Elia Kazan's masterpiece proves that celebrity isn't all it's cracked up to be. When talent scout Marcia Jeffries (Patricia Neal) spots drifter Larry "Lonesome" Rhodes (Andy Griffith) and makes him a superstar, he gets a taste of the good life. But his hunger for klieg lights, fed by run-ins with famous people such as Burl Ives and Bennett Cerf (who play themselves), turns desperate, and he loses sight of who he is and what he's truly about.