The Talk of the Town

Starring:Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Ronald Colman, Edgar Buchanan, Glenda Farrell, Charles Dingle, Emma Dunn, Rex Ingram, Leonid Kinskey, Tom Tyler, Don Beddoe, Robert Walker, Dick Jensen (III), Leslie Brooks (II), Frank Mills, Bud Geary, Charles St. George, Georgia Backus, Lelah Tyler, Eddie Coke
Director: George Stevens
Studio: Sony Pictures
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video
The screwball comedy was the definitive genre of the Depression, but as America edged toward war in the early '40s, it suffered some strange and wonderful mutations--none stranger than The Talk of the Town, directed by George Stevens from a script by novelist Irwin Shaw and frequent Capra collaborator (and future blacklist victim) Sidney Buchman. Cary Grant, awkwardly cast, is a small-town political agitator who is framed for the burning of a local factory; he takes refuge in the attic of a country cottage that landlady Jean Arthur is preparing to rent out to a celebrated law professor (silver-tongued Ronald Colman, perhaps the only actor in Hollywood who could make Grant look like a proletarian). Stevens, suspended between his light '30s style (Swing Time) and his heavy postwar manner (A Place in the Sun), struggles to balance a charming, surprisingly suspenseful romantic triangle with the heavy, debating-society tone of the screenplay, which pits Grant, the representative of a compassionate, emotional sense of justice, against the cool, abstract application of the law advocated by Colman. Caught between these two highly verbal characters, Jean Arthur doesn't have much to do but be adorable and provide the occasional quizzical reaction shot--two things she does with exquisite skill. Stevens and Arthur teamed up again one year later for another strange-bedfellows farce, the marvelous The More the Merrier; in 1953 Arthur made her final film appearance in Stevens's Shane. --Dave Kehr

The Cary Grant Box Set (Holiday / Only Angels Have Wings / The Talk of the Town / His Girl Friday / The Awful Truth)
Average customer rating:

Five of Grant's best in one attractive package

Cary Grant Collection

Creme de la Cary.

Great Early Cary Grant Movies.

Thanks, Universal

The Cary Grant Box Set (Holiday / Only Angels Have Wings / The Talk of the Town / His Girl Friday / The Awful Truth)
Starring: Katharine Hepburn , Cary Grant , Doris Nolan , Lew Ayres , and Edward Everett Horton
Director: George Cukor , Howard Hawks , and George Stevens
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video
Classics | Drama | Genres | DVD | Video
Allen, Harry | ( A ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Ayres, Lew | ( A ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Barnes, Binnie | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Benson, Frank | ( B ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Daniell, Henry | ( D ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Grant, Cary | ( G ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Hepburn, Katharine | ( H ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Horton, Edward Everett | ( H ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Kolker, Henry | ( K ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Nolan, Doris | ( N ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Trowbridge, Charles | ( T ) | Actors & Actresses | Stores | DVD | Video
Cukor, George | ( C ) | Directors | Stores | DVD | Video
Hawks, Howard | ( H ) | Directors | Stores | DVD | Video
Stevens, George | ( S ) | Directors | Stores | DVD | Video
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Similar Items:

The Cary Grant Signature Collection (Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House / Destination Tokyo / The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer / My Favorite Wife / Night and Day)

Marlene Dietrich - The Glamour Collection (Morocco/ Blonde Venus/ The Devil Is a Woman/ Flame of New Orleans/ Golden Earrings)

Classic Comedies Collection (Bringing Up Baby / The Philadelphia Story Two-Disc Special Edition / Dinner at Eight / Libeled Lady / Stage Door / To Be or Not to Be)

Carole Lombard - The Glamour Collection (Hands Across the Table/ Love Before Breakfast/ Man of the World/ The Princess Comes Across/ True Confession/ We're Not Dressing)

Preston Sturges - The Filmmaker Collection (Sullivan's Travels/The Lady Eve/The Palm Beach Story/Hail the Conquering Hero/The Great McGinty/Christmas in July/The Great Moment)

ASIN: B000CEV3L4
Release Date: 2006-02-07

Description

Holiday
Free-thinking Johnny Case finds himself betrothed to a millionaire's daughter and having difficulties being able to spend the early years of his life on "Holiday."

Only Angels Have Wings
Jean Arthur is a stranded showgirl who sets her sights on Cary Grant in this rousing adventure tale of men who fly mail planes over the Andes.

The Talk of the Town
A charming fugitive, a beautiful teacher, and a stuffy lawyer, forced to become roommates, are rumor-mill fodder in this madcap romantic farce.

