People Will Talk was less a movie than a conduit for the genteel liberalism of screenwriter/director Joseph M. Mankiewicz. Cary Grant plays Dr. Praetorius, an unorthodox medical professor at a sedate midwestern college who seems more interested in the human soul than in the cold facts of the human body. Praetorius' nemesis is a conservative rival doctor (Hume Cronyn) who presses for an investigation of our hero's clouded past--with special emphasis given the mysterious old man (Finlay Currie) who lives with Praetorius and ...
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People Will Talk was less a movie than a conduit for the genteel liberalism of screenwriter/director Joseph M. Mankiewicz. Cary Grant plays Dr. Praetorius, an unorthodox medical professor at a sedate midwestern college who seems more interested in the human soul than in the cold facts of the human body. Praetorius' nemesis is a conservative rival doctor (Hume Cronyn) who presses for an investigation of our hero's clouded past--with special emphasis given the mysterious old man (Finlay Currie) who lives with Praetorius and waits on him hand and foot. In the course of the film, Praetorius falls in love with one of his students, an unmarried pregnant girl (Jeanne Crain). At the climactic hearing concerning Praetorius' fitness, the presiding judge (Basil Ruysdael) decides that Praetorius' "modern" methods are more worthwhile than the pragmatic, cut-and-dried theories of his enemies. Based on a German play by Curt Goetz, People Will Talk is a bit too proud of its own cleverness, with Mankiewicz' political planks being wedged in at all the inappropriate times (while conversing with the father of the pregnant girl, Praetorius launches on a gratuitous attack against farm subsidies!) Still, the film is ten times more intelligent than most of Hollywood's 1951 output, and contains one of Cary Grant's best and subtlest seriocomic performances. Bonus: In the first scene of People Will Talk, the snoopy lady who brings Praetorius' "shady" past to the attention of Hume Cronyn is played by an uncredited Margaret ("Wicked Witch of the West") Hamilton. Hal Erickson, Rovi
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Add this copy of People Will Talk to cart. $21.48, new condition, Sold by Lake Country Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Excelsior, MN, UNITED STATES, published 2004 by 20th Century Fox.
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New. Size: 7x5x0; Brand new DVD in original manufacturer's shrink wrap. Gift worthy. Books, box sets, and items other than standard jewel case CDs and DVDs that sell for $9 or more ship in a box; under $9 in a bubble mailer. Expedited and international orders may ship in a flat rate envelope rather than a box due to cost constraints. All US-addressed items ship with complimentary delivery confirmation.
Add this copy of People Will Talk to cart. $31.32, new condition, Sold by Wonder Book - Member ABAA/ILAB rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Frederick, MD, UNITED STATES, published 2004.
This movie is more concerned with character development than with car chases or explosions, which seems to be the norm for today. Cary Grant adopts unspoken attitudinal positions that affect others in a positive way. This seems to bother Hume Cronyn because he assumes "people will talk," not understanding the reason for the silence. Quite likely motivated by jealousy, Cronyn attempts to have Grant thrown off the faculty. and calls a faculty meeting to hopefully attain that goal.
In dramatic interplay between the "good and evil" of the situation not only is the issue admirably resolved, but the frequent strains of Brahm's ACADEMIC FESTIVAL OVERTURE gradually build up the movie goer's emotional response. This is a good movie to see--certainly more than once.
