science

People Will Talk

People Will Talk is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand People Will Talk rather than just read about it. In short: People Will Talk is a 1951 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, produced by Darryl F.

Key takeaways

People Will Talk belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect People Will Talk to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of People Will Talk from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

People Will Talk is a 1951 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, produced by Darryl F. Zanuck and released by Twentieth Century-Fox. The screenplay is based on the play Frauenarzt Dr. med. Hiob Prätorius by Curt Goetz, which had previously been adapted for the screen in the German film Doctor Praetorius (1950). The film stars Cary Grant, Jeanne Crain, Hume Cronyn, Finlay Currie, Walter Slezak and Sidney Blackmer. Mankiewicz's screenplay was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Written Comedy.

Plot

Physician Noah Praetorius teaches at a medical school and has founded a clinic dedicated to treating patients humanely and holistically. Dr. Rodney Elwell, a colleague who dislikes Praetorius's unorthodox but effective methods, has hired a detective to investigate Praetorius. Mr. Shunderson, Praetorius's mysterious friend, rarely leaves his side and possesses a deep, intuitive understanding of human and animal nature. After student Deborah Higgins faints during an anatomy presentation, Praetorius suggests she see a doctor, which she does, and he later receives her lab results and informs her that she is pregnant. Deborah is upset by the news, as she is unmarried. She will not reveal the father of her unborn child and fears that the news would be too much for her own father to bear. In a hallway near Praetorius's office, she shoots herself but is not seriously injured. After successfully operating on Deborah, Praetorius tries to calm her by telling her that the results of her pregnancy test were mistaken and that she really is not pregnant. However, she has fallen in love with him and becomes upset at her own embarrassing behavior. Deborah flees the clinic. Praetorius and Shunderson visit Deborah's father Arthur on his farm. Arthur thinks that his daughter's injury occurred when she burned herself with a curling iron. Deborah and Praetorius hide Deborah's shooting incident from her father, who is a failure in life and lives unhappily as a dependent of his stingy brother. Deborah is his only pride in life, which might become intolerable for him with a baby to support and his daughter's reputation ruined. While showing Praetorius the farm, Deborah admits her love for him. She wonders why he is visiting and suspects that he is attracted to her. After she seductively interrogates him, they share a passionate kiss. They are soon married and Arthur comes to live with them. Deborah discovers that she is pregnant and assumes that the baby is her husband's, but Praetorius informs her that she had been pregnant all along. She fears that he married her out of pity, but Noah convinces her that he really did fall in love with her. After his detective discovers that Shunderson was once convicted of murder, Elwell demands a misconduct hearing against Praetorius. Deborah confronts Elwell about the vicious gossip concerning her husband, and Elwell presents her with a document laying the charges against Praetorius, which she takes to him. At the hearing, Praetorius explains that he started his career in a small town by opening a butcher shop as a front for his medical practice because the townspeople mistrusted doctors. He was forced to leave town after his maid discovered his medical degree. Shunderson proceeds to tell his own story to the members of the hearing. He had been sentenced to death for murder but survived his hanging. When he awakened, he was lying on a table in front of Praetorius, then a medical student examining what he believed to be a cadaver. Praetorius kept Shunderson's survival a secret and Shunderson became Praetorius's devoted friend. The chairman concludes the hearing in Praetorius's favor and Elwell walks away alone and discredited. Elwell had purposefully arranged for Praetorius's misconduct hearing to be scheduled for the same time as the student/faculty orchestra concert. After the hearing, Deborah, her father and Shunderson watch Praetorius conducting the finale of Brahms's Academic Festival Overture, "Gaudeamus igitur".

Cast

Production The film's working title was The Story of Dr. Praetorius. Anne Baxter had been cast in the lead female role but withdrew when she became pregnant. Jeanne Crain was announced as Baxter's replacement in March 1951.

Music The film's score consists of two classical pieces: Johannes Brahms' Academic Festival Overture and Richard Wagner's Prize Song, adapted and conducted by Alfred Newman.

Release People Will Talk was previewed at the Grauman's Chinese Theatre on July 19, 1951, which was attended by the film's stars Cary Grant and Jeanne Crain, along with many other prominent film stars. It was released in general theaters on August 29.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with People Will Talk

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what People Will Talk claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to People Will Talk before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about People Will Talk ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of People Will Talk

In research: People Will Talk appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses People Will Talk in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: People Will Talk is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1950s romantic comedy-drama films, 1951 American films, 1951 English-language films, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for People Will Talk outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study People Will Talk in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what People Will Talk means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain People Will Talk out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is People Will Talk in simple terms?

People Will Talk is a 1951 American romantic comedy-drama film written and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, produced by Darryl F.

Why does People Will Talk matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study People Will Talk?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on People Will Talk.