Rent The Talk of the Town (1942)

Brilliant comedy Cast. - The Talk of the Town review by Steve

With the USA now in WWII, George Stevens would soon be shooting documentaries in Europe and the Pacific right up until 1945. As the world went to war, the screwball comedy began to fade out in Hollywood. The Talk of the Town is a comedy drama with a serious theme appropriate to a global population threatened by fascism; the nature of law and justice.

 Ronald Colman is a pompous, unbending, Kantian academic who has moved to New England to write a book before being appointed to the Supreme Court. Cary Grant has a more utilitarian view of the law, and is a fugitive from justice having been fitted up for arson due to him agitating against local graft. Jean Arthur is the slightly screwy landlady who mediates between the two and influences Colman to take an interest in the case.

 The film is a comedy in style and due to the legendary cast who make the legal arguments witty and very easy to take. Cary Grant does well in a more dramatic role than was customary for him in that period. There are gentle hints of communism in his character. It has the energy of comedy, with the slamming doors and mayhem of farce, but these are incidental.

 The romance of the love triangle between the three leads doesn't really come to life. The film turns on Colman learning that he can no longer be an independent voice, and that he has to take a side. There is a struggle taking place, and like America, he decides no more can he be a passive observer. It would be a theme of many Hollywood films over the next few years. The Talk of the Town articulates this conflict well and the stars make this one of the better comedies of the period.