Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
A Film by Frank Capra
DVD5 | ISO+MDS | PAL 4:3 (720x576) | 4,31 Gb
Audio: AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps - English, French, German, Spanish + English commentary track with Frank Capra Jr.
Subs: Arabic, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
Commentary subtitled: English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch
Genre: Comedy, Romance | Won Oscar | USA
A Film by Frank Capra
DVD5 | ISO+MDS | PAL 4:3 (720x576) | 4,31 Gb
Audio: AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps - English, French, German, Spanish + English commentary track with Frank Capra Jr.
Subs: Arabic, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish
Commentary subtitled: English, French, German, Spanish, Dutch
Genre: Comedy, Romance | Won Oscar | USA
Longfellow Deeds lives in a small town, leading a small town kind of life - including playing the tuba in the town band. When a relative dies and leaves Deeds a fortune, Longfellow picks up his tuba and moves to the big city where he becomes an instant target for everyone from the greedy opera committee to the sensationist daily newspaper. Deeds outwits them all until Babe Bennett comes along. Babe is a hot-shot reporter who figures the best way to get close to Deeds is to pose as a damsel in distress. When small-town boy meets big-city girl anything can, and does, happen.
IMDB
Many of Frank Capra's films are about ordinary guys caught up one way or another in the merciless wheels of government and economics. He doesn't pull his punches when portraying the brutality and injustice frequently caused by a system that's lost its humanity, and yet he still manages to make you laugh and, by the end, feel good.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
![Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)]()
Mr. Deeds Goes To Town is one of the first such movies to come from Capra, and while he topped himself later several times, this film is a cherished classic. Mr. Deeds is played by Gary Cooper, and he's perfect for the part of the down-to-earth protagonist – so perfect that he was cast as a similar character in Capra's Meet John Doe five years later. The movie opens with Deeds inheriting 20 million dollars from a long lost relative. But it doesn't phase him. It doesn't excite him unduly, as such an event would one of the unwitting slaves to the world of economics. And when he wants to do something charitable with the money, it sends everyone who's after it into raging fits. The wheels of injustice threaten.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
![Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)]()
The social commentary here is admittedly obvious, but it's done with such artistry and humor and performed by an instantly likeable cast. It's hard not to be won over by the film, and that is part of Capra's timeless magic.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Of all Capra's films this is the one I like the best, partly, I think, because there has never been anybody in the history of cinema to match Gary Cooper at putting on the boyish charm. As Longfellow Deeds, a man who inherits a lot of money he does not need and therefore does not want, Cooper is just right, a hick, but not a fool, a gentle man but not one who will let the wool be pulled over his eyes. The films' pertinence arises from its' depiction of a rich man prepared to give his wealth away to benefit his fellow man. It was a fantasy then, and is as much a fantasy now, because we do not learn, least of all from pictures even as good as this one.IMDB Reviewer
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Peak inspired lunacy, especially in the courtroom. Here is a shamelessly simple story with a populist point of view, but it is handled with such charm and charisma and acted so well by Cooper and Arthur that it became another Frank Capra classic. Cooper, a rural rube from Vermont, inherits his uncle's vast fortune and becomes national news overnight. The whole town turns out at the train station to see Cooper, tuba player and poet, off to New York, where he will assume the responsibilities of his uncle's business and move into an enormous mansion. But cynical news editor George Bancroft does not fall for Cooper's image of a simple, honest man. Bancroft assigns Arthur to interview Cooper, with explicit instructions not to spare the ridicule, but the aggressive reporter cannot corral Cooper. When she fakes a faint in front of his residence, the gallant Cooper picks her up and takes care of her. She tells him she's unemployed, and then begins wheedling him for information.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
![Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)]()
Capra directs flawlessly as he captures the prosaic character of Longfellow Deeds; Cooper is tailor-made for the role, natural and authentic. Both he and Arthur remained favorites of Capra, who would use Cooper again in MEET JOHN DOE, Arthur in YOU CAN'T TAKE IT WITH YOU, and MR. SMITH GOES TO WASHINGTON. Capra never had any doubt in casting Cooper for the role of Longfellow Deeds–his first and only choice–but he was in a quandary over the female lead until he spotted Arthur in a minor western. The director was at his high-water mark at Columbia, allowed by Columbia studio chief Harry Cohn to function as he pleased without front office interference. Capra insisted that only Cooper play the lead in the film, causing the production to be delayed for six months while Cooper fulfilled other duties and costing Columbia $100,000. Cohn did not want any more postponements so he okayed Arthur and the production got under way. Arthur literally shook with nerves before each scene, believing she could not pull it off. Yet she was an original in front of the cameras.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
![Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)]()
The supporting cast is extraordinary, notably Dumbrille, Bancroft, and that venerable character player Warner, who had appeared in many a Capra film and played Christ in DeMille's classic KING OF KINGS. The film achieved immense popularity and gleaned a fortune for Columbia chiefly because of the gangling, rumpled, taciturn Cooper, who was one of the most durable film stars in history and ranked in the top-10 list for 15 years. In 1939 he made almost $500,000, making him the highest paid American actor that year, and would earn more than $10 million throughout his long career.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
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