People Will Talk

Rating:
Summary: A "feel-good" movie of the highest caliber
Review: One has to ask where AFI was in not selecting this movie as one of the 100 best of the last 100 years. "People Will Talk" has to be the best kept movie secret in the history of filmdom.

The characters are well developed and are all either lovable or laughable. Margaret Hamilton turns in a hilarious performance in a brief supporting role. Grant and Crain exhibit a great deal of on-screen chemistry matched by very few duos. I saw this movie by chance, and loved it so much that I immediately bought a copy and was mighty glad that Fox saw fit to just recently release it on video. I can't wait until my son comes home from college to share the pleasure of this film with me.

Rating:
Summary: People Will Talk
Review: Plot: The plot, very briefly, begins with the investigation by one Professor Rodney Elwell (Hume Cronyn in a really waspy turn) into the life and career of the unorthodox - medically and philosophically - Dr. Noah Praetorius (Cary Grant), favorite teacher at a middle America medical school. (Whether intentional or coincidental, the investigation and eventual hearing of Noah conducted by the school board has a definite parallel to the HUAC hearings which were going on at the same time.) Noah's basic credo is that it is a doctor's duty "to make sick people well." He demonstrates this by, among other examples: lecturing his students on knowing the difference between the cold, lifeless human cadaver which was before death a warm, feeling human being; gently describing his own near death experience to an elderly lady who is convalescing in the progressive clinic he operates; and finally convincing Deborah, a young unwed mother-to-be (Jeanne Crain), to cry tears of joy and not sorrow at the advent of having a baby. Along with these lessons, talks, and acts of charity, Noah conducts the student orchestra and chorus with the same precision and spirit that he practices and teaches medicine. His colleagues include fellow Professor Barker (Walter Slezak), who can "name every neuron and electron", but cannot play the bass fiddle that accompanies the student band, and a gently spoken, towering giant named Shunderson (Finlay Currie), whom Noah fiercely protects, and who proves to have a major role in the doctor¹s early medical practice. Finally, Deborah's father (Sidney Blackmer), becomes Noah's friend, and, eventually, his father-in-law - when Deborah and Noah fall in love.

This film is a little known gem in the career of Cary Grant. Based on a play titled "Dr. Praetorius", it was adapted, produced, and directed by Joseph Mankiewicz. Interestingly, this film is not as famous as another Mankiewicz effort from the early 1950's, "All About Eve." Both are literate, cleverly written, and have interesting, in-depth, and even mysterious characters. While "All About Eve" has bordered on becoming a camp classic, with Bette Davis' now iconic "fasten your seatbelts...it's going to be a bumpy night" declaration, "People Will Talk" could have had the potential of becoming an underground cult favorite. It deals with heavy, at the time taboo subjects (premarital pregnancy, attempted suicide, unorthodox medical philosophies). Indeed, what other movie can boast of having its doctor hero being a gynecologist (which is actually mentioned!) It is perhaps because this film was so ahead of its time that it does not have the same popularity as "All About Eve." In spite of this, it is still a thought-provoking, interesting movie.

The film is full of ironies and paradoxes, Cary Grant's performance being the most notable. His Dr. Noah Praetorius is quietly confident, almost always reflective, even a bit detached - but always aware of the feelings, moods, and foibles of those around him. He will calmly and effortlessly ease the mindset of his distraught young love Debra, but, conversely (and comically), have a wildly passionate argument with Barker and his father-in-law about who is responsible for wrecking the formation pattern of his electric train set! It is this kind of irony which makes the film hard to classify, but also what makes it interestingly different. Whether it is a drama with dashes of comedy thrown in, or a comic drama, "People Will Talk" is definitely worth a look for any Grant fan who has yet to see it. It may be like an acquired taste, but definitely worth trying. Grant plays a role which has many different shadings and nuances, and it serves as another example of how adept he was at playing more dramatically complex characters. And as a demonstration of the Grant charisma, there is one scene where he is triumphantly conducting the student concert. Smiling proudly and openly, looking back into the audience and quickly giving Deborah the famous 'eyebrow arch', this concert moment should be included in any future Cary Grant 'famous scene' retrospective; right in between with being chased by the cropduster in "North by Northwest" and fuming at Katherine Hepburn as she destroys his golf clubs in "The Philadelphia Story."

Rating:
Summary: Another Great Cary Grant Movie I Never Knew About!
Review: The asbolute best scenes of the movie are at the end, when Mr. Shunderson (Finlay Currie) tells the story of his past and then tells Professor Rodney Elwell (Hume Cronyn) off with some of the best lines ever...Short and to the point! I never knew of this movie and happened upon it late one night on AMC. See the film, it's one of those C.G. movies that sneak up on you, grab your attention and leave you smilling at the end, glad that you stuck with it.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully Hard to Pigeonhole
Review: The Story: Cary Grant plays a successful physician and medical professor, surrounded by bits of mystery and hounded by his strange past and by his stuffy, prudish, rigid colleagues. Grant's butler/friend, Mr. Shunderson, is a mystery not resolved until near the end. Jeanne Craine is the medical student who falls in love with Grant, eccentricities and all.

