Production
It was originally proposed to title the film "Mr. Twilight", but Cary Grant insisted it be changed, suspecting that if the movie appeared to be about a single male character, then Colman, who had the better role, would steal the show. The title The Talk of the Town was registered to Universal Studios, and Columbia had to give them "Sin Town" in return. The film is now considered a classic.
The script mentioned Three's a Crowd, The Gentlemen Misbehave, Mr. Twilight, and Justice Winks an Eye. Several other titles were considered for the film, including In Love with You, You're Wonderful, A Local Affair, The Woman's Touch, Morning for Angels, Scandal in Lochester, The Lochester Affair, and even "Nothing Ever Happens".
Principal photography, originally scheduled to begin January 17, 1942, was delayed when the news of the accidental death of Carole Lombard became known.
The role of Colman's valet (played by Rex Ingram) was at the time a rare example of a non-stereotypical part for an African-American actor. Also unusual was the presence of two leading men: at this point in their careers both Grant and Colman had been used to having that role all to themselves. The situation is reflected in the plot, since audiences are kept guessing until the end who Arthur's character would chose to marry. Stevens filmed both versions, leaving it to test screenings to determine the ending.
Read more about this topic: The Talk Of The Town (1942 film)
Famous quotes containing the word production:
“An art whose limits depend on a moving image, mass audience, and industrial production is bound to differ from an art whose limits depend on language, a limited audience, and individual creation. In short, the filmed novel, in spite of certain resemblances, will inevitably become a different artistic entity from the novel on which it is based.”
—George Bluestone, U.S. educator, critic. “The Limits of the Novel and the Limits of the Film,” Novels Into Film, Johns Hopkins Press (1957)
“From the war of nature, from famine and death, the most exalted object which we are capable of conceiving, namely, the production of the higher animals, directly follows. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.”
—Charles Darwin (1809–1882)
“... if the production of any commodity necessitates the sacrifice of human life, society should do without that commodity, but it can not do without that life.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)