His Girl Friday
A classic comedy in which Rosalind Russell plays reporter Hildy Johnson, who, on the eve of her remarriage, is talked into one more assignment by her editor and ex-husband.

The Awful Truth
The screwball antics of a couple (Irene Dunne and Cary Grant) who can't stand being married, but can't stand seeing the other married to anyone else.

Customer Reviews:

Five of Grant's best in one attractive package.......2007-06-27

The problem with some DVD box sets is that there's usually a film or two included that you could very well do without or perhaps would not even like in your film collection. No such problem with the simply named "The Cary Grant Box Set" which includes five movies that are all among Grant's very best. That alone makes this a must-have for Grant fans. So the featurettes, the vintage replica movie postcards and the overall attractive packaging are bonuses -- significant ones at that.
The films feature such wonderful leading ladies as Jean Arthur (twice) Rosalind Russell, Irene Dunne and the incomparable Katherine Hepburn. Hepburn appears in "Holiday" directed by George Cukor, a depression era film that skewers the upper class. Grant plays Johnny Case an up and coming young business man who thinks more of exploring life than of making money. He finds himself in love with the daughter of a wealthy entrepreneur but it is soon obvious that he has more in common with the girl's sister. Lew Ayers turns in a memorable performance as the brother, a philosophizing drunk.
"Only Angels Have Wings" offers a very different Grant, this time playing a the leader of a crew of daring mail pilots in South America. Here Jean Arthur is the love interest though a lovely young Rita Hayworth offers competition. Thomas Mitchell is part of a stellar cast directed by the great Howard Hawks.
"Talk of the Town" is to me one of the most underrated films of all time. Grant is Leopold Dilg a labor activist framed for a factory bombing. After escaping from jail he hides out in the bucolic summer home of an old childhood friend played by Jean Arthur. The catch is that she's renting the home to one of America's leading legal minds a supreme court candidate played by Ronald Coleman. There is comedy, the inevitable romance and a good deal of politics in this surprisingly thought provoking film directed by George Stevens.
Grant is again directed by Hawks but this time in a classic screwball comedy in "His Girl Friday." This remake of "Front Page" introduced the concept of rapid fire overlapping dialogue, principally between Grant and co-star Russell who play a former husband and wife team that doubled as a newspaper reporting dynamic duo. Grant would like them back together again but Russell and a would-be second husband played by Ralph Bellamy have other ideas. Grant is diabolical and hilarious as he manipulates events around a forthcoming execution in an effort to get the girl and the story. Among the laughs, "His Girl Friday" also has a points to make about corruption, media and justice.
"The Awful Truth" starring Grant and Dunne is straight screwball as the two stars play a divorcing married couple that maybe doesn't really want to separate. Leo McCarey directed this fast paced romp, poor old Ralph Bellamy is again Grant's hapless foil.
In the unlikely event I'm sent to a desert island that has a DVD player and can only bring a few DVD sets, this one is coming with me. In any event this box set should find itself on the the shelves of any Cary Grant fan.

Cary Grant Collection.......2007-06-21

No actor epitomizes classical Hollywood cinema like the ultra-suave, thoroughly professional Cary Grant, the leading man's leading man. This box set collects Grant's greatest hits of the late '30s-early '40s, right after he jettisoned his stifling Paramount contract to become a free agent for Columbia and RKO. Acting opposite Irene Dunne, Katharine Hepburn, and Rosalind Russell in the set's three uproarious screwball comedies ("Truth", "Holiday", and "Friday", respectively), Grant shows off his inimitable flair for witty, machine-gun repartee. Only the riveting "Angels" and more cerebral "Talk" (opposite the incomparable Jean Arthur) demonstrate why Hitchcock, among others, found the gentleman star such an appealing straight man. If you adore Cary Grant the way I do, this set is a must-have.

Creme de la Cary........2007-04-15

The idea of putting a collection of a screen star's films is always a great idea, but most of the time it doesn't follow through (Exhibit A: The James Stewart Signature Collection. As much as, well, everybody loves Jimmy Stewart, did we really need "The Cheyenne Social Club"??). That is hardly the case here. Included are essential Cary Grant films, both classic (His Girl Friday), underrated (Only Angels Have Wings) or unreleased (Holiday), his breakthrough role (The Awful Truth), and a charming social comedy (The Talk of the Town).

