People Will Talk **** (1951, Cary Grant, Jeanne Crain, Hume Cronyn, Walter Slezak, Finlay Currie, Sidney Blackmer) – Classic Movie Review 6891

Cary Grant stars in the 1951 romantic comedy drama People Will Talk as a crusading doctor (Dr Noah Praetorius) battling a jealous anatomist Professor 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.

Writer-director Joseph L Mankiewicz’s unusual, intelligent, wryly comic drama is based on a German play called Dr Praetorius by Curt Goetz. It had already been made into a movie in Germany – Doctor Praetorius (1950).

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.

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).

© Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6891

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com

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