People Will Talk

This is very unique film. Superlatively written, it offers amusing dialog, social insight and enlightened views of science, women's issues, social mores, the nature of success, materialism and the urge to destroy what we cannot understand.

It is not boring, yet its main characters are doctors/composers, and professors. Though its setting is an elite clinic and a university, it is concerned with real people and their needs.

Cary Grant is at his warm, compassionate and wryly witty best.

His sidekick, so to speak, is the rumpled and likeable Walter Slezak. Hume Cronyn is superb as the little weasel who sets out to "investigate" i.e. slander and destroy the Cary Grant character. Sound familiar?

"People Will Talk" may be considered a comedy of manners of the 1950's and a companion piece to another, similarly-titled Cary Grant film, the lesser-known Frank Capra masterpiece "Talk of the Town." Both are intelligent, thought-provoking, and thoroughly entertaining Hollywood gems.

Don't forgot to check out the "typical farm family..." You'll recognize the narrow-minded, cliche-ridden, hypocritical patriarch of the clan...

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.

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.

How many movies had a score by Brahms? 'People Will Talk' features his Academic Festival Overture, which is the only example of cheerful grandeur I can think of in serious music. Mankewicz knew what he was doing, because this is a cheerfully grand movie. While his 'Letter to three wives' and 'All About Eve' are more famous, this one is my favorite.

For one thing, Cary Grant has never been more attractive, for Dr. Praetorious is a good and humane doctor. "I don't cure illness, I make sick people well." If the notion that a woman bearing a child out of wedlock is a disgrace has gone, the theme of the mediocre witch-hunting the brilliant is timeless.

The phrase 'beloved character actor' could have been invented for Finlay Currie, but you've got to be able to use it for Walter Slezak - at least in this movie. (See "Lifeboat")

If you spend two hours with these people, you'll hear some very splendid talk, and you'll feel both warmed and civilized. How many of today's movies do that?

When you get one of Hollywood's most powerful producers, Darryl F. Zanuck, working with a screenwriter/director, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, then you know you're in for a film that's a cut above the average.

In this story, Cary Grant is a hugely successful doctor (as Dr Noah Praetorious) with unusual healing practices; Jeanne Crain (as Deborah Higgins) is an aspiring medical student who falls in love with him; the almost legendary Finlay Currie is a mysterious assistant (as Shunderson) to the doctor; another great character actor, Hume Cronyn, plays the devious and deceitful Prof. Elwell; and there is Walter Slezak as Prof. Barker, who provides (with Grant) much of the comedy and witty lines.

This is an unusual story because it mixes genres: it's a comedy, it's a love story, it's a (double) mystery, and it's a drama. The first genre is provided largely by Cary Grant and Walter Slezak who bounce off each other with some of the best scenes and wittiest lines. The second, of course, is between Cary Grant and Jeanne Crain. The third is provided by Cary Grant and Finlay Currie, Grant being the doctor whose methods are suspect and his past under scrutiny by Prof. Elwell, while Currie is Grant's constant companion – aloof, quiet and almost robotic in his demeanour. But, who really is Shunderson? And the fourth is the drama between Dr Praetorious and Prof. Elwell, as the latter seeks to have the doctor expelled from the clinic and university for malpractice.

Weaving those four elements together into a cohesive plot is no mean feat, but Mankiewicz succeeds brilliantly. The acting is superb, and even Jeanne Crain – not one of my favorites at all – manages to almost overshadow Hume Cronyn in a key scene where there is a battle of wills and words. The real surprise, however, is Finlay Currie who usually appears in biblical and/or historical dramas and who usually is given a lot to say in any of his film appearances. But, not in this one: in fact, he says hardly a word until almost the end, but simply maintains a deceptive and mysterious quietude at the side of Cary Grant. The resolution to that mystery is a tour de force – and with a twist.

Even though I'm not a big comedy fan – it's the most difficult to portray on film – I'm very partial to Mankiewicz and his films. On that basis alone I'd recommend this film for you to see as another in the great tradition of Classic Hollywood Cinema. But, for anybody who likes the debonair Cary Grant, well, what are you waiting for…?