PEOPLE WILL TALK (1951) **1/2 Cary Grant-holistic doctor and master symphonian. If you can get past that-it's a leap, but I can-you may well have a good time. Joseph L. Mankiewicz has a great deal to say about the contempt of the mundane for the esteemed, and Cary is...well, he was quite esteemed, wasn't he? The entire script is a broadside against hypocrisy and simple-mindedness of virtually every sort. Mankiewicz deals a magnitude of aphorisms and otherwise clever lines, but whether they're occasionally dealt in the midst of dialogues that go on twice as long as need be is a matter of taste. What isn't contestable is that he delivers a script that's so far ahead of its time that it wouldn't be entirely vindicated for somewhere between 15 and 1500 years, depending on the subject. Jeanne Crain isn't demanding so much as appealing, and when the head goof makes eyes at her it's understandable and you wish he wouldn't. Look for Margaret Hamilton early, in the modern incarnation of the Wicked Witch of the West (understand, that witches ain't so much these days; they're totally underlings in the corporate structure). Walter Slezak steals every scene that he's in, which is all the more impressive considering the competition. Why aren't there vampire flicks starring Finlay Currie?
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