User Reviews

It's interesting to note the relatively solid rating this film gets here on IMDb (7.3 at the time of this writing), and to read the reviews and discussion. There's no doubt about it -- this is an odd film -- almost desafinado -- slightly out of tune.

The opening segment of the film is interesting...and funny. Pipsqueak Professor Elwell (Hume Cronyn) is interviewing Margaret Hamilton (the witch in "The Wizard Of Oz") trying to find out information about the mysterious Dr. Praetorious (Cary Grant) and his constant companion Shunderson (Finlay Currie; the devout follower of Christ in "Ben-Hur").

From there we meet young Jeanne Crain who faints in class. She goes to Dr. Praetorius and learns she is pregnant, and he learns she is unwed. She attempts suicide and stays at his clinic, but then disappears. But, Cary Grant pursues her to her uncle's farm where she and her father unhappily live...but not for long...he proposes.

And then comes the climax of the film -- the hearing where Elwell brings charges against Preatorious. It's a great scene as Grant responds to all the charges, one by one. But then comes the question about the mysterious Shunderson, which he refuses to answer. Will he fall on this? No, because Shunderson enters the room and tells his own marvelous story. Hearing over. And Shunderson, in private, calls Elwell a "little man".

I enjoy this film every time I watch it, and I must have watched it more than half-a-dozen times. And the main reason I enjoy it is the wonderful performance of an aging and very tan Cary Grant; it really is one of his best performances. Jeanne Crain is superb here, as well, and this is one of her best role. Finlay Currie is wonderful as the mysterious Shunderson. Although his character is not likable, Hume Cronyn's performance is exceptional. Walter Slezak plays a lovable curmudgeon who is friends with Praetorious. And this was the film where I first noticed Sidney Blackmer...a fine and underrated character actor; this is one of his best roles. Basil Ruysdael does well as the college dean.

Earlier I said that this film was almost desafinado. But that is not a negative. It's gloriously different. Highly recommended!

I have to give People Will Talk a mixed review, even though I've seen it many times and I like it. On the plus side, Cary Grant was never bad, except perhaps in his earliest films, and he's very good here, though (and I'm not sure who's to blame) he gets overly smug in his perfect-doctor guise. Many in the cast are good, including Sidney Blackmer, Walter Slezak, and the wonderful Finlay Currie as the mysterious Mr Shunderson.

Others are pretty good, too, like Jeanne Crain and Hume Cronyn. Hard not to like Crain, but she has a complicated role here. Not over her head, but...well, I don't know. Cronyn is a bit too overdone as the baddie of the piece, Professor Elwell. I think if the part of the small-minded prof had been played with less bluster or fussiness, if it were not very nearly a caricature of pettiness, it may have been more effective.

The story carries one along, and entertains, and in this way, it's well done, and I recommend the film for that feature alone. Personally, I couldn't buy some of its premises. I found things like not letting a pregnant girl know she's pregnant untenable. Mankiewicz asks us to accept that a doctor (albeit a "very special" one) should have these kinds of rights, because he knows best. And then Mankiewicz demonstrates that, over and over again, this superior human being does know best. And he should therefore have the right to be a kind of puppet master over the lives of the less brilliant and wise.

In a way, this view is not surprising coming from a film director. Besides, Mankiewicz in particular was a producer-director whose affairs with younger actresses like Judy Garland and Linda Darnell often saw him assume the role of confessor, savior, and father figure.

Cary Grant, a great actor, plays this Mankiewicz surrogate (and that's what he is) a bit smug. It's hard not to, given the lines and situations. Perhaps Mankiewicz should have given the character a few Cary Grant-ish personality flaws like vanity or peevishness, so effective in making us like Cary in other roles. Cary as a saintly figure (see also Crisis, and The Bishop's Wife) seems always a bit too willing to assume the mantle.

The pluses of the film are in the better performances, in Mankiewicz's ability to tell a story with intelligence and wit, in the fact that the film covers subjects rarely if ever covered in any film before or since (which makes it seem fresh). You will likely never forget Mr Shunderson's monologue once you have heard it, and if you like classical music there's a lot of it to enjoy on the soundtrack.

An adaptation of the play ''Dr Praetorius'',PEOPLE WILL TALK is basically an excuse for writer-director Joseph Mankiewicz to show off his undoubted skill for dialogue and to make various points about political,moral and ethical hypocrisy.Mankiewicz achieves this all very well in general,though somewhat at the cost of actual cinematic quality.

Dr Noah Praetorius (Cary Grant),an unorthodox but effective physician who teaches at a medical school,has a misconduct charge brought against him by a somewhat envious and pompous colleague,Professor Elwell (Hume Cronyn).He also falls in love with a young woman who occasionally attends the school (Jeanne Crain), who is expecting an out-of-wedlock child by a young man who has sadly died while serving in the Korean war,and Shunderson (Finlay Currie) a frequent and rather mysterious companion and associate of Praetorius, also arouses further suspicion.

