Power, by Arthur Arent

A Living Newspaper Revived in Alphabet City

Recently I was shocked to see a column likening Barack Obama to Mussolini. The comparison turns out to be mostly (but not entirely) in terms of economic policies, but I suspect that it is part of a political smear campaign that is desperate to erode Obama's popularity and protect the United States from real or imagined threats to the wonderful life the citizenry enjoyed during the preceding years of corporate malfeasance.

This sort of attack is not unprecedented. Look back to the Depression years in the United States, where FDR's political opponents also tried to undermine his proposals by labeling him a socialist as well as a fascist.

These days one can learn much from the lessons of the Depression—and the current Metropolitan Playhouse revival of Arthur Arent's 1937 play Power is very much like an urgent message from that part of the past.

Power was a Living Newspaper production of the WPA's Federal Theatre Project (FTP), a government program that put theater people (including Marc Blitzstein, Susan Glaspell, John Houseman, Elia Kazan, Arthur Miller, and Orson Welles) to work amidst assorted political controversies from 1935 until its disbandment in 1939. A period promotional photo for Power can be seen on the right.

A play that backs up its script with citations to books, journals, newspapers, and other sources, Power offers a series of scenes that skim over the development of the electrical power industry and then zero in on tensions regarding the development of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), the FDR-era public power project that put citizens to work bringing economic development in the Southern Appalachian region. The TVA plans brought hope to the impoverished people of the region, but power companies that had neglected the area resisted the TVA as a threat to their business.

As presented by a cast of nine under the direction of Mark Harborth, Power offers us a rare opportunity to see a staging of a topical Depression-era play that its own creators might have thought would only be of ephemeral interest. As it turns out, the play's depiction of the relationship of technology, business, government, and the citizenry is especially of interest today, as Barack Obama tries to navigate the nation away from economic hard times while many of his opponents maneuver to interfere with any possible successes that might boost his political standing. The production's didacticism sometimes gets the upper hand over its entertainment value, but for the most part it still retains much of the relevance and energy that the play must have had when it was originally produced. I only wish Metropolitan Playhouse had offered more detailed program notes, but at least today we have the Internet to help us answer questions that the production raises.

Get there soon (it runs through April 12) and get there early (to have your pick of the seats) to take a journey into the past that may inform your appreciation of the present and future.

Promotional photograph by Harry Shaw for the Seattle FTP production of Power. Courtesy, Library of Congress.

A FACE IN THE CROWD

When I went to the Film Forum to see A Face in the Crowd followed by a talk with Patricia Neal and Budd Schulberg, I thought I might make it a double feature by also going to see Chop Shop afterward.

Fat chance. The movie alone was so intense that it was more than enough to make for an evening. The post-screening talk put it over the top.

As I had expected, the event was sold out well in advance. Film Forum programmer Bruce Goldstein told us we were the luckiest group in town that night, but it wasn't exactly luck that got us in—it was also speed and alertness that got me and gallery expert Eric seats in a crowd full of film buffs. Some around us knew each other and gossiped about film people they knew while others turned out to be fans of One-Eyed Jacks and/or Marlon Brando, as indicated by a conversation that ultimately spanned three rows of kibbitzers. (I think it would be very smart for the Film Forum to facilitate gatherings and communications among this audience base.)

Released in 1957 but years in the making, the movie itself is incredible—and on video, folks. Following the rise of a jailbird singer (Andy Griffith) discovered by an Arkansas radio host (Patricia Neal), the screenplay satirizes mass media, politics, advertising, and human relations with such incisiveness that it was almost unbearably harrowing at times. Griffith carries the film with a crafty energy, while the rest of the excellent cast moves in and out of his orbit with forces of their own. Neal in particular offers some great scenes, including one in which she barely utters a syllable to express her despair. Some sections of the film (especially one having to do with political image-making) seem like they could've been inspired by today's news; overall, the film still comes across as fresh and edgy in terms of its language as well as its imagery. (Gayne Rescher and Harry Stradling Sr. were the cinematographers.)

During the post-screening talk, led by Foster Hirsch, both Neal and Schulberg gave high praise to Face in the Crowd director Elia Kazan. Judging from Schulberg's comments, Kazan was a writers' director who gave Schulberg a say in casting; judging from Neal's comments, Kazan was an actors' director who knew just how to manipulate his performers to bring out the best in their performances. Schulberg, who said that Face in the Crowd was Kazan's favorite among his own films, cited Tennessee Ernie Ford, Arthur Godfrey, and Will Rogers as models for the Andy Griffith character. He shared one anecdote in which he told about how Will Rogers, Jr. told him that his famously folksy father had been something of an elitist, and how he advised young Rogers, who was campaigning for political office, not to disillusion potential voters. Everyone agreed with the idea that Jack Daniels should have gotten a credit in the film, as Kazan and Griffith relied on Jack to get through certain scenes.

Neal (called "saucy" by one of my neighbors in the audience) told the audience that Griffith sent his best wishes to the crowd. Actually present in the theater was a contingent from Piggott, Arkansas, which played Picket, Arkansas, in the movie. The mayor talked up the town and its connection to Ernest Hemingway (who lived and wrote there for a time). Another Piggott visitor, who had been in the movie, talked about hosting Lee Remick, mixing with the other actors, and playing a baton twirler. (The movie features jaw-dropping baton twirling sequences.) A teen at the time (her name escapes me), she remembered how Remick mingled with her and her crowd while learning her role but then cut her off to mingle with the actors. She recalled how, on a very hot day, Remick poured ice water over herself to cool off even though she was wearing nothing under her blouse. She spoke fondly of Neal, who seemed to have a knack for dressing up for casual events and dressing down for formal ones. When she and her friends came to New York for filming, they asked questions of their Big Apple co-stars just to hear their accents. She also spoke appreciatively of Schulberg and Kazan, who donated money to restore a Piggott public pool that continues to operate today.

There was some discussion of how the film flopped upon its initial release and only achieved its "classic" status years later. It reminded me of the 1955 musical It's Always Fair Weather, a milder satire with similar targets and a similarly disappointing box office history.

There was a little talk of A Face in the Crowd being turned into a Broadway musical at some point.

There was no Q&A, but there was a meet-and-greet in the lobby after the talk.

Here's the crowd...
























...and here are the faces in the crowd.
























Photos: David Marc Fischer

COMING SOON TO THE FILM FORUM: A FACE IN THE CROWD!

The actress Patricia Neal and screenwriter Budd Schulberg will speak with film historian Foster Hirsch after the Film Forum's special screening of A Face in the Crowd at 7 pm on Wednesday, March 5, 2008.

I look forward to finally seeing the movie on this occasion. Directed by Elia Kazan and starring Andy Griffith in a part very different from that of his well-known television roles, this satire also features Neal, Anthony Franciosa, Walter Matthau, Lee Remick and many others in cameo parts.

I'm sure much of the event will be a love-fest for Schulberg and Neal, but there's always the potential for some fireworks considering the controversies associated with the guests of honor. (For instance, Schulberg cooperated with the House Committee on Un-American Activities.)

Want to get in on this? Buy tickets in advance!



Source (2:18)