Plot
Mill worker and political activist Leopold Dilg (Cary Grant) is accused of burning down a mill and causing the death of a foreman in the fire. In the middle of his trial, Dilg escapes from jail and seeks shelter in a house owned by former schoolmate Nora Shelley (Jean Arthur), now a schoolteacher on whom he has had a crush for years. Shelley has the house rented for the summer to distinguished law professor Michael Lightcap (Ronald Colman), who plans to write a book. Both Lightcap and Dilg arrive within minutes of each other.
When Dilg is spotted by Lightcap, Shelley passes him off as her gardener. Lightcap and Dilg enjoy having spirited discussions about the law, Lightcap arguing from an academic viewpoint, while Dilg subscribes to a more practical approach. They become good friends as a result, but meanwhile they become romantic rivals, as Lightcap also falls in love with Nora.
As a result of prodding by Shelley and Dilg's lawyer, Lightcap becomes suspicious and starts, in spite of his initial reluctance, to investigate further. He romances the girlfriend of the supposed murder victim and discovers that the former foreman is still alive and hiding in Boston. He is 'persuaded' to return to town and admit his guilt and that of the mill owner.
Lightcap also convinces Dilg of the importance of following the law and Dilg gives himself up. In due course, he is set free.
Soon afterward, Lightcap is appointed to the Supreme Court. He asks Shelley to marry him. Dilg tells Shelley that Lightcap's a fine man, but she decides in favor of Dilg.
Read more about this topic: The Talk Of The Town (1942 film)
Famous quotes containing the word plot:
“The plot was most interesting. It belonged to no particular age, people, or country, and was perhaps the more delightful on that account, as nobody’s previous information could afford the remotest glimmering of what would ever come of it.”
—Charles Dickens (1812–1870)
“We have defined a story as a narrative of events arranged in their time-sequence. A plot is also a narrative of events, the emphasis falling on causality. “The king died and then the queen died” is a story. “The king died, and then the queen died of grief” is a plot. The time sequence is preserved, but the sense of causality overshadows it.”
—E.M. (Edward Morgan)
“There comes a time in every man’s education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better for worse as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given him to till.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)