*THE AWFUL TRUTH: Jerry (Grant) and Lucy Warriner (Irene Dunne) both think that they have caught each other in infidelity (He returns home from a "business trip" from Florida with oranges from California, She comes back arm in arm with her French voice teacher), so they divorce each other, with 90 days until the thing becomes final. In those 90 days, she dates a sweet, bumbling oil man from Texas (Ralph Bellamy, who made a career out of playing the guy who loses the girl to Cary Grant, see HIS GIRL FRIDAY), and he romances an heiress. As their divorce's final date gets closer and closer, they realize that they're not ready to let each other go...leading to screwball results. This is the film that established Cary as a genuine star, a romantic leading man. His rapport with Irene Dunne is magical, and she's hysterical, especially towards the end when she tries to embarrass his stuffy fiancee's family by pretending to be his boozy sister "Lola Warriner." But beneath the laughs lie a deep understanding of marriage and the melancholy of love, leading to one of the cleverest ending shots in history.

*HIS GIRL FRIDAY: Undoubtably the funniest, fastest film ever made. Ace reporter Hildy Johnson (the brilliant Rosalind Russell) just wants to quit the newspaper business and settle down with a safe (re: dull) fiance Bruce Baldwin (Ralph Bellamy) in Albany. But her ex-husband/boss/editor Walter Burns (Grant) won't let her go that easily. Russell is probably the only woman who could go shoulder-to-shoulder with Cary Grant, in a way that even Katharine Hepburn and Irene Dunne couldn't have topped. She delivers each of her lines with precise timing, and proves that, like all great Hawksian women, she is "just one of the guys." This was the third collaboration between Grant and Howard Hawks, the versatile director of "Bringing Up Baby", "Scarface", "Only Angels Have Wings" and "The Big Sleep." They made 5 films together, 4 screwball comedies and one action-adventure/drama (ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS). This is the best of their screwball comedies, and Cary Grant's on-screen persona as a lovable rogue who gets the girl by being the crueller of the two and always indirectly asking her to stay, is at his best here. This film is a must-have for any film buff.

*THE TALK OF THE TOWN: Although this is the least flashy of the set, it's a nicely made comedy of social manners directed by George Stevens. Leopold Dilg (Grant) is a political activist who is framed for arson and murder. He hides out in the summer house of Nora Shelley (Jean Arthur), a teacher as well as Leopold's childhood sweetheart. But Nora has rented out the house to a stuffy candidate for a seat on the Supreme Court, Professor Lightcap (Ronald Coleman). After Leopold has introduced himself to the professor as Joseph the Gardener, Nora and Leopold must convince the professor to help Leopold out. The dialogue about social conflict hasn't aged very much and translates well today. Though the love triangle is a little bit stale, all three actors make their roles lively and believable. Jean Arthur particularly has nice chemistry with Grant.

*HOLIDAY: Johnny Case (Grant), a fun-loving man with a joie de vivre, thinks he has met the love of his life in Julia Seton (Doris Nolan), a woman he knows little about other than that he loves her. When he goes to meet her family, he realizes that she belongs to a very rich family of bankers, whose matriarch is particularly stuffy and wants his daughter to marry into another rich family. Johnny also meets Julia's siblings, the alcoholic Ned and independent-thinking Linda (Katharine Hepburn). As the film continues, Johnny and the audience find out just how much Julia is like her father, someone who only cares about money, and we see that Johnny is really a much better match for Linda. But will he follow his brain or his heart? (Little hint: if you actuall think that Cary Grant will ride off into the sunset with someone named Doris Nolan, you've never seen a movie.) Slight predictability aside, this is a sparkling gem. Johnny doesn't want to work all his life; his plan is to save up enough money to spend his days in relaxation and on holiday, then go back to work when he's figured out what he's working for. This type of thinking would become a hit in the 60s, so it's incredibly surprising to see it shown in a movie from 1938. Katharine Hepburn is wonderful in her signature role, and independent woman with a heart full of love underneath it all. I liked how even though you know that Cary and Katharine will end up together, you see genuine chemistry, especially in their body language, between Cary and Doris Nolan. Her flaw isn't initially obvious, unlike how you see a mile ahead that Meg Ryan and Bill Paxton aren't a match in SLEEPLESS IN SEATLE, or Woody Allen and Mariel Hemingway in MANHATTAN. This film was ahead of its time in so many ways, and if not for the lack of sex, violence and today's modern stars, I'd confuse it for a romantic comedy made from today.

