Talk of the Town The (1942)

The Talk of the Town (1942) – is an essential comedy drama from producer-director George Stevens that features an outstanding cast: the powerhouse triumvirate of Cary Grant Jean Arthur and Ronald Colman in leading roles and a solid supporting cast headlined by Edgar Buchanan.

Nominated for Best Picture it also received Oscar nominations for Sidney Harmon’s original story its Sidney Buchman-Irwin Shaw screenplay its B&W Art Direction-Interior Decoration and Cinematography Editing and Score. Dale Van Every (Captains Courageous (1937)) is credited for writing the adaptation. Though an early work for Shaw who wrote the play that became Out of the Fog (1941) Buchman brought significant (screwball comedy) credentials to the project – Holiday (1938) with Grant Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) with Arthur an Oscar win for Here Comes Mr. Jordan (1941); he’d also just worked with Grant on The Howards of Virginia (1940). Grant and Arthur had successfully collaborated with Howard Hawks on Only Angels Have Wings (1939). Arthur and Stevens would work again on a similarly subtle political comedy The More The Merrier (1943) and the actress’s last picture the quintessential Western Shane (1953). But this film represents the only time that the two suave Britishers would ever appear together on screen.

Colman plays Judge Michael Lightcap a law professor come Supreme Court nominee from Boston that’s renting a house in Lochester for the summer (to write a book) from schoolteacher Miss Nora Shelley (Arthur) the prettiest girl in town per Leopold Dilg (Grant) a fugitive who’s hiding out in Shelley’s attic after being framed for arson. Because Lightcap is unaware of this harboring situation and Dilg is unable to travel per an ankle sprained during his escape Nora tells the judge that the fugitive is her gardener named Joseph. The two men become fast friends despite but because of their differing points of view on the law – stuffy Lightcap’s is theoretical whereas practical Dilg’s is more reality based – and mutual love of chess. Buchanan plays Sam Yates a local lawyer that’s also a former classmate of Lightcap’s; he and Nora try to get Lightcap involved in Dilg’s case even though the judge wants and needs to remain uninvolved per his pending nomination/confirmation to the Supreme Court bench. During the course of events both Lightcap and Dilg become attracted to Miss Shelley.

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