Rent The Talk of the Town (1942)
3.8 of 5 from 79 ratings
1h 52min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- When a charming fugitive, a beautiful teacher and a stuffy law professor are forced to become roommates, their unconventional relationship is suddenly 'Talk of the Town' in this madcap romantic comedy. When accused arsonist Leopold Dilg (Cary Grant) 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 (Ronald Colman), 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?
- Actors:
- Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Ronald Colman, Edgar Buchanan, Glenda Farrell, Charles Dingle, Emma Dunn, Rex Ingram, Leonid Kinskey, Tom Tyler, Don Beddoe
- Directors:
- George Stevens
- Producers:
- George Stevens
- Writers:
- Sidney Harmon, Dale Van Every, Irwin Shaw, Sidney Buchman
- Others:
- Ted Tetzlaff, Sidney Buchman, Irwin Shaw, Frederick Hollander, Otto Meyer, Rudolph Sternad, Morris Stoloff, Lionel Banks, Fay Babcock
- Studio:
- Columbia Tristar
- Genres:
- Classics, Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Collections:
- All the Twos: 1902-62, Holidays Film Collection, A Brief History of Film..., Top 10 Screen Kisses (1896-1979)
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Reviews (1) of The Talk of the Town
Comedy Drama. - The Talk of the Town review by Steve
With America now at war, George Stevens would soon be shooting documentaries in Europe and the Pacific right up until '45. Screwball comedy began to fade out in Hollywood. This is a comedy drama with a serious theme appropriate to a global population threatened by fascism; the state of law and justice.
Ronald Colman plays a pompous, unbending- Kantian- academic who visits New England to write a book before his appointment to the Supreme Court. Cary Grant has a more utilitarian view of the law, and is a fugitive from justice, having been fitted up for arson to stop him opposing local graft.
And Jean Arthur is the slightly screwy landlady who mediates and influences Colman to defend the accused. This is styled as a romance and a farce but the love triangle doesn't come to life. The slamming doors are a distraction. Grant plays a more serious role than was customary; essentially a Communist.
Which must have been noticed by HUAC once fighting was over. The screenwriter (Sidney Buchman) was blacklisted. The drama turns on Colman realising that he has to take a side in the fight for civil liberties. It would be a theme of many Hollywood films in peacetime. This articulates the conflict well and the stars make it one of the better comedies of the war years.
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