Other Titles • The Talk of the Town • The Gentleman Misbehaves (1942) • George Stevens' The Talk of the Town (1942) • Mister Twilight (1942) • Three's a Crowd (1942)
Synopses for The Talk of the Town (1942)
1.
The screwball comedy was the definitive genre of the Depression, but as America edged toward war in the early '40s, it suffered some strange and wonderful mutations--none stranger than The Talk of the Town, directed by George Stevens from a script by novelist Irwin Shaw and frequent Capra collaborator (and future blacklist victim) Sidney Buchman. Cary Grant, awkwardly cast, is a small-town political agitator who is framed for the burning of a local factory; he takes refuge in the attic of a country cottage that landlady Jean Arthur is preparing to rent out to a celebrated law professor (silver-tongued Ronald Colman, perhaps the only actor in Hollywood who could make Grant look like a proletarian). Stevens, suspended between his light '30s style (Swing Time) and his heavy postwar manner (A Place in the Sun), struggles to balance a charming, surprisingly suspenseful romantic triangle with the heavy, debating-society tone of the screenplay, which pits Grant, the representative of a compassionate, emotional sense of justice, against the cool, abstract application of the law advocated by Colman. Caught between these two highly verbal characters, Jean Arthur doesn't have much to do but be adorable and provide the occasional quizzical reaction shot--two things she does with exquisite skill. Stevens and Arthur teamed up again one year later for another strange-bedfellows farce, the marvelous The More the Merrier; in 1953 Arthur made her final film appearance in Stevens's Shane. --Dave Kehr
From the Back Cover When a charming fugitive, a beautiful teacher, and a stuffy law professor are forced to become roommates, their unconventional relationship is suddenly THE TALK OF THE TOWN in this madcap romantic comedy. When accused arsonist Leopold Dilg (Academy Award winner Cary Grant, Honorary Award, 1970) escapes jail, he hides out in the home of his friend Nora (Jean Arthur). Posing as a gardener, Dilg teams up with Nora to convince her summer tenant, Supreme Court candidate Michael Lightcap (Academy Award winner Ronald Colman, Best Actor in a Leading Role, A DOUBLE LIFE, 1940), that Dilg was framed. The zaniness never stops as the three of them dodge the cops, try to snag the real crooks, and discover along the way that both men have fallen for Nora. But who has captured Nora's heart? Find out with THE TALK OF THE TOWN, a sparkling gem from Hollywood's Golden Age of Comedy, nominated for seven Academy Awards including Best Picture.
(25 votes)
2.
George Stevens' last film with Cary Grant represents yet another hit in his string of classic comedies. Grant stars as Leopold Dilg, a political activist who is wrongly indicted for arson and murder when a factory worker dies in a mill fire in the town of Sweetbrook. Believing that he'll be executed if he remains in jail, he escapes and breaks into a cottage that schoolteacher Nora Shelley (Jean Arthur) is preparing for Professor Michael Lightcap (Ronald Coleman), the dean of a law school. She allows Grant to stay in the attic, without alerting the professor. The next day, a reporter arrives to question Lightcap about Dilg's case, along with Sam Yates (Edgar Buchanan), Dilg's lawyer, who comes at Nora's behest. Since Yates and Lightcap know each other from law school, Yates asks Lightcap's help in defending his client, who he claims to have been framed. The professor refuses, intent on writing a legal treatise. Before Yates leaves, he persuades Nora to house Dilg, who she introduces to Lightcap as a gardener. Before long, the professor begins to realize that the gardener is well versed in the intricacies and inequities of the U.S. legal system. Stevens' entertaining romantic triangle, in which the atmosphere of legal debate is leavened by wit, and low comedy, is brilliantly played by all, especially an atypically dark and impulsive Grant. The director's characteristically deft touch with comic business is evident throughout the film.
(25 votes)
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