Arson, Love and the Law

 The Talk of the Town (1942) – A escapee from the local jail needs the help of his boyhood crush, and a legal scholar to avoid being convicted for a crime he didn’t do.

Directed by George Stevens                          Starring Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Ronald Colman

Why I Liked It – Three wonderful actors are almost letter perfect in this romantic drama/comedy mystery.

Leopold Dilg (Grant) is the local firebrand and activist who is set up over a local arson.  The local man of wealth and power decides to end this problem once and for all.  Colman plays a distinguished law professor Dr. Michael Lightcap, who wants to get away for the summer to write.  He’s rented a bungalow in the country from Arthur’s Nora Shelley.  This is a classic Jean Arthur role, the lovely but rather ditzy blonde who is the whirlwind in the center of the action.  As per usual, being ditzy doesn’t mean that Miss Shelley can’t see right from wrong and speak her mind, all from a heart of gold.  Nobody’s plans work out the way they expected.  Along the way there’s a mystery to solve, and a love triangle to resolve.

“The Talk of The Town” mixes comedy, drama, romance and a touch of social commentary with only a few small lumps along the way.  Near the end, Lightcap gives a speech about the law, and our responsibilities to our neighbors that could have lifted from a Frank Capra movie.  Grant feels a little off for me in this role.  His character has an edge, he’s a lifelong troublemaker.  Fiery street corner speeches, petitions, protests of all kinds, Dilg sees them all as his art form.  He’s supposed to be acerbic and militant.  It never quite plays for me here.  Grant can play the edge, but he has to overcome his natural smoothness here, and it misses.  He’s much better (big surprise) with the comic and romantic parts.  On the other hand, this role is a custom fit for Colman.  Precise, cultured, and intelligent, Lightcap shows the most character growth as the story progresses.  

The movie picked up seven Oscar nominations, and featured the screenwriting of Sidney Buchman, who was one of the blacklisted writers in Hollywood in the 1950s.  It’s unusual in having two leading men (the first time in Colman’s career as a star where he was billed below a male co-star’s), and in a non-stereotypical African-American character in Rex Ingram’s Tilney.  The professor’s assistant and driver, Tilney is unusual in the movies of the day as an educated, articulate man whose opinion is honestly sought by his employer.  

All together, a fun movie that makes you wait till the very end (and I mean the VERY end) to resolve one of its biggest questions.

Rating – *** Worth A Look