Review of The Crowd (1928)

Paul Harris' introduction to The Crowd left me eager to watch the film, expecting a slow, solemn exploration of the bleaker realities of life. While the narrative content matched my expectations--the protagonist learns the hard way that life doesn't work out the way you planned, having faced an uphill battle for his job, his money, his family, and his place in the world--the movie itself was was a melodrama instead of a thriller. I felt it was too rapidly paced and the tension too often eased with small slapstick jokes, making the film lose much of the potential emotive power in a story with such dark themes.