The Talk of the Town
Directed by George Stevens
Written by Irwin Shaw and Sidney Buchman; adaptation by Dale Van Every from a story by Sidney Harmon
1942/USA
Columbia Pictures Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental
[box] Leopold Dilg: I don’t approve of, but I like people who think in terms of ideal conditions. They’re the dreamers, poets, tragic figures in this world, but interesting.[/box]
This is one of the few romantic comedies in which it is not obvious whom the leading lady will end up with. It also contains an unusual amount of philosophy.
The New England town of Lochester is dominated by corrupt political boss Andrew Holmes. Holmes’s decrepit factory is torched and a watchman killed in the fire. The prime suspect becomes Leopold Dilg (Cary Grant), who is regarded as a bit of a radical due to his speech-making.
Dilg is arrested. Seeing a guilty verdict as inevitable, he escapes from jail during the trial and goes to hide out in a house being rented by Nora Shelley (Jean Arthur), with whom he attended high school. She is there preparing for a new tenant when he arrives. She demands that he leave but relents when she sees he cannot walk on an injured ankle. The tenant, esteemed law professor Michael Lightcap (Ronald Colman) arrives a day early. Much commotion ensues as Nora tries to keep Dilg hidden from the Professor.
Nora gets hired as Lightcap’s secretary/cook. Leopold gets introduced as Joseph the gardener. Lightcap enjoys philosophizing about the law and life with “Joseph” and starts falling for Nora. After he learns Joseph’s true identity, Lightcap must choose between following the letter of the law and turning him in or helping to establish his innocence. This decision is complicated by the fact that Lightcap is about to be nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court and needs to keep his name out of the papers. With Edgar Buchanan as Dilg’s lawyer and Glenda Farrell as the watchman’s girlfriend.
I watched this with my husband and he laughed out loud several times. For some reason, it didn’t produce the same reaction in me. I did enjoy it more than on my previous viewing, however. All the acting is quite good. I especially enjoyed Coleman. It’s in the vein of a lot of Capra’s work with the common man against the corrupt establishment.
The Talk of the Town was nominated for seven Academy Awards: Best Picture; Best Writing, Original Story; Best Cinematography, Black-and-White (Ted Tetzlaff); Best Art Direction-Interior Decoration, Black-and-White; Best Film Editing; and Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLIvRJj_1SA
Clip – Professor Lightcap meets “Joseph the Gardener”
