Party Wire

Party Wire concerns a small town. They are linked together by the same telephone line, a party wire. If one does not understand the way older telephones worked, with the total dependence on an operator and a switchboard, this concept is difficult to understand, which dates the film. However, suffice to say that everyone is able to listen in on everyone's phone calls, and others miss their calls often due to gossips tying up the line. In this small town, a visitor arrives, a man who used to live there by the name of Matthew Putname (Victor Jory). He is very wealthy so all of the young ladies of the town try to grab him, but the least interested one (Jean Arthur) happens to catch his eye. Gossips spreads through the town, not all of it true, and several dramatic things happen.

The film is based on a clever idea and contains several amusing sequences, but the main characters have no chemistry with each other and they themselves are lukewarm. It is difficult to care about their struggles if there is no sympathy. The best character plays Arthur's father, Charley Grapewin. He is lovable, funny, and a joy to watch.

Most 1930's and 1940's films portray small town America as some kind of Heaven on earth where your neighbor will give you their last dime and everybody loves everybody and are all model citizens. PARTY WIRE, an overlooked gem from 1935, blows that illusion to smitterheens and may be closer to the truth. Small towns can breed small minds and the horrors of gossips who tell tales they don't really care if they are true or not is vividly brought to life is this amazing comedy drama.

Victor Jory stars as the scion of the small town's wealthiest family who returns to town for an extended stay. His return is big news for the locals, many of whom have daughters they would like to see Jory marry. When Jory begins to squire local farm girl Jean Arthur, the inner green-eyed monster flares in the local old prudes and when via habit of listening in on phone calls on the town's party line they overhear Arthur's father make an angry phone call to a local boy they are all abuzz, concluding the guy has knocked up Jean.

This starts a tidal wave of gossip and venom as poor Jean gets fired from her job and is completely snubbed by the town folk, who stick a baby carriage with a nasty note on her doorstep and disqualify her from winning a local event for no reason. When Jory learns of their maliciousness, he vows to make the town pay for their viciousness and financially ruin them all.

The cast of this film is outstanding. Jean Arthur at the very beginning of the major era of her career is wonderful as the unpretentious sweetie who has what it takes to charm the most wanted man in town. Victor Jory has one of his rare leading man roles - he was most often cast as a villain, notably in GONE WITH THE WIND - but he is excellent and thoroughly credible both as the man everyone admires and the hero out for vengeance. The supporting cast is superb - Charley Grapewin as Jean's slightly absent-minded father, Maude Eburne as one of the biggest gossips in town but most especially Clara Blandick as the queen bee of this hick town who conjures all the trouble. Miss Blandick is best remembered for her loving Auntie Em in THE WIZARD OF OZ but she had no peers when it came to portraying the small town bitch matron - she plowed similar territory as Janet Gaynor's sneering aunt in A STAR IS BORN.

This is a fine looking Columbia film that belies it's modest budget. PARTY WIRE is possibly the best of Jean Arthur's early starring films and is highly recommended.

If you didn't grow up in a town like this, you might think the plot was exaggerated, and that people didn't really act like this. But they did. From the old man with his jug to all the members of the First Self Righteous church, these are all characters from my home town. Even the party line was familiar, but these old gossips didn't need the party line to spread gossip about every one in town. And it didn't need to be anything specific, just a whiff of anything different, and they were all off baying like hounds.

I was very unhappy that there was no real chemistry between the leads in this movie. I have seen Victor Jory as Indians and as every sort of criminal, but as a romantic lead he is a total dud. A handsome profile, a great voice, but as snake eyed as they come, and I kept waiting for him to hiss. A shame Jean Arthur didn't have someone more attractive to play opposite her.

Many alleged Christians ignore or don't know the existence of the biblical injunction that to bear false witness is the same as committing murder.

"Party Wire" is a prime example of what can happen to an innocent person when gossipy people gleefully latch on to and help spread an inaccurate story.

"Party Wire" begins with a communications staple that is long out of date, the "party line" telephone. For younger people, this no-longer-extant situation consisted of several parties -- usually homes but possibly businesses -- being on the same line, usually connected through a patch-cord switchboard, and in the earliest days manually connected by a live operator.

When a father slightly in his cups makes a demand on a man who has been courting his daughter, the gossips overhearing are more than happy to spread a distorted report of what the conversation was about.

The misunderstanding sounds as if it could be funny, and in today's very different moral climate wouldn't even matter.

However, several lives are impacted, and the ripple effect almost devastates the entire town.

As someone else here commented, this story is dated, both by technology and by moral standards, but there actually is a good lesson here.

The acting is great, absolutely first class. Walter Brennan, for example, about ten years into his career, has an uncredited role, as do Lafe McKee and Si Jenks.

Victor Jory had a chance to play a hero, and his strength was put to good use.

The effervescent Jean Arthur, of whom Frank Capra said her voice was like a thousand tinkling bells, had an unusual role, not a bubbly, happy one, but she carried it beautifully.

Suspend your disbelief; ignore the script flaws. It's a good story despite some narrative glitches. "Party Wire" is definitely worth watching.

PARTY WIRE is a quaint mixture of comedy and drama as small town gossip plays havoc with an innocent girl's life through a misunderstanding when her father (CHARLEY GRAPEWIN) exchanges a questionable phone conversation with her boyfriend. The boyfriend says he's leaving town, while Grapewin threatens him with a gun and tells him he has to "straighten out the mess you left my daughter in." Naturally, the town gossips jump to the wrong conclusion and all hell breaks loose.

JEAN ARTHUR is delightful as the girl who sees her reputation torn to shreds--first, when she loses her bank job and then disqualified from winning the $200 first prize at the flower show by the malicious woman (CLARA BLANDICK) who spread the gossip. VICTOR JORY is the town's most eligible, wealthiest bachelor who has a yen for Jean while being pursued by the young ladies for his money--and it's his mother (HELEN LOWELL) who puts an end to the gossip by showing up at a town meeting and disclosing the hypocrisy of all those who jumped to the wrong conclusions.

It's very dated stuff (Osborne had to explain what a party line was to today's audience of cellphone users), and the situations are the kind seen in numerous other such small town comedies. But it's refreshing to see that there's at least a glimmer of chemistry between Jory (who usually played bad guys) and Arthur, although it's easy to see why he was better cast in villainous roles throughout most of his career.

Summing up: A pleasant item, extremely dated but likely to find some appeal for JEAN ARTHUR's fans who enjoy her in this sort of thing.