The Talk of the Town is a comedy drama that has a fantastic cast with three iconic and legendary actors in Cary Grant, Jean Arthus and Ronald Coleman. Directed by George Stevens, his film is one of his best works!
When mill worker now accused murderer and arsonist Leopold Dilg (Cary Grant, North by Northwest, Arsenic and Old Lace, Suspicion) escapes jail, he hides out in the home (the attic specifically!) of Nora Shelley(Jean Arthur, You Cant Take It with You, Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, The Canary Murder Case). After listening to Dilg’s story, Nora believes that he is innocent and did not start the fire to a mill or murder the mill foreman there. She decides to help him Dilg – by hiding him at her place and posing as a gardener until he can get himself cleared.
Simultaneously, Supreme Court candidate and law professor Michael Lightcap (Ronald Coleman, Lost Horizon, A Double Life) arrives earlier than expected to live at her residence as she was looking for a tenant to live there for the summer. Eventually, as the storyline progresses, Nora and Dilg try and convince Lightcap that Dilg was framed. The craziness is continuous as all three do their best to dodge the police, the media, relatives and others who keep entering the house, while to capture the real crooks. Along the way the two gentlemen have fallen for Nora to complicate things even further!
The Talk of the Town is a fantastic film with superior acting among the three major stars. The chemistry between them is strong, accompanied by a fun literate plot. The other members of the cast which includes Edgar Buchanan (Rawhide, Devil’s Doorway) as defense lawyer Sam Yates, Glenda Farrell (I am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, Heat Lightning) Charles Dingle(Lady of Burlesque, Here Come the Co-Eds) future screen legendLloyd Bridges(Rocketship X-M, The Limping Man, The Sound of Fury) and Emma Dunn(Dark Hazard, Mr. Deeds Comes to Town) also hand in great performances! The movie is zany, funny and charming, and will hold your interest for the entire two-hour running time!
The Talk of the Town arrives on 4K UHD, this is one of a few DVD releases that completely skipped over a Blu-ray release and going straight to 4K UHD. So, if you want to own this movie, you will need to have a 4K UHD player as this movie does not even have a Blu-ray disc!
The feature is presented in 4K with Dolby Vision and HDR. This is a fantastic restoration of director George Stevens’s classic film! The picture quality for the film has never looked any better than this UHD. The blacks are dark and inky with cheerful whites and strong grey scale. The indoor scenery and characters faces in close-ups are rich in texture and detail. Film grain is present throughout the film, giving The Talk of the Town an organic film-like appearance. No DNR appears to have been applied. I cannot give enough kudos and thanks to those behind the restoration process of this film.
For their audio, Sony has gone with English Mono DTS-HD MA 2.0, and the sound fantastic throughout. The dialogue is perfectly clear and easy to understand. The music by Friedrich Hollaender is also crisp and doesn’t get in the way of the dialogue. The music at the start of the feature is highly robust but during the film, the fidelity settles down, while still strong and balanced with other sound affects and dialogue. English subtitles are available.
Sony has provided a couple of extras for this offering. This UHD offers a new commentary track with Author Marilyn Ann Moss and another featurette called Talking About Talk of the Town.
With the outstanding audio and video for this wonderful movie, to go with a couple of features make The Talk of the Town a highly, highly recommended release!
The Talk of the Town
Director – George Stevens
Cast- Cary Grant, Jean Arthur, Ronald Coleman
Country of Origin-USA
Distributor – Sony Pictures Entertainment
Number of Discs –1
Reviewed by – David Steigman
Date –12/17/24