Movie Review # 2049 - People Will Talk
I recently watched People Will Talk, 1951 black and white comedy/drama that stars Cary Grant and Jeanne Crain, with supporting performances by Hume Cronyn, Finlay Currie, Walter Slezak and Sidney Blackmer.
I give this movie 2.5 out of 5 stars (average).
It was nominated for the Writers Guild of America screen Award for Best Written American Comedy although I didn't find it all that funny. Over the years I have come to like black and white movies more than I used to. They keep you fixated on the performances as oppossed to the action and sex scenes. In this particular movie I found Jeanne Crain much better than the legendary Cary Grant. Not that Grant was bad, I liked his character and he portrayed it well enough, Patch Adams before he existed. I found him much better in The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer from a few years earlier though.
Grant certainly worked with a lot of "A list" actresses over the years including Jean Ethel Barrymore, Ingrid Bergman, Doris Day, Sophia Loren, Joan Fontaine, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Jean Harlowe, Grace Kelly, Carol Lombard, Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe and Eva Marie Saint, however I digress.
In this movie Grant plays Dr. Noah Praetorius who is a physician that teaches in a medical school and founded a clinic dedicated to treating patients humanely and holistically. A colleague who dislikes Praetorius's unorthodox but effective methods, Dr. Rodney Elwell, has hired a detective to investigate Praetorius. A housekeeper who once worked for Praetorius reacts visibly when Elwell asks her about Praetorius's mysterious friend Mr. Shunderson, who rarely leaves Praetorius's side and has a deep, intuitive understanding of human and animal nature.
Meanwhile, student Deborah Higgins enters Praetorius's life, displaying signs of emotional distress. After she faints during a lecture, Praetorius examines her and informs her that she's pregnant. Upset by this news, "Mrs. Higgins" admits that she's not really married. She will not reveal who the unborn child’s father is, and says knowing about her condition would be too much for her own father to bear. In a hallway near Praetorius's office, she shoots herself.
After successfully operating on Deborah, Praetorius tries to calm her by telling her there was a mistake in her pregnancy test, but she has fallen in love with him, and becomes upset at her own embarrassing behavior. She runs away from the clinic, forcing him to find her so he can tell her she really is pregnant.
Praetorius and Shunderson drive out to where Deborah and her father Arthur live, a farm owned by Arthur's brother, John. Arthur thinks that his daughter burned herself with a curling iron. Deborah and Praetorius hide Deborah's shooting incident from her father, who is a failure in life and lives unhappily as a dependent of his stingy brother. Deborah is his only pride in life, which might become intolerable for him with a baby to take care of and his daughter's reputation ruined.
While showing Praetorius the farm, Deborah admits her love for him. She also wonders why he is visiting and begins to suspect that he is attracted to her. After she seductively interrogates him, they share a passionate kiss. They soon get married, and Arthur comes to live with them. Deborah goes to the store in order to buy her husband an electric train set and a birthday cake for his birthday. A few weeks later, Deborah suggests to Noah that she may be pregnant, and he admits that she was pregnant all along. They debate over the due date of the baby, her husband says September and she says December. She ruefully concludes that he married her out of pity, but he convinces her that he really did fall in love with her.
Elwell's detective discovers that Shunderson was once convicted of murder, and Elwell calls for a misconduct hearing against Praetorius. A photographer takes a picture of Shunderson who confides with doctor Praetorius about it. Dr Elwell pays doctor Praetorius a visit. Instead Deborah answers the door. The professor congratulates Deborah on her being newly married. He requests to meet with her husband concerning confidential information. Deborah confronts him about the vicious gossip concerning her husband.
A hearing is held regarding charges against Dr. Praetorius. At the hearing, Praetorius explains that he started his career in a small town by opening a butcher shop as a front for his undeclared medical practice, because the people of the town didn't trust doctors. Elwell accuses Praetorius of "quackery", but Praetorius defends himself with the fact that he was a licensed practitioner, describing how he was forced to leave town after his maid discovered his medical degree.
Disappointed, Elwell then opens the Shunderson's file. Praetorius categorically refuses to answer questions about his friend, but Shunderson intervenes and explains that he served 15 years in prison for the alleged death of a man who had tried to murder him, then somehow survived being hanged after actually murdering the man, who had gone into hiding during the first trial. When he woke up, he was lying on a table in front of Praetorius, who was at that time a medical student examining what he believed was a cadaver. Praetorius kept Shunderson's survival a secret, and Shunderson became Praetorius's devoted friend. After this story is told, the chairman concludes the hearing in Praetorius's favor, and Elwell walks away alone and discredited.
Elwell had purposefully arranged for Praetorius's misconduct hearing to be scheduled for the same time as the student/faculty orchestra's concert. After the hearing and Praetorius' acquittal, the film ends with Deborah, her father, and Shunderson in the audience watching Praetorius' good friend and confidant, physics professor Lyonel Barker, play in the orchestra while Praetorius conducts it in the finale of Brahms's Academic Festival Overture, "Gaudeamus Igitur".
