88: MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN
(Year refers to British release)
Running Time: 115 minutes
Black/White
Estimated Attendance: 8.3 million
What they said at the time...
Synopsis
A romantic comedy. Through a motor accident to an uncle whom he has never seen, Mr. Deeds, who has never stirred from the backwoods town in which he was born and where he makes a reasonable living writing poetry for postcards, inherits a fortune of $20,000,000. He is sought out and brought to New York and is immediately surrounded by crooks and parasites from falling into whose clutches his native commonsense saves him. Naturally he becomes "news" and a star woman reporter is told off to write him up. By a ruse she gains his confidence and day after day fills the front page with the comic and sometimes extraordinary antics of the Cinderella-Man, as she dubs him. Quite unsuspecting that Mary is the author of the articles that hurt him so much, he continues to go out with her daily and eventually falls in love with her and she with him. She tells her editor that she will not go on writing him up any longer and makes up her mind to tell Deeds the truth about herself, but the news is broken to him from another source that his Mary is the author of the articles. The shock of this final disillusionment is so great that he decides to give away all his money and use it to bring happiness to those who are suffering from the slump and poverty. He works out a scheme to put farmers back on the land in small-holdings and works feverishly at it himself. Meanwhile other relatives of the dead man and their lawyers, to get the money for themselves, have Deeds arrested on the ground of insanity. He is now so disgusted with everything that he meekly goes to the asylum, refuses to have counsel at his examination or even, at the start, to plead. The Court scene is rather too protracted as witness after witness is allowed to come forward for the plaintiffs, but after Mary has publicly declared her love for him, Deeds makes up his mind to plead and goes into the witness box, where he puts up such a spirited defence that he is triumphantly acquitted and all ends happily.
Review
Frank Capra has made an excellent job of a good story which is allowed to unfold itself in a restrained manner. Exaggeration has been carefully avoided. Gary Cooper as Mr. Longfellow Deeds never becomes a simpleton or a buffoon and the gradual ripening of Jean Arthur's affection is excellently done. The smaller parts are allowed to be strongly enough characterised to stand out. The only time that interest seems to flag is during the trial scene, when the final denouement is obvious, and it is but a question of how it will be encompassed. The film is excellent entertainment value, is full of laughs, and of a good deal more for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.
Synopsis and Review from Monthly Film Bulletin Vol.3 No.32 August 1936 p.133
The Monthly Film Bulletin was published by the BFI between 1934 and 1991. Initially aimed at distributors and exhibitors as well as filmgoers, it carried reviews and details of all UK film releases. In 1991, the Bulletin was incoporated into Sight and Sound magazine.
