Party Wire (1935) User Reviews

A delightful romp through small town America

[mountainkath · 6/10 · 12 January 2009]

As a resident of a small town, this film made me wince at times because the meanness it portrayed is so accurate. In 1935 it was the party line and in 2009 it's email and text messages, but nothing has really changed in small town America.

Others have dissected the party line concept at length, so there's no need for me to do that. It is the basis of this movie, though, so if one doesn't understand that than this movie will make no sense.

Charles Grapewin (as Marge's father) and Helen Lowell (as Matt's aunt) gave particularly wonderful performances in a film full of great performances. I absolutely loved Aunt Nettie's dressing down of the town during the meeting. I only wish she had aired more dirty laundry during that speech. It was highly amusing.

My one fault with the movie is that they didn't seem to develop the relationship between Matt and Marge. Yes, Matt spent quite a bit of time with Marge and her father, but there was no sense of any affection between Matt and Marge before they decided to marry.

This movie was a wonderful way to spend an hour (plus a few minutes). I wouldn't call it great cinema, but it's definitely worth seeing. If nothing else, you'll thank your lucky stars that party lines are a thing of the past.

Apparent comedic premise turns very dark

[morrisonhimself · 8/10 · 2 May 2009]

Many alleged Christians ignore or don't know the existence of the biblical injunction that to bear false witness is the same as committing murder.

"Party Wire" is a prime example of what can happen to an innocent person when gossipy people gleefully latch on to and help spread an inaccurate story.

"Party Wire" begins with a communications staple that is long out of date, the "party line" telephone. For younger people, this no-longer-extant situation consisted of several parties -- usually homes but possibly businesses -- being on the same line, usually connected through a patch-cord switchboard, and in the earliest days manually connected by a live operator.

When a father slightly in his cups makes a demand on a man who has been courting his daughter, the gossips overhearing are more than happy to spread a distorted report of what the conversation was about.

The misunderstanding sounds as if it could be funny, and in today's very different moral climate wouldn't even matter.

However, several lives are impacted, and the ripple effect almost devastates the entire town.

As someone else here commented, this story is dated, both by technology and by moral standards, but there actually is a good lesson here.

The acting is great, absolutely first class. Walter Brennan, for example, about ten years into his career, has an uncredited role, as do Lafe McKee and Si Jenks.

Victor Jory had a chance to play a hero, and his strength was put to good use.

The effervescent Jean Arthur, of whom Frank Capra said her voice was like a thousand tinkling bells, had an unusual role, not a bubbly, happy one, but she carried it beautifully.

Suspend your disbelief; ignore the script flaws. It's a good story despite some narrative glitches. "Party Wire" is definitely worth watching.

Word Travels Fast

[Maleejandra · 7/10 · 28 May 2006]

Party Wire concerns a small town. They are linked together by the same telephone line, a party wire. If one does not understand the way older telephones worked, with the total dependence on an operator and a switchboard, this concept is difficult to understand, which dates the film. However, suffice to say that everyone is able to listen in on everyone's phone calls, and others miss their calls often due to gossips tying up the line. In this small town, a visitor arrives, a man who used to live there by the name of Matthew Putname (Victor Jory). He is very wealthy so all of the young ladies of the town try to grab him, but the least interested one (Jean Arthur) happens to catch his eye. Gossips spreads through the town, not all of it true, and several dramatic things happen.

The film is based on a clever idea and contains several amusing sequences, but the main characters have no chemistry with each other and they themselves are lukewarm. It is difficult to care about their struggles if there is no sympathy. The best character plays Arthur's father, Charley Grapewin. He is lovable, funny, and a joy to watch.

Interesting period piece

[celebes · 23 January 2007]

Enjoyable yarn that takes its inspiration from the party line, a concept that may be unfamiliar to many people today. In rural areas, many telephone subscribers would share the same telephone number. I actually had a party line in rural new Jersey as recently as the 1970's! Different households had different rings to distinguish one from another. However, nosy neighbors could listen in to each other's conversations, just like when a member of your family picks up the upstairs extension. As a result, gossip and news traveled fast in small town America back in the early part of the twentieth century. The plot revolves around an certain overheard conversation that leads to an ugly rumor. (Misstated, by the way in the review by Eva, who captures the gist of things in a review with many factual errors)

This movie features many of the great character actors of the thirties and is led by by the always-wonderful Jean Arthur. It has the fast pace typical of the movies of the period. A very well made time capsule of rural America between the wars. Worth a look.

Keep an eye out for Walter Brennan.

