People Will Talk **** (1951, Cary Grant, Jeanne Crain, Hume Cronyn, Walter Slezak, Finlay Currie, Sidney Blackmer) – Classic Movie Review 6,891

Cary Grant stars in the 1951 romantic comedy drama People Will Talk as a crusading doctor battling a jealous anatomist (Hume Cronyn) and falling in love with a young intern (Jeanne Crain).

Cary Grant stars in the 1951 romantic comedy drama People Will Talk as a crusading doctor (Dr Noah Praetorius) battling a jealous anatomist Professor Rodney Elwell (Hume Cronyn) and falling in love with young intern Deborah Higgins (Jeanne Crain), who becomes his suicidal patient when she gets pregnant by her old boyfriend, killed in action in the Korean War.

Elwell, who hates his colleague’s effectively unorthodox methods, has hired a detective to investigate Praetorius, who teaches in a medical school and has founded a clinic where patients are treated humanely and holistically.

Writer-director Joseph L Mankiewicz’s unusual, intelligent, wryly comic drama is based on a German hit play called Dr Praetorius by Curt Goetz. It had already been made into a movie in Germany –Doctor Praetorius [Frauenarzt Dr Prätorius] (1950) starring Curt Goetz. A second German film, Praetorius, starring Heinz Rühmann, was released in 1965.

It is effectively opened out for the screen and blessed with attractive performances throughout the cast. In one of his less well-known roles, Grant is just superb, while Hume Cronyn, Walter Slezak, Finlay Currie, Sidney Blackmer, Margaret Hamilton and Basil Ruysdael give spot-on star character actor turns. Crain’s slightly stagey and mannered performance is a slight drawback, but not too much.

Perhaps as a movie, it is a mite too dialogue based to be totally successful. Yet it is always engrossing and Mankiewicz’s conversation truly sizzles.

Also in the cast are Will Wright, Katherine Locke, Carleton Young, Parley Baer, Gail Bonney, William Bryant, John Davidson, Julia Dean, Bill Dyer, Bess Flowers, Jack Kelly, Billy House, Sam Harris, Stuart Holmes, Adele Longmire, Joyce Mackenzie, Billy Mauch, George Offerman Jr, and Esther Somers.

People Will Talk is directed by Joseph L Mankiewicz, runs 109 minutes, is released by 20th Century Fox, is written by Joseph L Mankiewicz, based on the play Dr Praetorius by Curt Goetz, is shot in black and white by Milton R Krasner, is produced by Darryl F Zanuck and is scored by Alfred Newman, with Art Direction by George W Davis and Lyle R Wheeler.

Release: August 29, 1951.

There were no awards, but it was nominated for the Writers Guild of America screen Award for Best Written American Comedy (Joseph L Mankiewicz).

It was topical then, and it is now, as a cautionary tale about the dangers of witch hunts. Dr Praetorius refuses to clear his name by revealing the private business of another person, a convicted murderer. Mankiewicz has in mind the communist witch hunts while he was President of the Directors Guild of America (1950-51).

Cast: Cary Grant as Dr Noah Praetorius, Jeanne Crain as Deborah Praetorius, Finlay Currie as Shunderson, Hume Cronyn as Prof Rodney Elwell, Walter Slezak as Prof Lyonel Barker, Sidney Blackmer as Arthur Higgins, Basil Ruysdael as Dean Lyman Brockwell, Katherine Locke as Miss James, Parley Baer as Toy Store Salesman, Lawrence Dobkin as Business Manager, Bess Flowers as concert audience member, Margaret Hamilton as housekeeper Sarah Pickett, Sam Harris as concertgoer, Stuart Holmes as board member, Billy House as Coonan, Jack Kelly as student in classroom, and Will Wright as John Higgins.

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6,891

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Jeanne Crain and Cary Grant in People Will Talk (1951).