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The Talk of the Town (1942 film)

1942 American film directed by George Stevens

The Talk of The Town is a 1942 film about an escaped prisoner who has to prove his innocence to a stuffy law professor with the help of a spirited school teacher.

Cary Grant as Leopold Dilg and Jean Arthur as Miss Nora Shelley
Jean Arthur as Miss Nora Shelley and Ronald Colman as Professor Michael Lightcap
Directed by George Stevens. Written by Dale Van Every, Irwin Shaw and Sidney Buchman, based on a story by Sidney Harmon.


Leopold Dilg

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  • Stop saying "Leopold" like that, tenderly. It sounds funny. You can't do it with a name like Leopold.
  • What is the law? It's a gun pointed at somebody's head. All depends upon which end of the gun you stand, whether the law is just or not.
  • Well, it's a form of self-expression. Some people write books. Some people write music. I make speeches on street corners.
  • I don't approve of, but I like people who think in terms of ideal conditions. They're the dreamers, poets, tragic figures in this world, but interesting.

Nora Shelley

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  • Listen, I can't hang around here even if I wanted to. Lightcap's ordered me out 50 times since last night. I'm here now only by the grace of being in his pajamas. One minute I'm out of these and I'm out on my ear!

Michael Lightcap

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  • This is your law and your finest possession - it makes you free men in a free country. Why have you come here to destroy it? If you know what's good for you, take those weapons home and burn them! And then think... think of this country and of the law that makes it what it is. Think of a world crying for this very law! And maybe you'll understand why you ought to guard it. Why the law has got to be the personal concern of every citizen. To uphold it for your neighbor as well as yourself. Violence against it is one mistake. Another mistake is for any man to look upon the law as just a set of principles. And just so much language printed on fine, heavy paper. Something he recites and then leans back and takes it for granted that justice is automatically being done. Both kinds of men are equally wrong! The law must be engraved in our hearts and practiced every minute to the letter and spirit. It can't even exist unless we're willing to go down into the dust and blood and fight a battle every day of our lives to preserve it. For our neighbor as well as ourself.
  • Look at me, a dream of twenty years come true. More happiness than any man deserves, that chair. But now there's something Else, Nora: My friends. I want to see them as happy as I am. Nothing less will do. And Leopold, what a fine fellow - and I've been thinking, Nora, that if someone were to take his hand and say "Leopold, my wreckless friend, here's love and companionship, forever." Well, some day that man would... You see what I mean, Nora?
  • Miss Shelly, judging from the past 12 hours, how quiet do you think it could be in this house, with you in it?
  • Alright, Joseph, you conduct the law your way on random sentimentality and you will have violence and disorder.
  • Nothing deranges a woman's mind more than marriage.

Sam Yates

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  • He's the only honest man I've come across in this town in 20 years. Naturally, they want to hang him.

Dialogue

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Leopold Dilg: With these indoor habits of yours, you've got the complexion of a gravel pit.
Michael Lightcap: You know, Joseph, you're no oil painting yourself.
Leopold Dilg: Oh, Tilney, I'm very hungry. Do you think you could find a chicken leg or something I can nibble on as I ride?
Michael Lightcap: That's alright Tilney. A whole chicken. He has an enormous appetite.

Cast

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