People Will Talk

PEOPLE WILL TALK may be my favorite film, if you can have such a thing. Loosely based on a German play, Doctor Praetorious, it tells of a Doctor with a unique philosophy. It was quite a step into some sort of cinematic adulthood when a young student who has found herself pregnant from an illicit romance becomes the sympathetic heroine of the movie, finding love with a charismatic doctor.

Some have said this movie was a comment on the McCarthy era, of personal investigations used by jealous men to destroy charismatic figures, and I thought of this movie quite a lot during the Clinton Impeachment proceedings. I kept saying to myself that the defense team could just run scenes from the movie with good effect, especially Shundersun's closing comment Hume Cronyn's character. And Slezak's comments to the same character that he could string together more unpleasant words than any little pipsqueak he had ever known.

And finally this movie offers some wonderful characters, Walter Slezak's loyal professor, Finley Curry's as the mysterious companion, and the dignified if defeated Sidney Blackmer.

I hope someday to read the German play upon which it was based, but as far as I know it was never translated.

Although made in 1951, this movie is refreshingly modern and mature in its content yet it is a feel-good film in spite of the serious nature of some of the subject matter. Cary Grant plays Dr. Noah Praetorius, a medical doctor and professor at a college who also runs his own low-cost clinic. Hume Cronyn plays a fellow doctor and professor who hates Grant's character. He is one of those fellows who doesn't have to be passed over because of someone else or feel he has been unjustly treated to dislike that person. He just has to look around and see someone who is well-liked and successful where he is not to hold a grudge. The wonderful thing about Praetorius that Cronyn's character cannot grasp is that it is not that Praetorius is exercising tremendous willpower in order to to do good because he feels he must live up to some kind of code of conduct. He is just a man with a generous spirit and a a healing soul. Dr. Praetorius' constant companion is Mr. Shunderson. He isn't in the actual employ of Praetorius, he is just always at his side and has no apparent medical training of any kind. It is the constant presence of this mysterious older man on which Cronyn centers his search for some dirt on Praetorius to hopefully eject him from the university.

Further complications arise when Dr. Pretorius treats a young woman (Jeanne Crain) who turns out to be pregnant by her fiancé who has just died in combat. The young woman attempts suicide upon hearing her condition. After Dr. Praetorius saves her life Mr. Shunderson points out that nothing has changed, the girl is still all alone and in trouble, and will therefore likely try suicide again.

These two subplots set up what could have been a very tragic film but ends up being an uplifting movie about the triumph of the better side of human nature made at the height of McCarthyism. You might even call it a kind of romantic comedy. I hadn't seen this film in years and for some reason wrongly remembered it as having taken place at Christmas. In fact it takes place in the spring. I guess my memory had more to do with the fact that it has a kind of "spirit of Christmas" feeling in it the same way that "Boys' Town" does. Check this one out, it will be sure to cheer you up.

This is indeed a very well hidden film which should be up there with North By Northwest, Citizen Kane, and the like. For its time, People Will Talk took on the most controversial topics of the day (even of TODAY) including: abortion, unintended pregnancy, HUAC and McCarthy-style witch hunting, taxpayer-subsidized farming not to grow food ... and the list goes on. Perhaps most up front is the defending of American individualism that was then (and is perhaps more than ever now) under attack. All of this was presented very cleverly, often with wholesome comedy. A great film with top actors, writing and direction. Only the very ending is a bit soppy ... not the least of which is the dopey expression on Carey Grant's face of imbecilic ecstasy while conducting his university's orchestra. Otherwise, it was a nearly perfect film.

This gem just isn't given enough play. Actually, given the power of the forces it takes to task, it is a small miracle it even got made. In tackling the project, Mank riddled the medical profession, with a not too subtle sidetrip to take on McCarthyism.

Cary Grant is more smooth and relaxed than usual, and actually seems to be enjoying the role. Jeanne Crain tackles a difficult (and not too well written, alas) part, and Walter Slezak does a nice turn as a collegue and crony of Grant's. Hume Cronyn is despicable as the jealous and zealous pracitioner, prosecutor and persecutor.

This film didn't do well initially, but is now developing a cult following. It is one of those rare movies that gets better with each viewing.

After winning two successive Oscars for A Letter To Three Wives and All About Eve, director Joseph Mankiewicz was on one big creative roll. His next film was this charming comedy/drama about a medical doctor with some interesting ideas and one of his patients, a girl with a bundle of joy on the way and a dead father, courtesy of the Korean War.

Those roles are played by Cary Grant and Jeanne Crain. Grant's a strange kind of doctor who believes that surgery and pills are only a last resort. Today he might be operating a very successful wellness center.

Grant would still be getting the a lot of criticism from jealous colleagues like Hume Cronyn. In fact that's how the film opens up with Cronyn getting a report from Margaret Hamilton who was from a place where Grant practiced his trade called Goose Creek. It was a report about Grant affected a lot of 'miracle' cures down in Goose Creek. Our boy Cronyn is looking for dirt with which he can discredit Cary.

Playing a most mysterious role in the proceedings is Finlay Currie who lives with Grant and is hardly ever not around him. At the faculty hearing that Cronyn has called to discuss the charges Cronyn has made because of his investigation, Currie's story is finally told and it is quite the tale indeed.

Cronyn has one of two roles that could be described as villainous. He's a nasty little Grinch like creature who thinks he can rise to the top by discrediting others. You find those in every profession, in every walk of life.

You also find people like Will Wright who is Jeanne Crain's uncle. She and her father, Sidney Blackmer, live on Wright's farm totally as his dependents. Blackmer is a cultured, cultivated man who unfortunately was never able to make a go of the various professions he tried, teacher, reporter, etc. Now with bad health he's come back to the family farm to live with Crain at the sufferance of Wright who proudly claims them as his dependents.

In defense of Wright he's no doubt a hard working individual, but he's as prosperous as he is because of government agricultural subsidies. In a scene very similar to one Elizabeth Taylor had in Giant, Grant rather firmly puts Wright down saying how unfortunate it is that brains and talent can't similarly be subsidized. Wright is such a philistine, the remark goes totally over him. It's my favorite scene in the film.

Besides those I've mentioned, look for a nice performance from Walter Slezak as Grant's friend and chief defender and Basil Ruysdael as the dean of the college conducting a hearing.

People Will Talk is a wonderful film about mostly some very nice people and the small contributions they make to make our planet a happy one. The only fault I have with it is I can't imagine Cary Grant coming from a place called Goose Creek.