The Whole Town’s Talking

Directed by John Ford. Here’s a rather nice role for Edward G. Robinson (real name, Emanuel Goldenberg), who was nothing like his gangster persona in so many films. Here, he’s a meek clerk who is a dead ringer for an actual gangster. He keeps getting mistaken for the bad guy, so much that the baddie eventually figures out a way to make that work for him in his dastardly pursuits. Some clever plot twists, and the scenes he plays with himself are handled extremely well, given the technology of the time. Jean Arthur plays the spunky, brash girl she was so good at. Robinson is great in both parts.