If you try to take this film seriously, you're missing the point. However, if you take it just at face value, as antic comedy, you're missing the point. The story is full of unbelievable segments, such as a man being convicted twice for the same murder, twice being sentenced to death, and surviving his execution. Or, how about a faith healer being run out of town when the populace discovers he's really a licensed physician? These sound like the elements of slapstick or farce, but this film is not that easily categorized. What saves it from farcedom? Two things: great actors (Cary Grant, Jeanne Craine, Hume Cronyn, Finley Currie - quietly stunning, like Alec Guiness in "A Foreign Field" - and a host of character actors) and elements of depth (Cary Grant's friendship with Finley Currie, the simple-but-complex "executed" murderer; Grant's explanation of why he masqueraded as a butcher while practicing medicine in a small town; the question of just who is the father of Jeanne Craine's baby). Strangely complex, quirky, and enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: Wonderfully Hard to Pigeonhole
Review: The Story: Cary Grant plays a successful physician and medical professor, surrounded by bits of mystery and hounded by his strange past and by his stuffy, prudish, rigid colleagues. Grant's butler/friend, Mr. Shunderson, is a mystery not resolved until near the end. Jeanne Craine is the medical student who falls in love with Grant, eccentricities and all.

If you try to take this film seriously, you're missing the point. However, if you take it just at face value, as antic comedy, you're missing the point. The story is full of unbelievable segments, such as a man being convicted twice for the same murder, twice being sentenced to death, and surviving his execution. Or, how about a faith healer being run out of town when the populace discovers he's really a licensed physician? These sound like the elements of slapstick or farce, but this film is not that easily categorized. What saves it from farcedom? Two things: great actors (Cary Grant, Jeanne Craine, Hume Cronyn, Finley Currie - quietly stunning, like Alec Guiness in "A Foreign Field" - and a host of character actors) and elements of depth (Cary Grant's friendship with Finley Currie, the simple-but-complex "executed" murderer; Grant's explanation of why he masqueraded as a butcher while practicing medicine in a small town; the question of just who is the father of Jeanne Craine's baby). Strangely complex, quirky, and enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: A timeless commentary on bigotry and small mindedness.
Review: This film certainly stands the test of the nearly 50 years since its release. Cary Grant is at the apex of his physical charm, and under Mankiewicz direction, gives one of his most subtle performances as the mysterious Dr. Praetorius. The delineation of all characters is rounded and complex: unusual to find outside of a novel or a stage play. Although one premise in the plot (the stigma of unwed pregnancy) is dated, the scenes involving the small minded bigotry of "little men" are worth seeing again and again. The supporting cast, including Hume Cronyn as the vilain, and the actor who plays Jeanne Crain's uncle, are deserving of special kudos. This is a rare example of a movie that entertains while subtly imparting a lasting message. It also keeps one intrigued waiting for the solution to the mystery of Mr. Sunderson: a solution you won't soon forget.

Rating:
Summary: ***** A DEEP YET FULLY ENTERTAINING COMEDY *****
Review: 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 rugged 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.

The third time viewing this film is better than the first!

Rating:
Summary: Dr. Santa Claus
Review: This movie reminds me of Miracle on 34th St. It has the same gentle tone, though with a few more villains, and the same quality of cast. Both films used character actors perfectly cast. There are a few scenes that, to modern eyes, are unintentionally funny -- an open hospital ward with ashtrays on the window sills, but the overall effect of the movie is the feeling that if there wasn't a Dr. Noah Praetorius, there should have been. The observations on patient care ring at least as true today as when the movie was made.

Rating:
Summary: One of Grant's strangest vehicles
Review: Though this video doesn't stint on Cary Grant's usual charm, it really isn't one of his typical star vehicles. Rather it's an odd story about an odder man and his unexpected (and perhaps unbelievable) tumble into love and marriage. Even with the mysteries of who Praetorius is and what's up with Mr. Shunderson solved by the last scene, questions remain, and in those questions lie much of the film's appeal. The weak link here is Jeanne Crain's mannered performance as a young, unwed mother. Crain seems to be acting in another film all together, and tends to be distracting, though this does add to the overall quirkiness of the film. A fantastic cast which includes Walter Slezak, Hume Cronyn, Margaret Hamilton (in a small but memorable role), Finlay Currie and Sidney Blackmer, makes this film a delight.

Rating:
Summary: Was impressed
Review: Wanted to comment on the DVD quality. Excellent. I thought it would be lacking because of price but was impressed.