Mr.Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

         Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur

Mr.Deeds Goes to Town is a lighthearted romantic-comedy made in 1936 by Frank Capra and starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. It is the film that invented the screwball comedy and solidified director Frank Capra's vision of American life, with a support of small-town, traditional values against self-serving city sophistication.

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The movie was well received by the press and public alike and was named the "Best Picture of 1936" by the New York Film Critics and the National Board of Review. It won for Capra his second Academy Award for Directing in 1936 following his first Award for 'It Happened One Night' two years earlier, and Cooper received the first of his five nominations for Best Actor. The film also received nominations for Best Picture, Best Screenplay (Robert Riskin), and Best Sound Recording (John P. Livadary). The film was the first major movie role for Jean Arthur and helped make her one of Hollywood's most prominent leading ladies.

Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper) is a poet from rural Mandrake Falls, a small town in Vermont, whose life changes, and not for the better, when he suddenly inherits the $20 million estate of his multi-millionaire uncle, whose New York lawyers (used to skimming funds for their own use) try to convince him to keep them on the payroll. But after several misadventures and a trip to Manhattan, Deeds is convinced that the money will do him no good and tries to give it away, intending to endow a rural commune for displaced farmers. The lawyers immediately take him to court, claiming he is insane, for noone in their right mind would give away so much money.

Crucial to Deeds's eventual deliverance is Babe Bennett (Jean Arthur), a wisecracking reporter who poses as impoverished Mary Dawson to get a scoop on Deeds, and who at first exploits the hick's naivete in order to write scathing exclusives about the 'Cinderella Man.' Babe is transformed by Deeds's idealism, hosever, and her testimony sways the court in the poor man's favor.

Filled with bright comic moments (Deeds playing the tuba to clear his mind, feeding donuts to horses), 'Mr.Deeds Goes to Town' is a hymn to antimaterialism and the simple country life and nicely explores the theme of innocence and corruption, and the ability of the common man to make a difference in a democracy.

Main Cast

Gary Cooper .... Longfellow Deeds
Jean Arthur .... Louise "Babe" Bennett/Mary Dawson
George Bancroft .... MacWade/"Mac"
Lionel Stander .... Cornelius Cobb
Douglass Dumbrille .... John Cedar
Raymond Walburn .... Walter
H.B. Warner .... Judge May
Ruth Donnelly .... Mabel Dawson
Walter Catlett .... Morrow

Directed and produced by Frank Capra
Written by Clarence Budington Kelland (story)
Robert Riskin (screenplay)
Cinematography Joseph Walker
Music Howard Jackson
Editing by Gene Havlick
Distributed by Columbia
Release date April 16, 1936
Running time 115 min.

Alternate Titles: A Gentleman Goes to Town, Opera Hat