"The Crowd" (1928) A King Vidor Photoplay

Born on the Fourth of July, 1900, John Sims loses his father when he is twelve. At 21, he sets out for New York City, where he is sure he will become somebody important, just as his father had always believed. Another boat passenger tells him he will have to be good in order to stand out from the crowd.

John gets a job as one of many office workers of the Atlas Insurance Company. Fellow employee Bert talks him into a double date to Coney Island. John is so smitten with Mary, he proposes to her at the end of the date; she accepts. Bert predicts the marriage will last a year or two.

A Christmas Eve dinner in their tiny apartment with Mary's mother and two brothers, with whom John is not on friendly terms, ends badly. John goes to Bert's to get some liquor. A young woman there throws herself at him, complimenting him on his looks, and starts to dance with him. John returns home very late and very drunk. Mary's family has gone home, and she tells him that they do not understand him. They exchange Christmas gifts and John compliments her, but yells at her when she does something trivial.

In April, they quarrel and Mary threatens to leave, and is shocked and hurt by John's apathy when he does not try to stop her. The couple reconciles when Mary tells John that she is pregnant. She gives birth to a son. Over the next five years, the couple have a daughter and an $8 raise, but Mary is dissatisfied with John's lack of advancement, especially compared to Bert, and in light of John's big talk about his prospects.

Finally, John wins $500 for an advertising slogan; and buys presents for his family. When he and Mary urge their children to rush home to see their gifts, their daughter is killed by a truck. John is so overcome with grief, he cannot function at work. When reprimanded, he quits.

John gets other jobs, but cannot hold onto any of them. Mary's brothers reluctantly offer him a position, but John is too proud to accept what he deems a "charity job". In a fit of rage, Mary slaps him. John goes for a walk, contemplates suicide, but his son goes with him. The child's unconditional love for him makes him rethink his situation, and he changes his mind. John gets work as a sandwich board carrier and returns home, his optimism renewed, only to find Mary about to leave with her brothers. She steps out of the house, but no further. She loves John too much to abandon him. The reconciled family attends a vaudeville comedy show, with the final shot showing them overcome with laughter, and lost in the crowded audience of laughing people.