The Man Who Talked Too Much

Name: The Man Who Talked Too Much
Genre: Drama
Released: 1940-07-16
Duration: 1 h 16 min
Rating: 6.3
Cast: George Brent, Virginia Bruce, Brenda Marshall

1940
Approved
1h 16m

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

353

YOUR RATING

George Brent and Virginia Bruce in The Man Who Talked Too Much (1940)

Assistant District Attorney Stephen Forbes, an impressive orator with a long list of convictions, resigns when an innocent boy is convicted and the real murderer confesses too late. He opens a cheap law office and his secretary Joan Reed goes with him. Business is bad until he ties up with J.B. Roscoe, the contact man between city hall and the underworld. Forbes moves to a swanky office and adds two people to his staff - his younger brother John, who he helped through law school, and Celia Farraday. Celia helps John win his first case and the two fall in love. John realizes his brother's firm isn't honest and wants to break the underworld contact. He opens Steve's safe for federal authorities hunting evidence against Roscoe. But the latter plants enough circumstantial evidence against John that the latter is convicted of murder and sent to death row.

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Legal Drama Drama

Assistant District Attorney Stephen Forbes, an impressive orator with a long list of convictions, resigns after an innocent young man is convicted and the real murderer confesses too late. H... Read allAssistant District Attorney Stephen Forbes, an impressive orator with a long list of convictions, resigns after an innocent young man is convicted and the real murderer confesses too late. He opens a cheap law office and his secretary Joan Reed goes with him. Business is bad unti... Read allAssistant District Attorney Stephen Forbes, an impressive orator with a long list of convictions, resigns after an innocent young man is convicted and the real murderer confesses too late. He opens a cheap law office and his secretary Joan Reed goes with him. Business is bad until he ties up with J.B. Roscoe, the contact man between city hall and the underworld. Forbe... Read all

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.3/10

353

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
Frank J. Collins based his protagonist on Manhattan defense attorney William Joseph Fallon, dubbed "The Great Mouthpiece" by the 1920's New York press, who had a short but spectacularly successful career before succumbing to the effects of his own dissoluteness at the age of 41.

He has been cited as one of the inspirations for the celebrity lawyer Billy Flynn in the popular musical Chicago. He is also portrayed for six episodes by David Aaron Baker in the HBO television series Boardwalk Empire (2010).

Connections
References 20,000 Years in Sing Sing (1932)

User reviews7

Review

Featured review

5/10

Decent If Unexceptional Remake

A man whom Assistant District Attorney George Brent convicted for murder dies in the electric chair. Then Brent discovers he was innocent. So he goes into private practice; it's better that a hundred guilty men go free than an innocent man go to jail. But his clients can't pay their bills. Then along comes gangster Richard Barthelmess, and he pays his bills. But when Brent's brother, William Lundigan, is sentenced to die for a murder one of Barthelmess' hoods committed, can Brent do anything?

It's a remake of 1932's THE MOUTHPIECE, and like many of Brian Foy's B productions, moves along at a good clip. Brent is good in the part, solid if a tad stolid, and backed by a cast that includes Virginia Bruce, Brenda Marshall, George Tobias, and John Litel. But that competent speed never quite reaches the point of panic, and the movie seems lightweight as a result.