[jshaffer-6 · 7/10 · 23 January 2007]

If you didn't grow up in a town like this, you might think the plot was exaggerated, and that people didn't really act like this. But they did. From the old man with his jug to all the members of the First Self Righteous church, these are all characters from my home town. Even the party line was familiar, but these old gossips didn't need the party line to spread gossip about every one in town. And it didn't need to be anything specific, just a whiff of anything different, and they were all off baying like hounds.

I was very unhappy that there was no real chemistry between the leads in this movie. I have seen Victor Jory as Indians and as every sort of criminal, but as a romantic lead he is a total dud. A handsome profile, a great voice, but as snake eyed as they come, and I kept waiting for him to hiss. A shame Jean Arthur didn't have someone more attractive to play opposite her.

Subtle? No. But lots of fun to watch.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 11 January 2009]

This is an interesting case where a film's rating doesn't really reflect how watchable a film is. I think PARTY WIRE earned a 7--mostly because although it had a very good story, it also wasn't exactly subtle or believable. However, it was extremely fun to watch despite its limitations as "art".

The film is about a horrid little town where they use a party line. For those whippersnappers out there who don't know what one is, it's a system where the people in a community share a phone line. It's cheaper and easier than installing separate lines but its major drawback is that ANYONE in the system can eavesdrop on others' conversations. In this nasty town, practically all the old ladies spend much of their time listening in--as they take perverse pleasure in spreading gossip. While they don't show the men listening in, they are just as bad because once their wives learn "the truth" about others, they, too, spread these tales.

Victor Jory plays a rich business man who returns to this town after many years' absence. Practically the entire town learns he's coming well in advance due to the party line and many of them are hopeful they can ride his coattails to wealth. However, Jory just wants to relax on his vacation and catch up with a girl (Jean Arthur) and her father (Charley Grapewin). However, during this visit, the town gossips THINK that Arthur is pregnant by another man and the town treats her abominably--so it's up to her new fiancé to set the record straight and teach the town a well-earned lesson.

Stand out actors in the film were Victor Jory and Jean Arthur. As for Jory, though he made a ton of films, often he played villains and wasn't exactly the handsome leading man, but I liked him a lot in the film. He was a very solid actor and it was refreshing to see a normal looking leading man. As for Arthur, she was, as always, terrific.

Grapwin played a sort of crusty but lovable old coot. While his shtick was his love of applejack (home made apple alcohol), this was a bit hard to laugh at because I kept thinking he needed a 12-Step Program! It's funny how we laughed at this sort of stuff in the 1930s and today it would make some a bit uncomfortable.

Overall, the film excels at getting the audience to care about the characters and really wanting to see the town get their comeuppance. While subtlety isn't exactly emphasized (such as comparing the gossips to closeups of croaking frogs), it is enjoyable and worth seeing. For a similar film, though one that is handled much better, try seeing Henri-Georges Clouzot's LE CORBEAU. It's better written and makes the same point about gossip.

Small town gossip via a party wire wrecks havoc on girl's life...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 23 January 2007]

PARTY WIRE is a quaint mixture of comedy and drama as small town gossip plays havoc with an innocent girl's life through a misunderstanding when her father (CHARLEY GRAPEWIN) exchanges a questionable phone conversation with her boyfriend. The boyfriend says he's leaving town, while Grapewin threatens him with a gun and tells him he has to "straighten out the mess you left my daughter in." Naturally, the town gossips jump to the wrong conclusion and all hell breaks loose.

JEAN ARTHUR is delightful as the girl who sees her reputation torn to shreds--first, when she loses her bank job and then disqualified from winning the $200 first prize at the flower show by the malicious woman (CLARA BLANDICK) who spread the gossip. VICTOR JORY is the town's most eligible, wealthiest bachelor who has a yen for Jean while being pursued by the young ladies for his money--and it's his mother (HELEN LOWELL) who puts an end to the gossip by showing up at a town meeting and disclosing the hypocrisy of all those who jumped to the wrong conclusions.

It's very dated stuff (Osborne had to explain what a party line was to today's audience of cellphone users), and the situations are the kind seen in numerous other such small town comedies. But it's refreshing to see that there's at least a glimmer of chemistry between Jory (who usually played bad guys) and Arthur, although it's easy to see why he was better cast in villainous roles throughout most of his career.

Summing up: A pleasant item, extremely dated but likely to find some appeal for JEAN ARTHUR's fans who enjoy her in this sort of thing.

Super "Sleeper"

[eflapinskas · 10/10 · 24 January 2007]

This 1935 classic has got to be the most pleasant entertainment surprise of my experience in quite sometime. The two lead characters are people you could like. Jean Arthur portrays a small town bank clerk. Victor Jory is the hometown success story who returns to his little 'burg' and falls in love with the 'girl he left behind. Thing is that when he left neither he nor her knew he left her behind till he returned home. This is actually the side story. The main story is about nosy, gossiping Americans back in the day when phone communication had a party line. More than one person could use them at the same time to listen in on conversations of others. The other point of the story is how small minds can function in small towns ( it even takes place in big towns too )and ruin people that the small minds take their aim at. A great story line written well / acted well. Definitely worth your time.

