Oscar Got It Wrong!: Best Picture 1942

The Contenders:

49th Parallel
Kings Row
The Magnificent Ambersons
Mrs. Miniver (winner)
The Pied Piper
The Pride of the Yankees
Random Harvest
Talk of the Town
Wake Island
Yankee Doodle Dandy

Rule of Law

Film: Talk of the Town
Format: DVD from Sycamore Public Library on laptop.

Talk of the Town is a film that’s going to play with our expectations in the opening 10 minutes. This starts off like a film noir that will pit a dangerous criminal played by Cary Grant against a terribly vulnerable Jean Arthur. And while there’s drama aplenty here, it’s not long before a film that starts with arson, murder, and a prison break quickly becomes a dramatic romantic comedy with a love triangle. Believe me, I’m not complaining.

Here’s the set up: Fire! Burning buildings! Spinning headlines! A factory has burned down and it looks like arson. The foreman of the factory has been burned to a crisp with only an athletic medal he won for shotput left behind in the ashes. Factory owner Andrew Holmes (Charles Dingle) blames notorious organizer and rabble rouser Leopold Dilg (Cary Grant), who is promptly arrested. In probably the least-dramatic escape in film history from the most minimum security prison, Dilg overpowers his guard and escapes, ending up at the rental home of Nora Shelley (Jean Arthur), the woman he’s always had a crush on. His ankle hurt in his escape, Leopold has nowhere else to go. But Nora is prepping the house for a summer renter who arrives minutes after Leopold and a day early. The renter is Professor Michael Lightcap (Ronald Coleman), a law professor who is being considered for placement on the Supreme Court. Yes, that Supreme Court.