*ONLY ANGELS HAVE WINGS: Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur again) is on her way back to New York, just passing through a small Columbian town Barranca, home to a group of tough-shelled pilots who fly mail to hard-to-reach places. The leader of these pilots is Geoff Carter (Grant), who has the toughest shell to crack. He never has attachments to anybody, probably due to the frequent deaths of friends. This is shown in the first twenty mintues of the film, when the death of a pilot devestates Bonnie but the gang acts as though nothing has happened. It doesn't take her long to become just "one of the guys", and she decides to stay. Another unexpected visitor comes in the form of Bat Kilgallen--MacPherson, a pilot shunned for previously jumping out of a crashing plane, leaving his engineer to die...the man he left to die was the brother to Kid Dabb (Thomas Mitchell), Geoff's best friend. Also along for the ride is Judy MacPherson, Geoff's ex-love. As tensions both personal and sexual start to rise, we are entertained by a nifty script with numerous memorable quotes, excellent performances and some spectacular flying scenes which aren't cutting-edge by today's standards but nonetheless thrilling. This is a great role for Grant, as a stoic man who gradually unravels the veil to reveal a sad and broken man, something he would do 7 years later in NOTORIOUS. Jean Arthur makes another great Hawksian woman, probably the most vulnerable of them all. Her chemistry with Grant is sweet (just look at the scene where he scoops her up in his arms, thinking her leg is hurt) and natural. An underrated film for both Grant and Hawks, this was a big hit in 1939, considered the golden age of cinema. This film is usually passed over for films like GONE WITH THE WIND and MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON among others, but this melodrama comes off as a standard action film and ends up becoming a revealing character study. If only Michael Bay could take notes from this film...

You won't find a better collection of Cary Grant films in a better boxed set. Included are 10 postcards from his films (Represented for each is film is one picture of him and his leading lady, the other is a copy of the original poster), plus the box package has some swank photos of Cary and some of his greatest quotes ("Everybody wants to be Cary Grant. Even I want to be Cary Grant."). Don't we all, Cary. Don't we all...

Great Early Cary Grant Movies........2007-03-19

This collection is very good. You have some of Cary Grants best screwball comedies, and a couple of his best dramatic work. The movie Holiday is making its debut on DVD. You also get to see how Cary Grant became a major force in Hollywood. This is worth every cent you pay for it. These are all genuine classic movies.

Thanks, Universal.......2007-01-04

I've been waiting for two of these for years. I gave this five stars for the movies alone. All are clean and easy to watch. Universal did a first class job there. However they then put them in a cardboard case which I don't like. A little more spent on regular plastic cases and cover art would have made this better. That being said I would have paid twice the price as it is.

Average customer rating:

Entertaining classic with starred cast
3 great actors & a great director sometimes only equals an ok movie
Innocence revealed, though it's a struggle all the way
Enjoyable!
A great social-statement comedy....

The Talk of the Town
Starring: Cary Grant , Jean Arthur , Ronald Colman , Edgar Buchanan , and Glenda Farrell
Director: George Stevens
Manufacturer: Sony Pictures
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

Classic Comedies | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Only Angels Have Wings
The Awful Truth
The More the Merrier
People Will Talk
Holiday

ASIN: B000083C8K
Release Date: 2003-02-25

Amazon.com essential video

The screwball comedy was the definitive genre of the Depression, but as America edged toward war in the early '40s, it suffered some strange and wonderful mutations--none stranger than The Talk of the Town, directed by George Stevens from a script by novelist Irwin Shaw and frequent Capra collaborator (and future blacklist victim) Sidney Buchman. Cary Grant, awkwardly cast, is a small-town political agitator who is framed for the burning of a local factory; he takes refuge in the attic of a country cottage that landlady Jean Arthur is preparing to rent out to a celebrated law professor (silver-tongued Ronald Colman, perhaps the only actor in Hollywood who could make Grant look like a proletarian). Stevens, suspended between his light '30s style (Swing Time) and his heavy postwar manner (A Place in the Sun), struggles to balance a charming, surprisingly suspenseful romantic triangle with the heavy, debating-society tone of the screenplay, which pits Grant, the representative of a compassionate, emotional sense of justice, against the cool, abstract application of the law advocated by Colman. Caught between these two highly verbal characters, Jean Arthur doesn't have much to do but be adorable and provide the occasional quizzical reaction shot--two things she does with exquisite skill. Stevens and Arthur teamed up again one year later for another strange-bedfellows farce, the marvelous The More the Merrier; in 1953 Arthur made her final film appearance in Stevens's Shane. --Dave Kehr

Customer Reviews:

Entertaining classic with starred cast.......2007-04-05

This George Stevens screwball comedy hasn't aged as one would have wished. It has an excellent cast. Cary Grant is in his best, Ronald Colman does his role fine, and Jean Arthur does her best. The first 3 minutes so many things happen, and so fast, that one expects to have a sure great time. But once the story gets going the scenes run repetitive and slower. The lines grow longer and become empty talk. A screwball comedy is not an easy thing to do, but you only have to compare this one to Hawks' "Bringing Up Baby" and "Ball of Fire" to see how far from the target Stevens was hitting. Frank Capra's too, are much better than this one.