Fantastic Comedy on The Dark Side of Small Town America

[HarlowMGM · 10/10 · 24 January 2007]

Most 1930's and 1940's films portray small town America as some kind of Heaven on earth where your neighbor will give you their last dime and everybody loves everybody and are all model citizens. PARTY WIRE, an overlooked gem from 1935, blows that illusion to smitterheens and may be closer to the truth. Small towns can breed small minds and the horrors of gossips who tell tales they don't really care if they are true or not is vividly brought to life is this amazing comedy drama.

Victor Jory stars as the scion of the small town's wealthiest family who returns to town for an extended stay. His return is big news for the locals, many of whom have daughters they would like to see Jory marry. When Jory begins to squire local farm girl Jean Arthur, the inner green-eyed monster flares in the local old prudes and when via habit of listening in on phone calls on the town's party line they overhear Arthur's father make an angry phone call to a local boy they are all abuzz, concluding the guy has knocked up Jean.

This starts a tidal wave of gossip and venom as poor Jean gets fired from her job and is completely snubbed by the town folk, who stick a baby carriage with a nasty note on her doorstep and disqualify her from winning a local event for no reason. When Jory learns of their maliciousness, he vows to make the town pay for their viciousness and financially ruin them all.

The cast of this film is outstanding. Jean Arthur at the very beginning of the major era of her career is wonderful as the unpretentious sweetie who has what it takes to charm the most wanted man in town. Victor Jory has one of his rare leading man roles - he was most often cast as a villain, notably in GONE WITH THE WIND - but he is excellent and thoroughly credible both as the man everyone admires and the hero out for vengeance. The supporting cast is superb - Charley Grapewin as Jean's slightly absent-minded father, Maude Eburne as one of the biggest gossips in town but most especially Clara Blandick as the queen bee of this hick town who conjures all the trouble. Miss Blandick is best remembered for her loving Auntie Em in THE WIZARD OF OZ but she had no peers when it came to portraying the small town bitch matron - she plowed similar territory as Janet Gaynor's sneering aunt in A STAR IS BORN.

This is a fine looking Columbia film that belies it's modest budget. PARTY WIRE is possibly the best of Jean Arthur's early starring films and is highly recommended.

Lily Tomlin's Ernestine would say, "You'd get more privacy with two dixie cups and a string!"

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 5 September 2014]

"The Wizard of Oz" fans will get a kick out of seeing Charley Grapewin (Uncle Henry) and Clara Blandick (Auntie Em) as antagonists here. She is the society leader of a group of gossipy women, always listening in on the party line and spreading vicious rumors based upon missing facts which threaten to destroy the life of the heroine (Jean Arthur) whom Blandick and her society cronies are very jealous of. When well to do Victor Jory returns to the small town after years away and begins to spend quality time with Arthur, Blandick and the other biddies vindictively make Arthur an outcast, simply because Jory chose to spend time with her over their available daughters. This vendetta leads to Arthur being disqualified during a town flower show and a confrontation between Grapewin (as Arthur's dipsomaniac father) and Blandick which makes the kindly Auntie Em seem more like one of Oz's wicked witches.

Like another 1935 classic ("Way Down East", which featured "Oz's" witchy Margaret Hamilton as the local gossip), this is a lesson on "The Tongue", my favorite chapter of the book of James in the New Testament which preaches on the evils of gossip and malicious behavior involving the flapping of the lips. It's not only the women who are gossips here; The men who hang out in a local barroom are just as guilty of it, which leads to Grapewin making a desperate decision. What begins as a slow tale of the lack of morality amongst the high and mighty who think they are true God fearing Christians becomes engrossing drama as the rumor mill gets more and more dirty and Jory (cast against type here as a romantic hero as opposed to his usual villains) sets the stage for revenge. The best performance comes from Helen Lowell as Jory's bed-ridden Aunt who makes a surprise appearance in the finale to reveal the secrets of the town which she knows but has kept secret.

Reminding me of that wonderful Jane Wyman/Rock Hudson romantic soaper "All That Heaven Allows" when it comes to revealing the hypocrisies of society, "Party Wire" isn't a star vehicle for Jean Arthur by any means, but a combination of delicious character performances and moral observations on society that probably had a few matrons squirming in their seats as they recognized themselves up there on the big screen. You can't help but feel as you watch this that there is a way to get around the temptation to gossip or keep truths which are nobody's business out of the wrong ears. "Get your ears out of my mouth", an old friend of mine at work used to tell nearby busybodies. That sound echoes in my own ears after seeing this movie which also adds on an ending that shows forgiveness and retribution rather than revenge.

