On murmure dans la ville

I have watched this film tens of times over the years without ever getting bored and was delighted to recently find it on DVD in the United States. The film contains all the ingredients for the viewer's pleasure ....... romance humour suspense strangeness ......... I was especially taken aback by the Shundersson mystery. I also found that the film although over 50 years old as I write doesn't really seem dated in the attitudes and ideas it expresses. Clothes and cars may hark back to the beginning of the 50's but the dialogues are quite simply timeless. I don't wish to dwell on the story by let's say they are lots of twists and turns and a plentiful supply of humour. Of course I have always loved Cary Grant but I find that in this film he turns in a particularly interesting performance, a little above the usual level of the character he plays. It's also very intersting to watch Grant's reaction in embarassing situations and notably the "interrogation" carried out before the concert at the end. As for Jeanne Crain, his "wife" I find her every time stunningly beautiful. Professor Elwell's character must be one of the most obnoxious in the entire history of cinema ......... !!

The screenplay for "People Will Talk" is by Joseph Mankiewicz, who adapted the film from a play and also directed. It has been suggested that the story is an allusion to the workings of McCarthyism, which was active at the time.

From the beginning of the film, there is a level of suspense as this unusual tale reveals itself slowly. Cary Grant plays Dr. Noah Praetorius, a physician and sometime butcher, with the quirky charm that only he can portray. His character has an ebullience and an unconventional approach to medicine that make him seem unprofessional to others in his profession. He has a mysterious friend called Shunderson (Finlay Currie) who is always by his side.

Praetorius meets a young woman named Deborah Higgins (Jeanne Crain) who becomes his patient. He becomes involved in her problems as the film drifts through drama, comedy and romance.

The supporting cast includes some enjoyable appearances. And the film's unpredictability makes for an interesting journey. The Praetorius character might be considered a precursor to Patch Adams. And in one scene he foretells a future that presciently includes "electronic doctors." This film deserves attention for its statements about individualism and nonconformity and for its unorthodox plot construction, which nevertheless works.

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...

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.

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.