O Galante Mr. Deeds

Frank Capra knew that Gary Cooper was made for the part of Longfellow Deeds, he waited until Harry Cohn could get him from Paramount before making this film. It certainly is a once in a lifetime role and it got Gary Cooper his first nomination for Best Actor. He lost that year to Paul Muni for The Story of Louis Pasteur. But Capra won for Best Director that year.

Cooper, poet laureate of Mandrake Falls, inherits 20 million dollars from a rich uncle. He's not terribly impressed with that as he feels he's living just fine in Mandrake Falls. But he goes down to New York City to settle the estate and gets put up in grand style at his late uncle's mansion.

The executor of the estate, Douglass Dumbrille, is one smooth talking, white shoe bottom feeder. This is probably Dumbrille's best known classic villain, John Cedar. He wants Cooper's power of attorney real bad to cover up some dipping he's done. Cooper isn't giving it to him right away though.

In the meantime his inheritance has become news and local editor George Bancroft has dispatched sob sister reporter Jean Arthur to invade his inner sanctum. That's a common thread in the Capra populist trilogy, a woman sent to invade the inner sanctum of the hero and ends up falling for him. Jean Arthur did it again to James Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Cooper had it done to him again by Barbara Stanwyck in Meet John Doe.

After a whole lot of silly incidents which Arthur duly reports on, Cooper gets a real wake up call from one of what the current president then called a forgotten man. John Wray, a desperate farmer, tossed off his land and there were plenty of those in the twenties and thirties tells him off good and proper in a very powerful scene. Cooper, his own values questioned, decides to set up a fund to save the family farm as an institution.

Then he's called insane and Dumbrille takes as clients other heirs who want to contest the will. Which leads to Cooper's hearing in court to determine his sanity.

The values of Mr. Deeds are certainly eternal, honesty and decency don't and should never go out of style. Unfortunately the family farm is a thing of the past, there are less and less of them every year. It's agribusiness now so a faithful remake could never work today.

Yet the original still has a charm that cannot be denied, due to Frank Capra's vision and the way he got great performances out of the whole cast. One performance that shocked me was Raymond Walburn who usually plays avuncular, loquacious types. He plays the butler to Cooper's uncle and now to Cooper himself. To those who expect the usual Walburn we know and love, this is one different Walburn.

Even though Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is rooted firmly in the Thirties it should still be seen and studied today.

The combination of story, cast, and director make this an entertaining offbeat comedy, and one that also has a few worthwhile things to say. Gary Cooper does well in a somewhat atypical role for him, Jean Arthur does well in the kind of role that she often played very well, and Frank Capra applies his usual touch to hold it all together.

The story has a light but interesting premise, with Cooper as the naive Mr. Deeds who is confronted with the consequences of sudden wealth. He and Arthur work surprisingly well in their scenes together, and they make both the premise and their relationship tangle-ups believable.

It's probably not as easy as it looks to make this kind of material work, as the rather ill-conceived 2002 remake demonstrated. The remake actually started better than expected, and for quite a while Adam Sandler was surprisingly bearable in the lead role. But eventually it lost its balance, inserting too much extraneous material that either did not work or that did not fit in with the tone and themes of the rest of the movie.

Capra, on the other hand, keeps a good balance between the light, gentle tone and the sometimes far-fetched plot developments. He winds it up in good fashion with a funny courtroom scene that also provides a couple of good, if uncomplicated, observations on human nature.

Capra and the stars all made other movies that worked even better than this one does, but "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" itself still remains one of the better movies of its kind.

One of Frank Capra's strengths as a film director was the great team he assembled. Not only did he have a great technical group behind him, but his casts combined talent that went from the major stars to the bit players.

In this fable, Mr. Capra gives an answer to those of us that always pondered: what would one do if one inherited a lot of money, or if one won the lottery (fat chance!) It must be terrifying to suddenly have a lot of wealth, in this case 20 million during the worst days of the Great Depression. Sometimes it's better to stay poor rather than have to deal with strangers that have designs on one's newly found wealth!

