People Will Talk (1951)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Writers:

Joseph L. Mankiewicz (writer)
Curt Goetz (play)

Release Date:

29 August 1951 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Plot:

Dr. Noah Praetorius falls in love with Debra, a student who finds out that she is pregnant by her old boyfriend who recently died in combat.

Plot Keywords:

Foreign Language Adaptation | Secret | Academic Hearing | Pregnancy | Double Bass

Awards:

1 nomination

Cast

Cary Grant	...	Dr. Noah Praetorius
Jeanne Crain	...	Deborah Higgins
Finlay Currie	...	Shunderson
Hume Cronyn	...	Prof. Rodney Elwell
Walter Slezak	...	Prof. Barker
Sidney Blackmer	...	Arthur Higgins
Basil Ruysdael	...	Dean Lyman Brockwell
Katherine Locke	...	Miss James

Also Known As:

The Dr. Praetorious Story (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

110 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Australia:PG | USA:Approved (certificate #15270) | Canada:PG (video rating) | Finland:S | Sweden:15 | UK:A (original rating) | UK:U (video rating) (2005)

Filming Locations:

Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: At one point while Dr. Praetorius is lecturing Professor Elwell's class, a close-up insert shot of Shunderson is clearly printed backwards.

Quotes:

Doctor Noah Praetorius: How old were you when you learned to walk?
Arthur Higgins: I could get around alright at four.
Doctor Noah Praetorius: And how old were you when you left the farm?
Arthur Higgins: Sixteen.
Doctor Noah Praetorius: Surely it didn't take you twelve years to make up your mind!

Movie Connections:

Remake of Frauenarzt Dr. Prätorius (1950)

Soundtrack:

Happy Birthday to You

A witty, compassionate and literate treasure

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...