Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

"Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" is a charming film, about a man who during the Great Depression comes into a large sum of money, and decides to give it away to people who really need it. In the climax of the movie, this man is prosecuted for his actions and his sanity is tested. Yes, I started this paragraph by saying this is a charming film. It keeps its charm because it was directed by Frank Capra who could balance popular entertainment and social commentary more seamlessly than everybody. But when one thinks of the mindset of this film it gives somewhat of an unsettling vibe.

It's important to note, "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" was made right smack dab in the middle of The Great Depression in 1936. It was an enormous hit garnering Capra his second of three Oscars for Best Director. This was the moment Capra could do no wrong, he had a knack for mixing screwball comedy and backwoods American sentimentality, although I would say his ideas in the end come off as pretty radical.

"Mr. Deeds Goes to Town", is the story of Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper), a naive simpleton from a small town who spends his time playing the tuba and writing poetry. When Longfellow's rich Uncle dies, he comes into a great fortune and is suddenly whisked away to New York City to live the high life. But Longfellow doesn't seem to gel with the big city life. He's pestered by moochers and frauds, people who just want a quick buck from him. When he doesn't want to have anything to do with their reaction is that there must be something wrong with him.

Longfellow's antics are also covered by an ace newspaper reporter named Babe Bennett (Jean Arthur). Babe disguises herself as a damsel in distress whom Longfellow rescues in order to gain his sympathy and get close to him.She begins to write articles which show Longfellow in a very unflattering light. Predictably though Longfellow falls in love with her, and vise versa just to make things more complicated. But the real weight of this story comes when Longfellow decides to give away all his money to needy people, which causes an uproar throughout the moochers and frauds he had to deal with as they try to discredit him.

It's curious to watch "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" and wonder just what the mindset was in mid 30s America. Capra was obviously making some comment about how the world seems to have gone to the dogs at the height of the Great Depression. As we face an economic crisis of our own, seeing people out of work, yet also seeing some people in America fight to stave off upper class tax hikes, it might not be hard to believe someone trying to give money away could be thought of as an act of insanity, certainly Capra didn't think people were too far from it.

Of course "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" remains a romantic comedy, and its scenes are meant to exaggerate, but it wears its heart on its sleeve. Capra had a reputation for making earnest moral fables such as these. Longfellow Deeds is the kind of naive simpleton easy to get behind. He's the kind of guy who gets exploited by people like Sarah Palin all the time because he stands for simple American ideals and what the country should be built upon. Palin believes a fellow like Deeds should run the country, and maybe Capra believed that too. Of course politics and the economy are more complicated than the simple ideals, and the movies make a guy like Longfellow a wish fulfillment. What I'm touched by in the film is the utter sincerity, and the heartfelt honesty throughout it. What Capra has done, like he would do with Jefferson Smith in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", and George Bailey in the more ambiguous "It's a Wonderful Life" is give us someone to root for, someone who knows seeing his fellow man suffer is wrong, and would it be nice to be a millionaire and give that man suffering a helping hand.

"Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" thus transcends any political label you could put upon it, because it's more interested in showing, in very simple terms, the difference between right and wrong. Capra's heroes could not be corrupted, they needed to keep their simple ideals in order to show the audience where the moral compass was pointing. It was only later with "It's a Wonderful Life", where Capra would show the dark side of his heroes and the repercussions of not being able to be corrupted.

Still "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" raises to big issues, but deals with them like a sweet fable; it's a moral film that children could see and know who the good guys are and who the bad guys are. Gary Cooper was the ideal strong silent type of his time and he's so good and likable, it's hard not the root for him. Jean Arthur is a treasure, a tough talker with a soft center, she would basically play the same role again for Capra in "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington", but it's never boring to watch her. A great group of character actors fill the rich scenes of gentle humour and sentiment.

"Mr. Deeds" was remade into a soulless film by Adam Sandler in 1999, it's so easy to see the difference between that film and the original which seemed to have been made with a beating heart.