The greatest silent film perhaps ever made was so unusual, it was not released for almost a year. It broke every rule in the book and lost out on an Academy Award because it dared to show a toilet in a modest family apartment. The classic World War I drama “The Big Parade” became the most profitable film in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer history, a rank it held until “Gone With the Wind.” As a result, producer Irving Thalberg gave director King Vidor a chance to make a seemingly non-commercial film about the average man’s journey through life. MGM could afford an experiment now and then, Hollywood’s boy wonder assured Vidor without seeing a screenplay. The finished film grossed nearly $1 million but was so offbeat the studio delayed it and nervously reworked it, omitting a prominent character played by a rising young star. Several different finales were filmed; it was clumsily sent out to theatre owners with an alternate happy ending, and the choice left up to them. “The Crowd” was among the last silent films, released in 1928 at the dawn of the talkies and saved from the dreaded addition of sound sequences perhaps only because MGM was slower than most studios to adopt the new technology. MGM’s Louis B. Mayer himself vetoed the film’s Academy Award chances because Vidor showed a lavatory, referring to it as “that goddamn toilet picture.” James Murray, an extra handpicked for the starring role, managed to hide a serious drinking problem during filming but allowed it to destroy a promising career and died tragically young. In addition to his interviews with Vidor and Eleanor Boardman, his then-wife and the film’s female lead, the author had access to studio memos, telegrams and other documents—plus virtually every draft of the screenplay, enabling him to track the project from rough idea to problematic finished product. The book describes and illustrates a variety of deleted scenes, as well as alternate endings. Details of the film’s release and restoration are also included, along with biographical sketches of the cast and crew and a listing of unbilled actors and creative personnel, many previously uncredited. “ ‘The Crowd’ is practically plotless. And yet every incident is so brilliantly directed and acted that the film blazes to life. The shots are simple, yet full of emotional power; King Vidor treats his characters so lovingly and with such understanding that one cannot help but share his feelings. ‘The Crowd’ is the finest American silent film I have ever seen,” says Oscar-winning film historian Kevin Brownlow, who wrote the forward. “Jordan Young’s research is worthy of his subject… I read it at one gulp, and found it as fascinating as I had hoped.” The revised paperback edition includes more than 100 illustrations, magazine and newspaper articles and other memorabilia, much of it omitted from the ebook. The essence of the separately published Addendum is also included, as of Sept. 12, 2017.

King Vidor's THE CROWD: The Making of a Silent Classic (Past Times Film Close-Up Series)

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Young, Jordan R.

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King Vidor's THE CROWD: The Making of a Silent Classic (Past Times Film Close-Up Series)