 and loses his father at twelve. At twenty-one he sets out for New York City, convinced he will become somebody important; on the crossing a fellow passenger tells him he must be good to stand out from the crowd. He finds work as one of many office employees at the Atlas Insurance Company. A colleague named Bert persuades him to join a double date at Coney Island, and John is so taken with Mary that he proposes before the evening ends. She accepts. Bert doubts the marriage will last. At a Christmas dinner in their small apartment, Mary's mother and her brothers sit down with them, and the gathering goes badly.
Cast
- Daniel G. Tomlinsonas Jim
- Alice Mildred Puteras Sims Daughter
- John D. Blossas Boy on Fence (uncredited)
- Roy Blossas Boy on Fence (uncredited)
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Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Crowd (1928)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- MGM chief Louis B. Mayer reportedly disliked the film for its bleak subject matter and lack of a happy ending, and the studio held it from release for almost a year. At the studio's insistence seven alternate upbeat endings were filmed; it was released with two endings and exhibitors could choose which to show.
- James Murray, the unknown King Vidor cast as John Sims, succumbed to alcoholism; when Vidor offered him a part in Our Daily Bread after seeing him panhandling, Murray angrily refused. Murray's body was found in the Hudson River in 1936, and Vidor's 1979 attempt to film a screenplay based on Murray's story was never made.
- King Vidor avoided casting big-name stars to get greater authenticity; James Murray, his John Sims, began as a studio extra and reached California riding boxcars and doing odd jobs such as shoveling coal and washing dishes.
- In 1989 The Crowd was one of the first 25 films chosen by the Library of Congress for preservation in the United States National Film Registry, for being culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.
- The Crowd mixes moving camera cinematography with hidden cameras in some New York City scenes and subtle use of scale models and dissolves, influenced by 1920s German cinema and F.W. Murnau in particular.
