The Talk of the Town (1942)

An escaped prisoner and a stuffy law professor vie for the hand of a spirited schoolteacher.

Director:

George Stevens

Writers:

Irwin Shaw (screen play), Sidney Buchman (screen play)

Stars:

Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Ronald Colman

Nominated for 7 Oscars.

Cast

Complete credited cast:
Cary Grant	...	Leopold Dilg
Jean Arthur	...	Nora Shelley
Ronald Colman	...	Professor Michael Lightcap
Edgar Buchanan	...	Sam Yates
Glenda Farrell	...	Regina Bush
Charles Dingle	...	Andrew Holmes
Emma Dunn	...	Mrs. Shelley
Rex Ingram	...	Tilney
Leonid Kinskey	...	Jan Pulaski
Tom Tyler	...	Clyde Bracken
Don Beddoe	...	Police Chief

Storyline

In suburban Lochester, New England, three people end up living together in high school teacher Nora Shelley's rental house. The first is her new tenant, renowned Harvard law professor Michael Lightcap, who has rented the house for the summer while he writes his new book. The second is Nora herself. Despite having an auspicious first meeting, Lightcap hires Nora to be his live-in cook and secretary for a week until his manservant Tilney arrives. The third is Joseph, the property's gardener, who is currently laid up with a sprained ankle. In reality, Joseph is Nora's childhood friend Leopold Dilg, who has just escaped from prison. Leopold was being tried for the arson of the factory where he worked, and for murder for the death of the factory foreman Clyde Bracken, whose body was never recovered but who is assumed to have died in the fire. Despite the danger to herself, Nora hides Leopold since she believes his story that although he, as an activist, did speak out about the dangerous ...

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Plot Keywords:

screwball comedy | law | factory | gardener | trial | 

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Taglines:

Screen comedy so gay... drama so thrilling... love so exciting, it will be the talk of YOUR town!

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Romance | Thriller

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

20 August 1942 (USA)

Also Known As:

Three's a Crowd

Filming Locations:

Supreme Court Building - First & Capitol Streets NE, Washington, District of Columbia, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$1,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

118 min

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Mirrophonic Recording)

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

This was the first time since the silent era that Ronald Colman was billed below another male lead.

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Goofs

About 16 or 17 minutes into the movie, when Nora goes back to the attic to try and get Leopold out, he is first seen lying on his back for a couple of shots, back and forth between him and Nora. Then at one point when he compliments her beauty, he is sitting up. When the camera shoots them in a wide shot with Leopold's back to the camera, he is laying on his back again.

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Quotes

Michael Lightcap: This is your law and your finest possession - it makes you free men in a free country. Why have you come here to destroy it? If you know what's good for you, take those weapons home and burn them! And then think... think of this country and of the law that makes it what it is. Think of a world crying for this very law! And maybe you'll understand why you ought to guard it. Why the law has got to be the personal concern of every citizen. To uphold it for your neighbor as well as yourself. ...

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Alternate Versions

The AMC television showing of this film omits the actual moment, shown in the complete version, in which 'Ronald Colman' is actually informed of his Supreme Court appointment.

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Connections

Referenced in Five Came Back: Combat Zones (2017)

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Soundtracks

Jive Bomber
(uncredited)
Music by Lyle 'Spud' Murphy

User Reviews

Colman, Grant and Arthur - how can it miss? It doesn't.

Cary Grant is Leopold Dilg, "The Talk of the Town," in this 1942 film also starring Ronald Colman and Jean Arthur. The outspoken Digl is framed for arson and murder and escapes from prison. He ends up in the home of a schoolteacher he's known since childhood, Nora Shelley. She's preparing her home to be rented the next day - except the renter, an attorney named Professor Lightcap (Colman) shows up right then. Since Leopold has a bad ankle, Nora lets him hide in the attic. Though Lightcap wants peace and quiet to write a book, things don't quite happen that way. Nora insists on being his secretary/cook - because she has to take care of Leopold - and every time Lightcap turns around, there's Nora's mother, the police looking for Dilg, furniture deliveries and a delivery of all of Nora's clothing - before he agrees to hire her.

Nora and Dilg's attorney Yates (Edgar Buchanan) attempt to drag the brilliant ivory tower attorney into the unfair assumption of guilt of Dilg, but Lightcap refuses. His type of justice, it seems, is all on paper. He doesn't want to get involved with any real people. Leopold, posing as the family gardener, gets into some heated discussions with him, and at Leopold's urging, Nora gives Lightcap special attention. But is any of it enough to make him cave and help Digl?

This is a grand comedy with very serious undertones. Who would ever expect two of the most elegant men in film history, Grant and Colman, to be facing off in a comedy, no less, where one of them is very definitely NOT elegant. Grant is terrific, a truly great actor who rarely let his audience see anything but the famous "Cary Grant" persona. Here, he's a man of the people with a clumsy walk and casual clothes. His pantomime to Nora through his attic window of wanting something to eat is hilarious. The bearded Colman plays the role of a stuffy professor very straight. Lightcap is barely able to stand the chicanery of Nora's household at first, as he has a strict routine. Fast forward and he's flirting and dancing with a smart-mouthed beautician (Glenda Farrell) in order to pump her for information about her boyfriend. His acting, particularly his courtroom speech toward the end of the film, is magnificent. Arthur plays Nora as a dizzy, confused and nervous woman, completely thrown as a landlord, a friend and a woman by the appearance of Leopold and the brilliance of Lightcap, as well as his admiration of her. She's torn between the two of them - and keeps the audience wondering.

Really a must-see for the lesson that true justice must be not read, not preached, but lived and for the wonderful characterizations and direction by Stevens.