King Vidor must have had good standing with the powers that be at MGM, because as a director in the studio era he seemed to get to pick and shape his assignments more than most directors of that time.
King Vidor made this film to be an artistic achievement, even recruiting unknown actor James Murray - a member of "the crowd" you might say - to play the male lead, all with MGM approval. Murray plays John Sims, a representative everyman who all through life, up to the end of the film thinks he is going to beat "the crowd" and be somebody. He is born July 4, 1900 with his father saying "the world is going to hear from this boy". Unfortunately, John's dad dies when he is 12, and at 21 John heads to New York to make his success. He starts out at a desk amid hundreds of other desks doing simple mathematical clerical work for an insurance company - work that decades ago was replaced by computers. Unfortunately, John's career not only starts there, it ends there too, with only one 8 dollar raise in six years to show for it. What really stings is that John's playboy coworker Bert (Bert Roach) works his way up into management even though they both started work there at about the same time.
In one of his rare pieces of luck John does meet a girl (Eleanor Boardman as Mary) that he loves and who loves him back for what he is, not what he says he'll be. When John finally does win some kind of recognition - he wins a 500 dollar prize for coming up with the name for a new cleanser - it ultimately becomes the instrument of destruction for his entire family and any drive he has left.
The ending looks like it's a happy one - after John quits his job and can't make it at any other job he finds, almost losing Mary in the process, he finally resigns himself to accepting and keeping any job - one that he ridiculed when he first came to New York seven years before. The final scene has John and family enjoying a night of fun at the local vaudeville house in celebration of his new job, menial though it is, laughing with an auditorium full of people. What has really happened though is that John has finally surrendered his dream and is now happy being just one of the crowd - a bittersweet ending in my humble opinion.
This film blends vintage scenes of old New York of the 20's with themes anyone can relate to today - the drive to succeed, the likelihood that most by definition will not, beauty being in the eye of the beholder, and trying to hold a family together after a tragic and sudden loss. I highly recommend this wonderful film.
King Vidor made this film to be an artistic achievement, even recruiting unknown actor James Murray - a member of "the crowd" you might say - to play the male lead, all with MGM approval. Murray plays John Sims, a representative everyman who all through life, up to the end of the film thinks he is going to beat "the crowd" and be somebody. He is born July 4, 1900 with his father saying "the world is going to hear from this boy". Unfortunately, John's dad dies when he is 12, and at 21 John heads to New York to make his success. He starts out at a desk amid hundreds of other desks doing simple mathematical clerical work for an insurance company - work that decades ago was replaced by computers. Unfortunately, John's career not only starts there, it ends there too, with only one 8 dollar raise in six years to show for it. What really stings is that John's playboy coworker Bert (Bert Roach) works his way up into management even though they both started work there at about the same time.
In one of his rare pieces of luck John does meet a girl (Eleanor Boardman as Mary) that he loves and who loves him back for what he is, not what he says he'll be. When John finally does win some kind of recognition - he wins a 500 dollar prize for coming up with the name for a new cleanser - it ultimately becomes the instrument of destruction for his entire family and any drive he has left.
The ending looks like it's a happy one - after John quits his job and can't make it at any other job he finds, almost losing Mary in the process, he finally resigns himself to accepting and keeping any job - one that he ridiculed when he first came to New York seven years before. The final scene has John and family enjoying a night of fun at the local vaudeville house in celebration of his new job, menial though it is, laughing with an auditorium full of people. What has really happened though is that John has finally surrendered his dream and is now happy being just one of the crowd - a bittersweet ending in my humble opinion.
This film blends vintage scenes of old New York of the 20's with themes anyone can relate to today - the drive to succeed, the likelihood that most by definition will not, beauty being in the eye of the beholder, and trying to hold a family together after a tragic and sudden loss. I highly recommend this wonderful film.