Made during the era of McCarthyism at it's height,Joseph Mankiewicz was no supporter of the relentless anti-communist campaign of the time,and intelligently if not too subtly makes this point (among various others) with Cary Grant declining to clear his own name by revealing details of his colleague Finlay Currie's private affairs (which prove to be very serious) during the medical hearing.Grant as usual is excellent and convincing in the lead role,veering from a cynical,highly educated medical professional to compassionate,sensitive,non-judgmental advocate to starry-eyed romantic.Jeanne Crain is effective too as his future bride scarred by unfortunate circumstance (the unmarried mother to-be hitching up with a man who isn't the father may have been a deliberate sop to the Production Code of the time),as is Walter Slezak as a supportive colleague, Hume Cronyn in his familiar guise as a prissy,unlikable,moralistic busy-body,and Finlay Currie as a former jailed convict with whom Grant took pity on after various personal tragedies (though his accent seems a curious hybrid of his native Scottish and half-hearted Irish and American).

Grant's Praetorius is part of the academic and professional establishment but somehow wholly detached from it,rebelling against the various prejudices as what would be expected from his superiors towards hapless and lower status individuals like Crain and Currie who he befriends much to the chagrin of moral arbiters like Cronyn.These are liberal attitudes with a capital L,and Mankiewicz dramatises it all with great style with much literate,witty and thoughtful writing,taking critical potshots at the political and moral atmosphere of the time.The main problem with PEOPLE WILL TALK is as is suggested by the film's title.It is very apposite as the verbosity from virtually everyone (except from Currie until near the end of the film) sometimes becomes rather wearisome and taxing,and although Mankiewicz was undeniably a great writer,he was by no means as impressive a director,with the film's original theatre origins becoming obvious through mostly flat,uninspired,static handling and slow pacing.

Still,despite the dialogue-heavy (or maybe because of it) script, PEOPLE WILL TALK is an entertaining piece about an unconventional and rebellious hero from the academia, and made in a period when such characters were easily dismissed from such lofty positions for daring to show such insubordination (as many actors,writers,directors,etc. from Hollywood were in this period).

RATING:7 out of 10.

Cary Grant as the almost-saintly Dr. Noah (He says his real name is Ludwig, probably in reference to the original German play the film was based on.) Praetorius is similar in character to his angel in "The Bishop's Wife". His line reading is, to my mind, a bit mannered and almost sing-song. But he is always worth watching.

The film is dominated by the Brahms Academic Festival Overture which is almost the only music heard here and it is a bit much for film music. It's also mangled quite a bit and when the triumphant Cary "conducts" it at the end, it remains mangled. Not because of Cary who is only following a preexistent recording. He does it with tremendous enthusiasm but virtually no knowledge of how to conduct except to maintain the conducting patterns. Brahms did not put in a choral finale at the end of the Overture as far as I know, and it's inclusion here is no doubt stirring but hokey. Yes Brahms does quote the Gaudeamus Igitur at the end of the Overture and the sung words are correct as far as I can tell.

The Prof. Elwell character is well played by Hume Cronyn and I wonder if the only non-Brahms music heard, Walter's Prize Song from Wagner's opera Die Meistersinger, is meant to suggest his later victory over Elwell as Walter's is over his opponent Beckmesser. I think there is less doubt about (the uncredited) Margaret Hamilton's informant character Miss Pickett who, at one point, uses her "Wicked Witch" voice to perhaps indicate that Elwell is indulging in a "witch"-hunt as in the Senator McCarthy and other Senatorial hearings of the period.

(It's now 9/6/18 and without going into details, all things that are old are new again. I'm referring, of course, to the Margaret Hamilton segment. I'll say no more!)

Walter Slezak is the Professorial "bull-fiddle" player and his musical credentials are impeccable since his father was the Wagner-tenor Leo Slezak. (who, probably not coincidentally, recorded the "Prize Song"! I'm not sure whose performance is heard here.)

Jeanne Crain as Deborah, Finlay Currie as Shunderson and Sidney Blackmer are all fine but that scene with the miniature trains is, like the whole film, laid on too thick.

As a physician offering alternate treatments, Cary Grant does shine here but the material is somewhat far-fetched and becomes increasingly ridiculous as the film continues.

It's unusual to see veteran actor Finlay Currie is a non-biblical role. In this one, he is Shunderson, as loyal to the good doctor as they come. While there is good reason for his loyalty, when the reason comes out by the end of the film, it's absolutely inane.

Kudos to acting go to Walter Slezak as a fellow doctor, well-tempered and friend to Dr. Praetorius (Grant as well as Hume Cronyn, always excellent in a weasel-like role, this time a physician who basically has only contempt and jealousy for the good doctor, so much so that he tries to ruin him.

Margaret Hamilton does an excellent one-scene turn at the beginning of the film as a former housekeeper of Grant's, discovered by Cronyn in his evil plot. Afraid of sex, and as nasty as ever as in "The Wizard of Oz," Hamilton etches an unforgettable character.

We know there are good doctors out there like the dedicated Noah Praetorius, but the story behind his dedication is a little too much to fathom.

I hate to criticize someone's favorite film. I really do, but this movie was just bad.

While I agree whole heartedly with Susie-4's assessment, she left out one glaring problem I had with the film. The idea that a pregnant woman can't figure out that she's three months pregnant without a doctor telling her that she is. Especially when she already believed that she was. And then at the end, when she's sitting at the concert in her tightly belted, tiny waisted dress and she feels the baby kick...

Of course, I had long ago given up on this movie, was feeling sorry for the actors for having to spout the over written dialog, and wondering how someone got paid for writing it. All I could think was "people don't talk like this", "people don't act like this" and "what's he/she getting mad about?". If I were not a victim of insomnia, I'd wouldn't have made it through fifteen minutes.