I give this movie 2.5 out of 5 stars (average).
It was nominated for the Writers Guild of America screen Award for Best Written American Comedy although I didn't find it all that funny. Over the years I have come to like black and white movies more than I used to. They keep you fixated on the performances as oppossed to the action and sex scenes. In this particular movie I found Jeanne Crain much better than the legendary Cary Grant. Not that Grant was bad, I liked his character and he portrayed it well enough, Patch Adams before he existed. I found him much better in The Bachelor and the Bobby Soxer from a few years earlier though.
Grant certainly worked with a lot of "A list" actresses over the years including Jean Ethel Barrymore, Ingrid Bergman, Doris Day, Sophia Loren, Joan Fontaine, Marlene Dietrich, Rita Hayworth, Katharine Hepburn, Audrey Hepburn, Jean Harlowe, Grace Kelly, Carol Lombard, Jayne Mansfield, Marilyn Monroe and Eva Marie Saint, however I digress.
In this movie Grant plays Dr. Noah Praetorius who is a physician that teaches in a medical school and founded a clinic dedicated to treating patients humanely and holistically. A colleague who dislikes Praetorius's unorthodox but effective methods, Dr. Rodney Elwell, has hired a detective to investigate Praetorius. A housekeeper who once worked for Praetorius reacts visibly when Elwell asks her about Praetorius's mysterious friend Mr. Shunderson, who rarely leaves Praetorius's side and has a deep, intuitive understanding of human and animal nature.
Meanwhile, student Deborah Higgins enters Praetorius's life, displaying signs of emotional distress. After she faints during a lecture, Praetorius examines her and informs her that she's pregnant. Upset by this news, "Mrs. Higgins" admits that she's not really married. She will not reveal who the unborn child’s father is, and says knowing about her condition would be too much for her own father to bear. In a hallway near Praetorius's office, she shoots herself.
After successfully operating on Deborah, Praetorius tries to calm her by telling her there was a mistake in her pregnancy test, but she has fallen in love with him, and becomes upset at her own embarrassing behavior. She runs away from the clinic, forcing him to find her so he can tell her she really is pregnant.
Praetorius and Shunderson drive out to where Deborah and her father Arthur live, a farm owned by Arthur's brother, John. Arthur thinks that his daughter burned herself with a curling iron. Deborah and Praetorius hide Deborah's shooting incident from her father, who is a failure in life and lives unhappily as a dependent of his stingy brother. Deborah is his only pride in life, which might become intolerable for him with a baby to take care of and his daughter's reputation ruined.
While showing Praetorius the farm, Deborah admits her love for him. She also wonders why he is visiting and begins to suspect that he is attracted to her. After she seductively interrogates him, they share a passionate kiss. They soon get married, and Arthur comes to live with them. Deborah goes to the store in order to buy her husband an electric train set and a birthday cake for his birthday. A few weeks later, Deborah suggests to Noah that she may be pregnant, and he admits that she was pregnant all along. They debate over the due date of the baby, her husband says September and she says December. She ruefully concludes that he married her out of pity, but he convinces her that he really did fall in love with her.
Elwell's detective discovers that Shunderson was once convicted of murder, and Elwell calls for a misconduct hearing against Praetorius. A photographer takes a picture of Shunderson who confides with doctor Praetorius about it. Dr Elwell pays doctor Praetorius a visit. Instead Deborah answers the door. The professor congratulates Deborah on her being newly married. He requests to meet with her husband concerning confidential information. Deborah confronts him about the vicious gossip concerning her husband.
A hearing is held regarding charges against Dr. Praetorius. At the hearing, Praetorius explains that he started his career in a small town by opening a butcher shop as a front for his undeclared medical practice, because the people of the town didn't trust doctors. Elwell accuses Praetorius of "quackery", but Praetorius defends himself with the fact that he was a licensed practitioner, describing how he was forced to leave town after his maid discovered his medical degree.
Disappointed, Elwell then opens the Shunderson's file. Praetorius categorically refuses to answer questions about his friend, but Shunderson intervenes and explains that he served 15 years in prison for the alleged death of a man who had tried to murder him, then somehow survived being hanged after actually murdering the man, who had gone into hiding during the first trial. When he woke up, he was lying on a table in front of Praetorius, who was at that time a medical student examining what he believed was a cadaver. Praetorius kept Shunderson's survival a secret, and Shunderson became Praetorius's devoted friend. After this story is told, the chairman concludes the hearing in Praetorius's favor, and Elwell walks away alone and discredited.
Elwell had purposefully arranged for Praetorius's misconduct hearing to be scheduled for the same time as the student/faculty orchestra's concert. After the hearing and Praetorius' acquittal, the film ends with Deborah, her father, and Shunderson in the audience watching Praetorius' good friend and confidant, physics professor Lyonel Barker, play in the orchestra while Praetorius conducts it in the finale of Brahms's Academic Festival Overture, "Gaudeamus Igitur".