ONIONHEAD, 1958 (Courtesy Everett Collection)
NO TIME FOR SERGEANTS, 1958 (
)
A FACE IN THE CROWD, 1957 (
)
HEARTS OF THE WEST, 1975 (
)
One of the most beloved TV stars of all time, Andy Griffith appeared in just 11 theatrical feature films over a period of 52 years. But the actor, who died July 3, still managed to give one of the most disturbing and unforgettable performances of the 1950s, as well as starring in one of the decade’s most popular films before focusing on television. Here’s a rundown on the four-film Griffith tribute being presented by Turner Classics Movie host Robert Osborne Wednesday night:
“A Face in the Crowd’’ (8 p.m., 1957) In a movie debut rivaling Marlon Brando for raw sexuality, Griffith burns up the screen as Lonesome Rhodes, an Arkansas drifter who becomes a huge TV personality and a power-hungry demagogue manipulating national politics.
Director Elia Kazan and screenwriter Budd Schulberg’s follow-up to “On the Waterfront’’ was a box-office flop, but it’s long been recognized for predicting TV’s potential for corruption as surely as “Network’’ 20 years later. The superb cast includes Patricia Neal as the producer who discovers Griffith and finally exposes him, Lee Remick as his child bride, Anthony Franciosa as his agent and a young Walter Matthau as a reporter. Whoopi Goldberg was going to star in a planned ’80s remake.
“No Time for Sergeants’’ (10:15 p.m., 1958) Griffith scored his biggest movie hit in this hilarious comedy as Will Stockdale, a lovable draftee from Georgia who exasperates and outwits his superiors in the Air Force, especially a sergeant played by Myron McCormick. Up to then a standup comedian and folk singer, Griffith had been tapped for a live TV version of “Sergeants,’’ which Ira Levin (“Rosemary’s Baby’’) then adapted as an extremely popular Broadway show starring Griffith that preceded “A Face in the Crowd.’’
Mervyn LeRoy’s screen version, which adds an airborne climax, features Griffith’s longtime co-star Don Knotts, reprising his Broadway role, while Nick Adams replaces Roddy McDowall as Will’s best friend. Sammy Jackson, who has an unbilled bit part, starred as Will in a TV series spun off from the movie during the 1964-1965 season.
“Hearts of the West’’ (12:30 a.m., 1975) In his only big-screen appearance in the years between “The Andy Griffith Show’’ and “Matlock,’’ Griffith is charming and funny as an actor in 1930s B Westerns (with a secret or two) who mentors a young writer (top-billed Jeff Bridges) on his way to becoming a Hollywood star.
The only Griffith film to premiere at the New York Film Festival (his next-to-last feature, “Waitress,’’ bowed at the Sundance Film Festival in 2007), Howard Zieff’s engaging, nostalgic and sometimes randy comedy got excellent notices but was not a box-office success. The cast includes Blythe Danner as a script girl, Alan Arkin as an incompetent director and Donald Pleasence as a studio chief.
“Onionhead’’ (2:15 a.m., 1958) Warner Bros. tried to cash in on the success of “No Time for Sergeants’’ by casting the 33-year-old Griffith as a college dropout from Oklahoma who joins the Coast Guard in 1941 to avoid combat duty during World War II. Or so he hopes.
Norman Taurog’s comedy doesn’t deliver the laughs like “Sergeants,’’ but it does provide Griffith a worthy comic adversary in the form of Walter Matthau as his dyspeptic boss in the ship’s kitchen, with whom he spars for the romantic attentions of Felicia Farr (in real life, the longtime Mrs. Jack Lemmon). But even with Joey Bishop and Claude Akins aboard, “Onionhead’’ was such a box-office washout that it drove Griffith back to Broadway (“Destry Rides Again’’) and TV immortality.