People will talk
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | People will talk |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1951 |
| length | 110 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| script | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| production | Darryl F. Zanuck for 20th Century Fox |
| music | Alfred Newman |
| camera | Milton R. Krasner |
| cut | Barbara McLean |
| occupation | |
| |
People Will Talk is an American feature film directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz from 1951. The mixture of comedy and melodrama is based on the German play Frauenarzt Dr. med. Job Prätorius by Curt Goetz , which had already been filmed in the Federal Republic of Germany a year earlier .
action
Noah Praetorius is an unconventional but popular and well-known doctor who owns his own specialist clinic and lectures at the university. In his clinic, he places particular emphasis on not only treating his patients medically, but also giving them human warmth through friendly and caring behavior. But that does not meet with open ears from all colleagues: Praetorius' disapproving colleague Professor Elwell considers him a quack and conducts investigations in which, among other things, he questions Noah's former housekeeper. She says that Praetorius once ran a butcher's shop and only sold some medicines on the side. For this he was venerated as a miracle healer by the people of the village. Shunderson, an intimidating and mysterious looking gentleman, who hardly leaves Praetorius' side and is a kind of factotum for him, causes further distrust in Elwell . Despite his slowness, Shunderson possesses extraordinary talents, he seems to understand the inside of people and animals obey him immediately. Praetorius's friends also include the eccentric physics professor Barker, who also teaches at the university.
One day, a nervous medical student Deborah Higgins breaks down in a lecture. Dr. Praetorius examines her and comes to the conclusion that she is pregnant. Deborah is devastated: she is not married, the child's father died in the Korean War . In Dr. Praetorius shoots her at himself, whereupon the doctor operates on her and takes care of her intensively. So that she doesn't want to commit suicide again, he tells her the lie that it was his fault and that she is not pregnant. Deborah falls in love with Praetorius and flees the clinic out of shame. Praetorius now has to visit her again to tell her that she is really pregnant after all. To do this, he visits her on a farm outside of town, where she lives with her father Arthur and her uncle John. The widower Arthur is broken by life and financially dependent on his grumpy brother, the farmer John. Deborah is his one and only, if her reputation were ruined because of her pregnancy, he probably couldn't get over it. Deborah confesses to Praetorius that she loves him, and he too reciprocates her feelings. They marry soon after and move into a new house, with Arthur and Shunderson with them too. When Deborah found out a few weeks later that she was pregnant, she initially thought that Praetorius had only married her out of pity. However, he makes it clear to her that his feelings for her are real.
Professor Elwell, meanwhile, continues his intrigues against Praetorius and discovers that Shunderson was convicted of murder decades ago. He is also derogatory about Praetorius' marriage to a former patient. At a hearing before the university committee, Praetorius defended himself for having run a butcher's shop alongside his practice at the beginning of his career: only by disguising as a butcher he was able to gain the trust of patients in the village who despised conventional doctors. When the people of the village then found out that Praetorius was a real doctor, he had to leave the village quickly because of their anger. Finally the conversation turns to Shunderson's past, but Praetorius does not want to comment. Shunderson himself speaks up and tells his story: He spent 15 years in prison for the alleged death of a man who tried to kill him. When he found the man alive after serving his sentence and the man mocked him, he actually killed him. Shunderson was sentenced to death and hanged, but somehow survived and woke up on the examination table of medical student Praetorius, who thought he was a corpse. Praetorius and Shunderson eventually became close friends that Shunderson survived was kept a secret all along. The committee decides to absolve Praetorius of all charges, much to Elwell's chagrin.
Praetorius is also the conductor of the university orchestra. In the final scene he performs the academic festival overture Gaudeamus igitur by Johannes Brahms in front of all the characters in the film.
Reviews
People Will Talk has received mostly positive reviews to this day. Ken Hanke described it as a "brilliant, brilliantly subversive anti-McCarthy comedy"; Dennis Schwartz also wrote that the film was a "sour and talkative answer" from the liberal-minded Mankiewicz to the McCarthy era. Leonard Maltin gave the film 3.5 out of 4 stars and judged: "Wonderfully unconventional, absorbing comedy drama with the philosophizing Doctor Grant, who insists on treating his patients as fellow human beings". Although the film is chatty, it offers a fine cast and is extremely worth seeing.
Awards
People Will Talk was nominated for Best Written American Comedy by the Writers Guild of America in 1952 .
Web links
- People Will Talk in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ People Will Talk at Rotten Tomatoes (English)
- ↑ Leonard Maltin at Turner Classic Movies (English)
- ↑ People Will Talk in the Internet Movie Database (English)