SNMR 4.18: "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town"

Tonight's SNMR feature is "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" (1936, NR, 115 minutes, B&W) starring Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, Lionel Stander, George Bancroft, Douglass Dumbrille and Raymond Walburn. The film was directed by Frank Capra. Capra won the Oscar for Best Director in 1936 for this movie.

The first time I tried to watch this movie I fell asleep on it, primarily because I started watching it late at night. This was my second attempt at watching this film. I had never seen anything Gary Cooper had been in before this and only one other film that Jean Arthur has been in.

PLOT SUMMARY: Longfellow Deeds (Cooper) is a man from a small Vermont town who inherits $20 million dollars from the estate of a distant uncle. Deeds is then thrust into the New York spotlight and branded a fool by a wise-cracking newspaper reporter (Arthur). Deeds doesn't realize that the woman he's fallen for is one and the same reporter until it's too late. Not handling fame and riches too well, Deeds decides to help out of work people and is arrested and tried on charges of insanity by jealous relatives who got no share of the fortune.

WHAT I LIKED ABOUT THIS MOVIE: Gary Cooper is brilliant as the thoughtful, introspective Deeds. Arthur is masterful as the cynical reporter turned heroine. (Arthur will reprise a similar role in another Capra film to be reviewed at a later date in this column.) Director Frank Capra's ability to take average people and turn them into everyman heroes comes through in this film, just like it does in other Capra films I've seen. The mark of a classic film is that the story and plot gets borrowed and reshaped into other films and this film offers no exception. The script is well written and the dialogue is crisp throughout.

WHAT I DID NOT LIKE ABOUT THIS MOVIE: Really, the only major mark against this film that I can see is that it drags a bit in the beginning. The court room scene is, to be mild, rather corny and unrealistic at times. Even that is not enough to drag this movie down.

**** out of *****