Party Wire

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.

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.

In the late 30's and 40's many people did not have telephones and when they became available, most middle income people purchased a phone with usually three or more people using the same telephone line with an operator to make the calls on certain lines. This film deals mostly about this situation in a small town where people could listen in to your conversation with other people. Jean Arthur,(Margie Oliver) plays the role of a sweet young gal living with her father, Charley Grapewine (Will Oliver) who is drinking morning noon and night and never seems to finish painting his garage. Victor Jory,(Matthew Putman) is an owner of a large Dairy Farm business in town where most of the local people are employed and has recently returned to his home town and visited with his boyhood sweetheart, Margie Oliver. The use of a Party Wire in this town has caused a great deal of trouble for quite a few people and creates a very comical situation and also some drama. Some of the actors in this film appeared in the Wizard of Oz as well as many other great film classics. Victor Jory played a good guy in this film, but most of his film career was playing the evil one even in Westerns. Enjoy a great Classic film.

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.

This 1935 classic has got to be the most pleasant entertainment surprise of my experience in quite sometime. The two lead characters are people you could like. Jean Arthur portrays a small town bank clerk. Victor Jory is the hometown success story who returns to his little 'burg' and falls in love with the 'girl he left behind. Thing is that when he left neither he nor her knew he left her behind till he returned home. This is actually the side story. The main story is about nosy, gossiping Americans back in the day when phone communication had a party line. More than one person could use them at the same time to listen in on conversations of others. The other point of the story is how small minds can function in small towns ( it even takes place in big towns too )and ruin people that the small minds take their aim at. A great story line written well / acted well. Definitely worth your time.