A Face in the Crowd

Marcia Jeffries:
You put your whole self into that laugh, don't you?

Lonesome Rhodes:
Marcia, I put my whole self into everything I do.

Marcia Jeffries:
You always drink like that?

Lonesome Rhodes:
Not always. Back in Riddle they was pretty strict. Didn't allow us to touch hard liquor till we was 10 or 11.

Marcia Jeffries:
Now is there really a town called Riddle?

Lonesome Rhodes:
Well, tell you the flat truth, it's just a sort of a whatchacallit, a...

Marcia Jeffries:
...Composite?

Lonesome Rhodes:
Compost heap's more like it.

Lonesome Rhodes:
This whole country's just like my flock of sheep!

Marcia Jeffries:
Sheep?

Lonesome Rhodes:
Rednecks, crackers, hillbillies, hausfraus, shut-ins, pea-pickers - everybody that's got to jump when somebody else blows the whistle. They don't know it yet, but they're all gonna be 'Fighters for Fuller'. They're mine! I own 'em! They think like I do. Only they're even more stupid than I am, so I gotta think for 'em. Marcia, you just wait and see. I'm gonna be the power behind the president - and you'll be the power behind me!

First Mrs. Rhodes:
Larry... he thinks he has to take a bite out of every broad he comes across. Then he calls them a tramp, drops them, and there's all sort of psycho something-or-other, you know. I caught him red-handed with my best girlfriend. He broke my jaw.

Marcia Jeffries:
It seems to be working quite effectively now.

Actor on Rhodes' show:
[about Senator Fuller] You really sell that stiff as a man among men?

Lonesome Rhodes:
[thinking his microphone is off] Those morons out there? Shucks, I could take chicken fertilizer and sell it to them as caviar. I could make them eat dog food and think it was steak. Sure, I got 'em like this... You know what the public's like? A cage of Guinea Pigs. Good Night you stupid idiots. Good Night, you miserable slobs. They're a lot of trained seals. I toss them a dead fish and they'll flap their flippers.

Lonesome Rhodes:
Listen, I'm not through yet. You know what's gonna to happen to me?

Mel Miller:
Suppose I tell you exactly what's gonna happen to you. You're gonna be back in television. Only it won't be quite the same as it was before. There'll be a reasonable cooling-off period and then somebody will say: "Why don't we try him again in a inexpensive format. People's memories aren't too long." And you know, in a way, he'll be right. Some of the people will forget, and some of them won't. Oh, you'll have a show. Maybe not the best hour or, you know, top 10. Maybe not even in the top 35. But you'll have a show. It just won't be quite the same as it was before. Then a couple of new fellas will come along. And pretty soon, a lot of your fans will be flocking around them. And then one day, somebody'll ask: "Whatever happened to, a, whatshisname? You know, the one who was so big. The number-one fella a couple of years ago. He was famous. How can we forget a name like that? Oh by the way, have you seen, a, Barry Mills? I think he's the greatest thing since Will Rogers."