People Will Talk (1951) - film review

Dr Noah Praetorius is a successful medical practitioner who enjoys great popularity and respect at the university where he teaches.   Unfortunately, not everyone appreciates his success.  One of his colleagues, Professor Elwell, is determined to ruin his career and has the good fortune to unearth a skeleton or two from Praetorius’s mysterious past.  Meanwhile, Praetorius is preoccupied with one of his students, Deborah Higgins, who has tried to kill herself after learning she is pregnant.  Since the father of her unborn child, a man she hardly knew, died in combat recently, Deborah is anxious over what her father will think.  Praetorius decides that Deborah’s case is one that requires his urgent attention...

Joseph L. Mankiewicz followed up his monumentally successful All About Eve (1950) with a film which is less well-known but just as insightful and scathing in its portrayal of American society.  Based on the stage play "Dr. Praetorius" by Curt Goetz, People Will Talk is an intelligent reaction to Mankiewicz’s own experiences during the communist witch hunts of the late 1940s, early 1950s which were initiated by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Whilst President of the Director’s Guild, Mankiewicz was openly attacked by Cecil B. DeMille, a once great filmmaker and hard-line conservative, for his unwillingness to support the anti-communist campaign.  Like many of his fellow directors and screenwriters, Mankiewicz was a liberal who refused to denouce others working in Hollywood who had communist sympathies.

Whilst People Will Talk is primarily a warning about the dangers of intellectual rivalry and the immorality of witch hunts, it does embrace a wide range of other subjects that were just as controversial at the time – pregnancy outside of marriage, the corrosive effect of unfettered capitalism, the human cost of the Korean war, among others.  It is also an entertaining romantic comedy, with an attractive cast of talented performers and some sparkling dialogue (one of Mankiewicz’s hallmarks).

In one of his best performances, Cary Grant is at his most charming and brings a depth and intensity to his portrayal of the kindly but slightly mysterious Dr Praetorius which may surprise some viewers.  Jeanne Crain is just as alluring and succeeds in making her character far more interesting than the stereotypical mixed up girl she seems to be at first sight.  

Perhaps the best performances are from Finlay Currie and Hume Cronyn, although this only registers in the short but pivotal scene near the end of the film where Curie’s character make Cronyn’s aware of his petty small-mindedness, rather like an angry dog owner pushing his pet’s nose into something he shouldn’t have done.   It is testament to Cronyn’s talent – and Mankiewicz’s generosity – that the last shot we see of the odious Professor Elwell is the most poignant in the film.  The meaning is apparent.    Those who seek to bring down others risk destroying their own reputations, a fate that befell Cecil B. DeMille after his own attack on Joseph L. Mankiewicz.

© James Travers 2008

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