The Talk of the Town Page #2

Synopsis: In suburban Lochester, New England, three people end up living together in high school teacher Nora Shelley's rental house. The first is her new tenant, renowned Harvard law professor Michael Lightcap, who has rented the house for the summer while he writes his new book. The second is Nora herself. Despite having an auspicious first meeting, Lightcap hires Nora to be his live-in cook and secretary for a week until his manservant Tilney arrives. The third is Joseph, the property's gardener, who is currently laid up with a sprained ankle. In reality, Joseph is Nora's childhood friend Leopold Dilg, who has just escaped from prison. Leopold was being tried for the arson of the factory where he worked, and for murder for the death of the factory foreman Clyde Bracken, whose body was never recovered but who is assumed to have died in the fire. Despite the danger to herself, Nora hides Leopold since she believes his story that although he, as an activist, did speak out about the dangerous con
Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
Director(s): George Stevens
Production: Sony Pictures Entertainment
 
IMDB:
7.6
Rotten Tomatoes:
93%
NOT RATED
Year:
1942
118 min
518 Views


She must have adenoids.

Oh, my gosh.

Hey, get back in there.

Good morning.

A morning for the angels.

- A morning for jailbirds to stay in.

- What's for breakfast?

Lovely, lovely.

Really lovely.

Beautifully lovely.

Good morning.

Morning.

- Did you sleep well?

- Fair, thank you.

That's good.

Your adenoids trouble you, don't they?

Perhaps I shouldn't mention it...

...but I've never heard such

magnificent snoring in my life.

Yes, isn't it awful?

They're as big as your fist.

I'll be obliged if you patch things up

with your mother today.

I'll go right home as soon

as I get things straightened up.

I intend to be at work

within the half-hour.

Please get dressed and leave,

without slamming the door.

But, your breakfast...

I'll have it ready in a jiffy.

If you don't mind, I'd prefer to...

Hello, is Mr. Yates there?

He's left the house?

Where to? Do you know?

This is Miss Shelley again.

Did you tell him I phoned last night?

No.

No, thanks.

Mother.

- What is this?

- Don't get alarmed.

Why did you stay out all night?

Where did you get these?

- Why didn't you phone me?

- It's all very simple.

Who owns that car?

Professor Lightcap has arrived.

These are his pyjamas.

Take that look off your face.

I stayed to finish the house.

It was too late to phone you...

- Hi, Nora.

- Donald, what are you doing here?

- That's some getup.

- What do you want?

Came to interview Lightcap.

- He's not even here yet.

- Not expected for weeks.

- I'd know his pyjamas anywhere.

- How'd he know that?

Get a shot of Miss Shelley...

You lift that camera, I bust it.

Get out of here.

It serves you right, Nora.

Get dressed and come right...

Oh, a beard.

I take it all back, baby.

And what, may I ask, is going on here?

Professor, this is my mother.

Professor Lightcap, I'm so glad.

I've heard of you but

I was afraid you were a younger man.

My name is Forrester.

I'd like an interview.

I'm sorry.

- Your opinion in the Dilg case would...

- Dilg's escaped.

- No!

- Yeah.

What do you say about this jailbreak?

An admission of guilt?

- I'm not acquainted with the case.

- The burning of the Holmes factory...

- Mr. Lightcap wants his breakfast.

- And reasonable solitude.

Now will you please go.

- Will you come right home?

- Yes, dear.

- Where does it go, Miss Shelley?

- Right over there.

- Excuse me, bud.

- No, right over there, Eddie.

- You weren't expected till noon.

- That is becoming quite evident.

- Bless you.

- Thank you.

- You must've been caught in the rain.

- I was.

- Your mother doesn't seem frightening.

- She's very changeable.

- Why should I be frightening?

- Now, Mother, he wants to do his work.

Get out of those pyjamas.

- Why, Sam Yates! Look at you.

- Hello, Nora.

I'm hiding in the middle of a parade.

- Why, Sam Yates.

- Michael. I'll be doggoned.

- How'd you know I wanted to see him?

- I didn't know you knew him.

I went to school with him.

What did you call me about then?

- I didn't call you.

- You didn't?

- They gave me a message...

- Somebody must be cuckoo.

- Have you been fighting?

- I fight three times a day.

At school you had a tendency toward

riots. I thought you'd outgrow it.

I hate the way this town

is going after Leopold Dilg.

