Turning his trademark gifts for dialogue and complex characterizations to politically dicey material after his Oscar-winning successes with All About Eve (1950) and A Letter to Three Wives (1949), Joseph L. Mankiewicz used a story about a charismatic and unorthodox doctor to take on controversial contemporary issues. Hume Cronyn's nefarious Prof. Elwell is an image of the Communist-hunters of HUAC, as well as, more generally, the voice of repressive postwar conservatism, as he plots to discredit Cary Grant's forward-thinking Dr. Praetorious by digging up dirt on his houseman and his relationship with an unmarried pregnant patient. Grant's casting stacks the deck in favor of Dr. Praetorious's philosophical, humanist approach to medicine and life, but Grant's nuanced, serio-comic performance, and skilled turns from a supporting cast that includes Finlay Currie and Walter Slezak, make the conflict intriguing. Though Grant's adept light touch helped keep People Will Talk smart rather than preachy, the film failed to match the laurels of its predecessors.