The meek can only inherit the earth when the John Doe's start loving their neighbours.
After crafting Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington for Columbia, Capra quit and made this third film about an average Joe who is thrust into a powerful world where exploitation is high on the agenda. Thus, in true Capra style the story unfolds to a customary flip flop triumph.
Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) is a struggling journalist who gets fired from her newspaper job by new editor Henry Connell (James Gleason). By way of venting her frustrations she writes in her stinging last article about a man called John Doe who is tired of being pushed around and held back by the big bosses. She finishes the piece by claiming that Doe will commit suicide on Christmas Eve by leaping off of the roof of city hall. The public react to the letter with tremendous heart and Doe becomes a champion of the people. Enter a certain unemployed minor league pitcher named Long John Willoughby (Gary Cooper), who down on his luck is prepared to be the mythical John Doe.
In true Capra form there's a jovial glee pumping through the pic for the first half, luring us in with characterisations that charm us personified. A make believe baseball game is delightful (the actors superb), the attraction between Doe and Mitchell believable and understandable, but all the time there's a cynicism hovering like a conglomerate cancer, making us wonder if this Capracorn has bitten off more than it can chew?
The Sourpuss Smithers Speech.
Kapow! Here's Capra in full effect, tantalising and daring us not to be swept away with his call to arms for humanity to exist on a par with each other. Observe as the soda jerk gives it his all and Cooper the magnificent shifts between joy and sheepish shame purely on visual ticks alone. Pic has now shifted into a dark territory, trawling dark territories that has often been forgotten where Capra is concerned. Whilst arguably not being up with the best Capra films in his armoury, it is however one of his smartest. The portrayal of the human spirit in many guises is stark and poignant, whilst thematically Capra got his point over about the unsavoury elements blossoming in America.
The cast are nailed on watchable, Cooper as Doe has the right amount of sympathy and guts to draw the audience into Doe's mindset, and in one rousing address he has the viewers in the palm of his hand. Stanwyck as Mitchell delivers a multi stranded emotional turn that calls for convincing thesping, which she delivers in spades, while the support cast are all solid with the stand out a bizarrely unnerving Edward Arnold as D B. Norton, now here is a man wishing to be a dictator if ever there was one! 9/10
Anyone else think there is a shade of “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” (1939) about this? Journalist “Ann” (Barbara Stanwyck) is shown the door when a new owner decides to sack just about everyone at the paper she works at, but as a parting shot she creates a letter that suggests that a hapless member of the public - one “John Doe” - is so fed up with his lot that he intends to commit suicide from the city hall on Christmas Eve. The article attracts lots of attention and so she hits on the idea of keeping her job and creating a real person. Enter Gary Cooper, an itinerant man with few prospects, no commitments and an interest in making a quick buck. Immediately, he strikes a chord with the working people of the city and seems to inspire the aspirational with a character that is fictional in fact but attractive in nature. Meantime, local political bigwig “Norton” (Edward Arnold) sees an opportunity to capitalise on this popularity and to manipulate it’s rather gullible frontman with a view to forming his own political party and ending up sitting in the Oval Office. Blissfully unaware that his strings are being pulled, “Doe” does as he is told but by now “Ann” has taken a shine to him and lost enthusiasm for the plotting and scheming. Snag is, with the momentum now built up - can she, he or they do anything to stop “Norton” before he either wins or shames the complicit “Doe” out of all of his credibility and sympathy. Stanwyck and Cooper deliver well here with a story of strong but not over-cooked morals but it’s the accompanying turpitude from Arnold whose avuncular duplicity really works here as his planning and plotting reach a poignant, if maybe a little disappointing, denouement. The writing is sharply observant and there is plenty of humour as the story bubbles along amiably and thoughtfully.