2 hours is way too long for this film. The theme of idealism vs practicality, theoretical knowledge vs first-hand experience, and taking the justice into one's own hands vs trusting a dubious justice system, however high-minded, just don't win our complete attention. Colman's role is too stiff and apathetic, and it doesn't play well against Grants's excess of extroversion. Jean Arthur does all she can to make the thing funny but there's just not enough juice in this orange. It feels like she overacts sometimes. (Can't help comparing her to Hepburn's better role in "Bringing Up Baby").

Good entertainment, but a little disappoining.

3 great actors & a great director sometimes only equals an ok movie.......2006-05-05

its always nice to realize that even at my advanced age there are still cary grant movies i havent seen. the problem here is that he is the distinctly less interesting male in the riomantic triangle with jean arthur and ronald colman. matter of fact, the most interesting relationship is between grant and colman, but being that it IS cary grant after all, he has to get the girl. the politics also beg the question quite a bit, as the movie never seems to want to make up its mind. still, worth watching for the 3 terrific leads as well as a great supporting turn from edgar "uncle joe" buchanan.

Innocence revealed, though it's a struggle all the way.......2006-03-04

Cary Grant, convicted of arson/murder at a factory, escapes from death row and holes up at the house of old flame Jean Arthur (she believes he's innocent). Also staying at the house for the summer is famed law school dean and Supreme Court appointee Ronald Coleman. Coleman is all prim and proper law-by-the-books, facts only, and Grant and Arthur try to get him to help out Grant's case. There are some good sparring scenes between Grant and Coleman: fire vs. ice (Irwin Shaw worked on the script and it shows), and both, of course, are in love with Arthur. Coleman, about to turn Grant in on principles, changes his mind and helps find the real arsonist/killer.

Coleman has always been a somewhat stiff, stagey actor, but at least here the role fits him. Arthur is a bit too squeaky (that voice of hers), but Grant is by far the best thing the movie has to offer. The plot is not very believable, and the ending gets preachy about law in America, the corrupt system, un-blind justice, etc., etc. But the movie is watchable throughout, and the script is a good one. In a somewhat unusual set of circumstances, two endings were shot and preview audiences got to choose the one they liked best: they liked Grant winning Arthur rather than Coleman - and Hooray! for that!

Enjoyable!.......2005-10-08

I like to watch Cary Grant movies and The Talk Of The Town may not be his best movie but it is good and enjoyable! Cary Grant is very good and so are Ronald Colman and Jean Arthur!

A great social-statement comedy...........2005-09-28

from an era when they used to make those types of movies. Very much in the mold of Capra, but way better because it really doesn't take itself altogether serious. (In fact, there were two endings...the ending is unimportant -- how you get there is!)

Average customer rating:

Talk of the Town [Region 2]

ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Bob Stewart - Talk of the Town - The Great American Song Book

Average customer rating:

Bob Stewart - Talk of the Town - The Great American Song Book
Starring: Bob Stewart ; The Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra ; The Tedd Firth Trio; The Bob Thoesen Orchestra: The Frank Wess Quartet
Director: Dan Garcia
Manufacturer: Kevin Prendergast Studio
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Musicals & Performing Arts | Genres | DVD | Video

Independently Distributed | Musicals & Performing Arts | Genres | DVD | Video

( B ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video

Music Video & Concerts | Independently Distributed | Stores | DVD | Video

Independently Distributed | Indie & Art House | Stores | DVD | Video
ASIN: B0009H72Z0
Release Date: 2005-04-19

Average customer rating:

Entertaining classic with starred cast
3 great actors & a great director sometimes only equals an ok movie
Innocence revealed, though it's a struggle all the way
Enjoyable!
A great social-statement comedy....

The Talk of the Town [Region 2]
Starring: Cary Grant , Jean Arthur , Ronald Colman , Edgar Buchanan , and Glenda Farrell
Director: George Stevens
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

General | Comedy | Genres | DVD | Video

( T ) | Titles | Features | DVD | Video
Similar Items:

Only Angels Have Wings
The Awful Truth
The More the Merrier
People Will Talk
Holiday

ASIN: B000085RPY

Amazon.com essential video

Customer Reviews:

Entertaining classic with starred cast.......2007-04-05

3 great actors & a great director sometimes only equals an ok movie.......2006-05-05

Innocence revealed, though it's a struggle all the way.......2006-03-04

Enjoyable!.......2005-10-08

I like to watch Cary Grant movies and The Talk Of The Town may not be his best movie but it is good and enjoyable! Cary Grant is very good and so are Ronald Colman and Jean Arthur!

A great social-statement comedy...........2005-09-28

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