Moments of Movie Wisdom: Sterilizing America’s Food in ‘People Will Talk’ (1951)

A customer walks down an aisle in a grocery store in a file photo. Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Commentary

It’s amazing how one scene can stand out in a film. Obviously, the standoff, the big chase scene, the moving monologue, and the passionate reunion are bound to stand out in one’s mind long after a movie has ended. These climactic moments are predictably memorable because they are the high points of their stories. However, I love scenes that are inconsequential to the plot, and which easily could have been cut because they have little effect on the overall story, but which are noteworthy scenes in and of themselves.

Today’s moment of movie wisdom is from “People will Talk” from 1951. The scene takes place 40 minutes into this 110-minute film. There are so many wise, insightful lines and scenes about healing and the medical industry in this film about a very remarkable doctor, all of which deserve to be highlighted. However, the moment I want to point out happens during a casual dinner with Dr. Noah Praetorius (Cary Grant) and Professor Barker (Walter Slezak). Commenting on the flavor of the authentic sauerkraut they’re enjoying, Dr. Praetorius says that food doesn’t taste the way it used to because of modern packaging. This brief musing on the American mania for sterilizing food offers insight into Dr. Praetorius’s philosophy and is truer today than ever before.

Dr. Praetorious is a gifted and highly effective physician who runs his own clinic with very unorthodox yet effective methods. He also teaches at a medical school, where his jealous colleague Professor Elwell (Hume Cronyn) is determined to destroy his reputation by discovering some secret from his past. To do so, he contacts Praetorius’s former housekeeper (Margaret Hamilton) from the rural community of Goose Creek.

Meanwhile, Dr. Praetorius examines a young female student, Deborah Higgins (Jeanne Crain), who fainted in class and discovers that she is expectant. After seeing how distressed she is by her condition, he learns that she is unmarried, separated from her child’s father, and afraid to tell her own father about her condition. After she leaves his office, she shoots herself, but thankfully it’s only a flesh wound. While she is recovering, Dr. Praetorius tells her the pregnancy result was inaccurate to lift her spirits, but she then escapes from the hospital before he can tell her the truth. He follows her to her family’s farm, accompanied by his mysterious friend, Mr. Shunderson (Finlay Currie). Upon seeing each other again, they admit they are in love and decide to get married.

Publicity still for the film “People will Talk” from 1951. MovieStillsDB

The Scene

In this scene, Dr. Praetorius is making dinner for his colleague and friend Prof. Barker. The meal they share is standard German fare, including bratwurst, sauerkraut, and beer. During the meal, the two men talk about Deborah’s case, and Praetorius reveals that he just told her she was not expectant when she is. He wanted to give her peace of mind and keep her from trying to kill herself again until he can talk to her father about the situation. Barker politely points out that the situation, beyond Deborah’s basic medical needs, is not his friend’s business. Praetorius asks him, “What is my business?” He argues that it is not merely the treatment of physical ailments, as Barker describes it, but to make sick people well. This goes beyond basic medical needs.

Realizing he’s losing the argument, Barker changes the subject by complimenting the sauerkraut, saying that it tastes like it used to taste. Smiling pleasantly, Praetorius replies that he buys it from a German woman who makes it in a barrel. Inspired by Barker’s previous comments, he states, “Sauerkraut belongs in a barrel, not a can. Our American mania for sterile packages has removed the flavor from most of our foods.” Picking up a stick of butter on the table, he continues, “Butter is no longer sold out of wooden tubs, and a whole generation thinks butter tastes like paper.” He fondly recalls, “There was never a perfume like an old-time grocery store. Now they smell like drug stores. They don’t even smell like drug stores anymore.” Throughout this monologue, Barker continues heartily eating his food, listening to his friend but not encouraging him to elaborate further.

Its Significance

This brief line of dialogue is just a small part of one scene in this movie. It has nothing to do with the larger plot, since it really is just Barker’s deflection from another of Praetorius’s comments that atomic energy hasn’t improved mankind’s wellbeing. However, it is worth noting for its intrinsic wisdom. I’ve been watching this movie as long as I can remember, and I remember pondering that I didn’t really know what butter tasted like as a young child. Recently, I’ve taken this curiosity and skepticism about food’s authenticity a step further, researching wholesome and natural products like organic produce, mineral water, and raw butter (the last of which always reminds me of this movie, of course).

A block of fresh butter. Shutterstock

This scene isn’t completely irrelevant to “People Will Talk,” however. It offers insight into Noah Praetorius’s nature. He’s a doctor who isn’t afraid to disagree with, contradict, and even fight the established medical industry. Doing this gains him many loyal patients but also a determined enemy, Dr. Elwell, who hates Praetorius because he does things differently than him, opposes the establishment, and gets better results. Much like today’s Big Pharma, Elwell is hostile to anyone who proves that there might be a better road to health than his way.

Two Definitions of Sterile

Elwell bases his case against Praetorius on information he gains about the latter’s time in Goose Creek, where the doctor healed locals while keeping his formal training secret. Elwell thinks he pretended to be a quack so he could deceive people into paying for his treatments, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Dr. Praetorius kept his formal education a secret in Goose Creek because he knew the locals were prejudiced against the medical industry, yet he wanted to help them. He wasn’t trying to trick them into mainstream medicine. As the conversation about food reveals, Praetorius is as critical of western medicine as any Goose Creek resident!

The emerging “American mania for sterile packages” Praetorius describes in this scene was just the foreshadow of a mentality which has stupefied our culture. Any sanitizing method, no matter how harsh or artificial, is preferred over natural germs and bacteria. People will gladly ingest countless toxic chemicals, which could likely cause hormone disruption, brain damage, and cancer, to avoid the small chance of foodborne illness. When unchecked, this mania proves that the two definitions of sterile, “free from bacteria or other living microorganisms” and “too poor in quality to produce,” often mean the same thing.