Rip Smith's opinion-poll business is a failure...until he discovers that the small town of Grandview is statistically identical to the entire country. He and his assistants go there to run polls cheaply and easily, in total secrecy (it would be fatal to let the townsfolk get self-conscious). And of course, civic crusader Mary Peterman must be kept from changing things too much. But romantic involvement with Mary complicates life for Rip; then suddenly everything changes.
Acting
Stewart's 'aw shucks' sincerity weaponized for con artistry.
Writing
Premise so clever it hurts nobody made this again.
Director
William A. Wellman
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This bombed so hard at the box office that Stewart didn't do another comedy for years. Audiences in 1947 apparently hated math.
Basically a rom-com about the observer effect—decades before quantum physics memes existed. Wellman was accidentally a nerd.
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