Anybody who believes what Holmes says

about him has got to settle with me.

I take it you're Dilg's lawyer.

I am not. That is, I am.

The state appointed me.

But Dilg doesn't want me. He says an

innocent man doesn't need a lawyer.

- Original thinker.

- He certainly is.

He's the only honest man in town

and they want to hang him.

Sam, really.

He's been shouting for years

that Holmes is crooked.

Mind you, he's just a worker with

gumption enough to fight the boss.

Getting quite a following too.

So, what happens?

He predicts the mills will burn down.

They do. One man is killed.

Here's Holmes' chance.

"It was Dilg," he says.

He lashes this burg into a frenzy,

he rigs this phoney trial.

Dilg escapes because he knows

he hasn't got a chance.

- And the way this town feels now...

- What did you expect me to do?

You, the most distinguished legal mind

in the state, could head a committee...

...and demand a fair trial for him,

away from the prejudice of this town.

Judge Grunstadt is a tool of Holmes

and out to get Dilg.

He's said as much.

You're not buying the idea.

My business is with

the principles of law.

I can't get mixed up

in these little local affairs.

The philosophy behind the deed,

that's my field.

- May I quote that?

- No.

Little squabbles, eh? Personality.

And now what?

- Who lives here?

- Michael Lightcap.

- Take the house, I'll take the grounds.

- Have you got a search warrant?

Dilg escaped.

We're searching every house.

Have you a warrant?

There's nobody here but us.

- Lightcap came here for a quiet summer.

- Listen...

No warrant, out!

That's from the Constitution.

- Well, not exactly in those words.

- Nobody's here but us.

And that's too many.

Please leave, all of you.

Yes, Mother, will you, please?

Donald. Both of you.

- Don't come home in those pyjamas.

- I won't.

Watch it, now. Here we come.

Just put that down there.

I've rented this house and I don't want

a lot of policemen in it, or truckmen.

- Shippers, bud.

- Or shippers bud, reporters, mothers.

Bless you.

You be sure to take them off now

and come home soon.

- So long, Michael.

- I'm sorry, Sam.

You're still wearing it, I see.

It's becoming. You've grown into it.

And what's that?

- It's the coffee boiling.

- Take it off.

You do it, will you?

I've got to speak to Mother.

Do you know who's up in that attic?

Leopold Dilg.

- Who?

- Dilg.

- In that attic?

- Yes.

- Now?

- Yes, now.

He stumbled in here last night

five minutes before Lightcap arrived.

- What's funny?

- "Can't get involved in local affairs."

- There's a local affair in his house.

- Get him out of here.

What's as safe as

a law professor's home?

Are you kidding?

Dilg's life won't be worth a dime

if I turn him back to that jury now.

- Lightcap can help, but it'll take time.

- That's nothing to me. He can't stay here.

- Why not?

- Who'd take care of him?

- You.

- Me?

- Miss Shelley.

- Yes, just a minute.

I can't hang around here.

Lightcap's ordered me out.

I'm here now only because I'm in his

pyjamas. If not, I'd be out on my ear.

Then stay in them.

- Yes, I'm coming.

- I'll keep in touch.

The coffeepot is about to explode.

I'm coming, Your Honour.

I'm coming.

- Would you like some coffee?

- Thank you.

- Is that the way you like your eggs?

- Thank you, yes.

By the way, if you could arrange

to get out of my pyjamas...

...I'd take it as a great

personal favour.

Just as soon as

I clear things up a bit.

Please leave things as they are.

I intend to start right away.

What are you going to do

about your lunch and dinner?

Is there a good employment agency

in the town?

- Mrs. Hines. She's very good.

- Will you leave me her phone number?

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Irwin Shaw

Irwin Shaw (February 27, 1913 – May 16, 1984) was an American playwright, screenwriter, novelist, and short-story author whose written works have sold more than 14 million copies. He is best known for two of his novels: The Young Lions (1948), about the fate of three soldiers during World War II, made into a film of the same name starring Marlon Brando and Montgomery Clift, and Rich Man, Poor Man (1970), about the fate of two siblings after World War II. In 1976, a popular miniseries was made into a highly popular miniseries starring Peter Strauss, Nick Nolte, and Susan Blakely. more…

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Submitted on August 05, 2018

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    "The Talk of the Town" Scripts.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 18 Nov. 2024. <https://www.scripts.com/script/the_talk_of_the_town_21445>.

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