The Talk of the Town (1942)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Talk of the Town (1942) – G. Stevens

Comedy with serious undertones and nicely observed characters from George Stevens – who seems to be channelling Frank Capra with Jean Arthur in the lead and a story about “the law” and how it needs to serve the people rather than lofty principles.  Cary Grant stumbles into Jean’s life and the cottage she is about to rent out to Dean of the Law School Ronald Colman, he’s on the lam after escaping prison, falsely accused of burning down a factory.  The factory owner has the town in his back pocket and he’s railroading the case with a handpicked judge and jury.  Grant and his lawyer lean on Colman to assist, but he’s too principled to get involved in a local case…until his fondness for Grant and Arthur both win him over and he shaves off his beard and gets his hands dirty.  It works because we too grow fond of these characters, even if the larger themes are a bit garbled; Capra handled complicated issues better by ramping up the sentimentality and distilling the arguments to their simplest points, also throwing in quirky supporting players.  Stevens hits it right down the middle which is satisfying but it doesn’t go out of the park.