98. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

Running Time: 115 minutes
Directed By: Frank Capra
Written By: Clarence Budington Kelland, Robert Riskin
Main Cast: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, George Bancroft, Lionel Stander, Douglass Dumbrille

ON MY JOURNEY I MET A MAN NAMED 'GARY'

I started watching "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" last night, but ly cold ended up prevailing and I succumbed to the comforts of my warm bed. Thus, I finished "Deeds" this morning and thought it to be a fairly decent film, with a good performance from Gary Cooper.

Cooper plays Longfellow Deeds, a native of Mandrake Falls, Vermont, who has just inherited his uncle's fortune of $20 million, yet to the surprise of everyone around him, doesn't seem to care too much about the money he's received. Graham Nash described the Deeds' character best when he sang of a "Simple Man", who played a simple song, as Longfellow was a man who enjoyed the little things in life: helping people, playing his tuba, volunteering at the local fire department. When the lawyers presiding over the deceased uncle's estate trek to Mandrake Falls, they take Longfellow back to New York City with them, which turns out to be a whirlwind of a trip for the naive, innocent Mr. Deeds. He is constantly surrounded by the lawyers, who want nothing more than to be kept on the payroll as Longfellow's attorneys. Also sticking to the side of Deeds, is ex-newspaperman, Cornelius Cobb (Yes, the man's name is Corn Cobb), who is given the daunting task at keeping the beggars at bay.

Meanwhile, the New York City papers are rushing to get every bit of information on the Deeds that they can. When her editor offers her a sweet month long vacation, with pay, Babe Bennett, star newspaper reporter, goes on the case, tailing Deeds and appealing to his "damsel in distress" fantasy, pretending to be an innocent stenographer named Mary Dawson, who also hails from a small town. When the stories break in all the papers and deem Deeds the "Cinderella Man", Longfellow is angered and vows to only associate with Babe, who he is rapidly developing feelings for. Eventually Babe starts to get the same feelings, but is torn between her job at the paper and her love for Longfellow. When she sees how badly the stories are hurting Deeds, she resigns from the paper, but it's too late, as Longfellow pieces it all together and discovers the truth behind Babe Bennett. The film culminates with Deeds making the decision to give over all of his inheritance to the farmers who have been blasted by the Depression and eventually landing smack dab in the middle of a court trial, as lawyers believe only an insane man would give away $20 million and plot to strip him of his inheritance.

Bottom line is that there really wasn't anything stellar going on here. Sure, Gary Cooper turned in a fine performance as the innocent and sweet Longfellow Deeds and Jean Arthur gives an average performance as the roving newspaper girl. The plot is average as well, taking a small town hayseed of a character and planting him in the middle of Manhattan. I did, however, enjoy the courtroom scene and Deeds' final appeal to the judges, after standing silent for most of the trial. I thought the entire message that was being sent by taking a man who only ever wanted to do good, and putting him on trial for it, was kind of a bittersweet message and it appealed to me, as they persecuted a man for all of his niceties. Everything else about this film just felt fairly average and really there were no home runs going on here, but I'm okay with that, as it's better to have an average movie than a bad one, and "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" was certainly not bad.

RATING: 6/10 Nothing offensive and nothing stellar, pretty much a run of the mill classic and it was nice to finally see a Gary Cooper flick.

NEXT UP: Camille...Greta Garbo gets another chance to impress me, after she failed miserably wuth "Queen Christina"...Should have this one ready by lunchtime today.

February 11, 2010 6:40am