Happy birthday to director King Vidor (8 February 1894–1 November 1982), whose opening to the 1928 silent film The Crowd (above) contains one of the most mesmerizing macro-to-micro montages and tracking shots in cinema history.
Vidor was a great talent, responsible for the hugely influential silent films The Crowd, The Big Parade, and the all-black drama Hallelujah!, among many others. Once talkies took over, he continued his streak of socially-conscious dramas with Street Scene, Stella Dallas, The Citadel, The Fountainhead, and the quasi-documentary Depression-era film Our Daily Bread.
Below, Robert Donat with Vidor on the set of The Citadel (1938).
(Source: youtu.be)