Gary Cooper has never been as charming as the tuba playing, country bumpkin whose life is changed dramatically when he has to go to Manhattan to claim his inheritance. His Longfellow Deeds gets to see first hand how the high society, his uncle belonged to, deals with this unsophisticated greeting card writing poet.

Jean Arthur was a natural comedienne. She is wonderful in this movie as the reporter who tricks Deeds into speaking with her and in the process falls in love with the man, the object of the ridicule she writes about.

Leonard Standing, one of the best character actors of the era, is equally effective as Cobb, the man who knows a thing or two about those society folks. George Bancroft was also good as MacWade.

The film has a pace that never lets the viewer down. In comparison with what passes today as film comedy, this is a masterpiece. It shows the genius of Frank Capra in charge of this group of people that make us treasure films like this one even if it's pure nonsense, which after all, was what the director was looking for to make us laugh.

What a shame that this wonderful, charming, funny movie had to be remade back in 2002 starring Adam Sandler for now whenever the title Mr. Deeds is mentioned, the majority of people will recall that train wreck instead of this timeless story. What director Frank Capra is able to do here is create a tale of little city versus big city but also in dealing with corruption and helping out your fellow man.

These are themes common to nearly all Capra films and here Gary Cooper is able to transcend the idea of a major Hollywood star playing a down to earth, small-town idealist nice and considerate to all he meets unless they get deep under his skin. To those who reside in the giant city of New York, a bewildered man like this Longfellow Deeds would certainly stick out. And it is for this reason that a hotshot reporter would attempt to use him as a basis for an exclusive story and solely for her own benefit. This other theme of the dark side of media use is another Capra feels strongly about and it shines through especially in the final courtroom scenes when all is revealed and the true colors of all characters are established.

Gary Cooper is one of the most under-appreciated leading men in Hollywood history, perhaps because he didn't show the archetype leading man quality other big stars of his time did. He was always in his movies a good old boy, filled with love for his roots and the people he associated with that. He did it here and in Sergeant York, the result being two of his best performances in a long and storied career. Capra favorite Jean Arthur doesn't do or say much- until the epilogue when her character is needed most. And in this sequence, Arthur shows her complete variety of ability to cover both comedic and dramatic areas. Certainly a film to go back to again and again, this shows Capra's ability to carefully touch on very serious subjects with a deft comic touch as well as the great chemistry between Cooper and Arthur. So, if someone mentions Mr. Deeds to you, look for the older one and not the newer "modern" version.

I had the privilege to watch the recently restored version on the big screen, or at least, a reasonably big screen, in the "Arsenal", the cinema of the Berlin Filmmuseum. And it was simply wonderful, a heart-warming experience. This film leaves you with such a pleasant daze, you almost want to shake hands with every stranger you meet when you're back on the streets.

What's there to add about one of the best loved films off all time, packed with gems and first-rate performances? Gary Cooper is just perfect in the title role as the seemingly ignorant small town tuba player from Mandrake Falls, Vermont. When he's informed he has inherited $20 million, he instantly leaves for New York to take care of the estate. Immediately everybody in town wants a piece of him, businessman, relatives and journalists, but he somehow manages to outsmart them all.

A deceptively simple story, this film is so much more than just a romantic comedy. There are some of the typical ingredients that so many Hollywood thirties-films contain, such as the typical depression-era social conscience, but when handled this way, it even puts a smile on the face of the most grumpy film theorist or historian. Jean Arthur has never been more appealing than this in a fantastic role as a hard-boiled newspaper journalist who initially is after Deeds too, but - off course - things turn out a little different than she thought. There's a not a single dull moment in the whole film, fast paced, a razor-sharp script and stellar performances all contribute to the enjoyment of the crazed proceedings in this film. One of the many highlights: When Deeds lets his butlers holler in the hall and stairwell of his mansion in order to enjoy the echoes they produce. Priceless!

Highly enjoyable, don't miss this one.