Magic Town

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Magic Town
Directed by William A. Wellman
Written by Robert Riskin
Joseph Krumgold(story)
Starring James Stewart
Jane Wyman
Kent Smith
Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures
Release date(s) 1947
Running time 103 mins
Country USA
Language English
IMDb profile
For other meanings, see Magic city.

Magic Town is the name of a 1947 comedy film directed by William A. Wellman, starring James Stewart and Jane Wyman.

It is remarkable as one of the first films about then-new science of public opinion polling. The movie was inspired by Middletown studies.

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Lawrence 'Rip' Smith (played by James Stewart) and his assistants are pollsters, and Stewart believes there is a perfect community in the middle of United States that can be used for polling its citizens. He has finally found a town where the percentages of the opinions of the citizens perfectly mirror those of the American people as a whole. Stewart goes to the town and sets up undercover with the intention of using the citizens as his poling guinea pigs, but he gets involved with town inhabitants. When his plans are revealed, the town goes crazy. Their sudden unofficial power goes to their heads, and instead of giving the sensible polling answers to questions they give outlandish ones. This causes the crash of their reputation and failure of Smith's plan.


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