Use of Telephone Years Ago

[whpratt1 · 8/10 · 24 January 2007]

In the late 30's and 40's many people did not have telephones and when they became available, most middle income people purchased a phone with usually three or more people using the same telephone line with an operator to make the calls on certain lines. This film deals mostly about this situation in a small town where people could listen in to your conversation with other people. Jean Arthur,(Margie Oliver) plays the role of a sweet young gal living with her father, Charley Grapewine (Will Oliver) who is drinking morning noon and night and never seems to finish painting his garage. Victor Jory,(Matthew Putman) is an owner of a large Dairy Farm business in town where most of the local people are employed and has recently returned to his home town and visited with his boyhood sweetheart, Margie Oliver. The use of a Party Wire in this town has caused a great deal of trouble for quite a few people and creates a very comical situation and also some drama. Some of the actors in this film appeared in the Wizard of Oz as well as many other great film classics. Victor Jory played a good guy in this film, but most of his film career was playing the evil one even in Westerns. Enjoy a great Classic film.

The Whole Town Is Really Talking

[bkoganbing · 5/10 · 17 October 2019]

Curiously enough Party Wire came out after the big hit that Jean Arthur co-starred in The Whole Town's Talking with John Ford directing. This film is about a whole town spreading gossip created with bits and pieces.

Party lines are thank God a thing of the past. I remember my grandparents in the 50s still having one. We'd have to wait until someone was finished to use the phone.

The local rich kid Victor Jory comes back to his home town and takeover the creamery which is the main employer. That's news in and of itself. But when a nasty story involving Jory, Jean Arthur, and Bob Allen with a 'theft" of some church funds and a mysterious trip taken the gossips invent some dirt. And dirt travels best by phone.

It all results in a near tragedy for an innocent other party.

Jean Arthur did well and Victor Jory made a nice couple. Occasionally Victor Jory was a nice guy in movies.

Arthur's part might have given Frank Capra some idea that she could be good casting in some upcoming projects of his. After all in Mr. Deeds she's a gossip spreader of sorts. She scores well in this film.

Arthur fans should love this

Call the morality police

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 2 December 2022]

We are told at the beginning of the movie what a party wire is. It's a telephone line shared by several subscribers, or parties, in the same locality for economic reasons. I did a quick search online about party wires, or party lines as they were called in the rural Wisconsin community where I grew up, and found out they were mostly eliminated by phone companies around the year 2000. At any rate, they were in existence for many decades and certainly audiences in the mid-30s knew what they were.

In our rural area, I don't recall any scandals ever being overheard on the phone, but what do I know, since I was a small child. We definitely had gossipy types who liked to eavesdrop, but they didn't always need Alexander Graham Bell's invention to do that. In this 1935 motion picture from Columbia, a scandal occurs when someone hears something they shouldn't and spreads the 'news' (which they misinterpreted).

The story is set in a place called Rockridge U. S. A. Where a rich old bitty (Helen Lowell) has summoned her playboy nephew (Victor Jory) home from Europe. She intends to task him with the responsibility of running the family business, since she has become an invalid. The business is the main source of employment in Rockridge. Since Jory is an eligible bachelor, single women of marrying age are pushed in front of him.

We have to suspend some disbelief since Mr. Jory is no Clark Gable in the looks department. The actor would find his niche in Hollywood playing villains in westerns and crime flicks.

Instead of selecting one of the desperate young maids, someone else even prettier and more self-confident (Jean Arthur) catches Jory's eye. Miss Arthur is just hitting her stride as a contract player at Columbia, and she is playing a career woman. Her character is an accountant at the local bank, but the production code will ensure that by the end of the film, she leaves all that behind to take on wife and mother duties.

This is where the party wire of the plot comes in. A conversation is overheard, and a busybody (Clara Blandick) misinterprets, assuming Arthur is gasp preggers. Call the morality police. Naturally, this causes all kinds of complications. The scandal threatens to derail Arthur's blossoming romance with Jory. She even gets fired from her job.

Yes, this is as bad as Peyton Place and the Harper Valley P. T. A. Of course, today nothing-shocks-people-anymore, so this is rather tame and almost laughable. But by 1935 standards, it was serious stuff-- a young woman supposedly expecting a child out of wedlock. She was certain to be castigated, unless she was the Virgin Mary, then she would have been venerated.

Eventually the misunderstandings are sorted out and the turmoil dies down. Lest there was ever any doubt, our couple in love has their happily ever after restored. I would imagine that soon they were too busy enjoying their honeymoon to worry about answering the phone.