Live Piano Accompaniment by Howard Cowles

The Crowd is a timeless American silent film masterpiece from director King Vidor. Vidor’s natural and uncompromising film tells the episodic, poignant story of the working and domestic life of an average, commonplace man in ‘the crowd’ - John - with his wife Mary, chronicling their meeting, courtship, marriage, and family life. Vidor refused to pass judgment on the harsh realities of life for the workaday couple, either by condemning or celebrating the gloom of the bleak tragedy befalling them. Instead, he visually and eloquently captured their believable human struggle as they confronted disappointing setbacks, the tragic death of their daughter, dashed hopes and brief triumphs, and eventually found comfort in the anonymity of the masses, watching an unfunny theatrical clown act.

—Tim Dirks, AMC Filmsite

Directed by King Vidor
1928, USA • 104 minutes • 16mm