Overview
A poignant exploration of dreams and despair in the bustling streets of New York City.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Measured
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Mild
- intimate
- melancholic
- poignant
- classic cinema night
- silent film retrospective
What critics said
Critics broadly regard King Vidor's silent social drama as an emotionally powerful and formally inventive portrait of ordinary urban life, marriage, and alienation.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
John is reduced to office worker number 137 while the film follows his marriage, employment, and family life as broadly recognizable modern experiences.
John's faceless position in a large New York office and the recurring imagery of masses of workers frame his private identity against impersonal urban systems.
John and Mary's relationship moves from courtship to marital conflict, in-law friction, childrearing, and crisis within economic limitations.
The office and city are presented through heightened scale and massed workers, making bureaucracy and urban anonymity visually overwhelming.
Films like The Crowd, and why
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans
shared silent-era social realism, intimate marriage drama, and focus on ordinary working people
Street Angel
shared emotionally direct domestic drama, urban modernity, and sympathetic working-class characters
Modern Times
shared critique of industrial society, alienated labor, and the individual overwhelmed by the modern city
Movie Details
- Director
- King Vidor
- Release Date
- 1928-03-03
- Runtime
- 98 min
- Rating
- 7.6 / 10 (203)
Cast
- Eleanor Boardman
- James Murray
- Bert Roach
- Estelle Clark
- Daniel G. Tomlinson
- Dell Henderson
- Lucy Beaumont
- Freddie Burke Frederick
- Alice Mildred Puter
- John D. Bloss
Common questions
- What is The Crowd about?
- An ambitious young New Yorker becomes one anonymous office worker among thousands, then fights to preserve his marriage and family after personal catastrophe.
- What is The Crowd like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of The Crowd as measured, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is The Crowd violent?
- Only mildly. Ember rates the violence in The Crowd as mild.
- What did critics think of The Crowd?
- Critics broadly regard King Vidor's silent social drama as an emotionally powerful and formally inventive portrait of ordinary urban life, marriage, and alienation.
- Which films are like The Crowd?
- Films with a similar feel include Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, Street Angel, and Modern Times.
- How long is The Crowd?
- The Crowd runs 98 minutes.
