Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

starring Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur

directed by Frank Capra

Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper) inherits a fortune from an uncle that he didn't really know. Longfellow moves from the small town where he has always lived to New York City. He quickly becomes a punching bad and a laughing stock.

Babe Bennett (Jean Arthur) talks her boss, the editor of a local newspaper, into letting her work her magic on Deeds. Bennett figures him out pretty quickly. She writes a story about him that makes him very angry. She refers to him as the Cinderella Man. The nickname sticks and she keeps using it in the articles she writes about Deeds.

Deeds thinks that Babe's name is Mary Dawson. He grows increasingly fond of Mary. She begins to question what she's doing as she starts to develop feels for him. He finds out from someone else about what she's been up to.

Deeds decides to give most of his money away after he is accosted by a farmer who has lost his land. He creates a plan to use the money to buy land to give away to men willing to work the land. Cedar, Deed's lawyer, finds out about this plan. Cedar finds another relative of the rich man from whom Deeds inherited the money. Cedar takes Deeds to court and tries to have him proven insane.

Thoughts

I might have seen this movie before but I don't have any clear recollections of it. If I did see it before it was probably in the 1980s or 1990s.

This movie was made before Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), another Frank Capra film, which I have a clear recollection of seeing.  Mr. Smith Goes to Washington resembles Mr. Deeds Goes to Town in a number of ways. The main character is a naïve but idealistic man who comes in to great power. Other men try to push the main character to do things that will benefit them but he refuses to do so and instead comes up with a plan that will help the "common" man.

Jean Arthur is in both movies. She plays similar characters based on my recollection of the latter film. She is a reporter and the love interest of the main character.

According to my research, Mr. Smith was originally to be a sequel to Mr. Deeds but Gary Cooper was not available to reprise the role of Longfellow Deeds. I'm not sure how that would have worked out. It seems like Mr. Smith would have been a different movie if the main character had been Longfellow Deeds.

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town was nominated for 5 Academy Awards. Frank Capra won his second Academy Award for Best Director for this film. It was the only Academy Award that the film won. Capra's previous win in that category was for It Happened One Night. It was his third nomination for Best Director. The movie was also nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor (Gary Cooper), Best Original Story, Best Sound Recording.

I enjoyed the movie quite a bit. I think that there's a good mix of humor and melodrama. It is filled with the same sort of sentiment that is found in other Capra movie that I have seen (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Meet John Doe, It's a Wonderful Life). The ending does a good job of suggesting what might come next without actually showing it. I thought that Gary Cooper's performance was good but I found Jean Arthur's to be more affective. Mr. Deeds doesn't seem to go through as much of a change as Babe Bennett does.