MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN, and finds out why we can't be friends.

Even after retiring from showbiz, Frank Capra remained a very popular and respected person up until his death in 1991. His films allowed the audience to symphatize with the characters because they had a common theme of ordinary, likable (And often, small town) people being placed in extraordinary situations. Also, the main characters don’t think much of what has happened to them, at least at the moment. For example, after being told he has inherited $20 million, Longfellow Deeds in Capra’s 1936 comedy “Mr. Deed’s Goes to Town” remarks “What do I need that for”. And he goes back to playing his tuba. Another example is on the train ride to his new estate in New York: When asked what he’s thinking about, it isn’t the responsibility or wealth on his mind, but rather “Who’s going to be the new tuba player in the band back home”.

Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur are both superb as the two leads. In his career-making role as Longfellow Deeds, Cooper plays it well as a dimwitted yet charming small town man who inherits his uncle’s wealth following his death (Or suicide? You decide. Hey, that rhymes!) Arthur plays newspaper writer Louise “Babe” Bennett, who goes undercover to write articles on Deeds. She is originally hired to basically uncover dirt on Longfellow, which she does. But she finds herself falling in love with him and soon feels ashamed with degrading him. Her shame comes too late, though, for due in large part to her writing, Deeds is charged with insanity and put on trial . Now, he has to defend against an overwhelming amount of evidence. However, as learned during the trial, Deeds wasn’t insane. He, like all of us, just did peculiar things.

Well, I suppose it is somewhat peculiar to put up $18 million to aid farmers. Though I admit that it wass very generous considering it was the depression.

There are several very funny scenes in the movie. One example is when Deeds, after chasing Walter the butler out of his room, yells at Walter to discover that the sound makes an echo. Soon, he and the other servants are making loud sounds and hearing them echo. Another funny scene is when Deeds, for the first time in his life, gets drunk and, according to Walter, fed donuts to a horse and took off his clothes yelling “Back to nature”. But we never see the actual scene. That’s something about this movie that current directors should pick up on: Some situations can be better, or in this case funnier, if left to our imagination. Its probably because of hindsight: When we look back at embarrassing situations we were in, we think differently of them then when they happened.

About the only compliant I had with “Mr. Deeds” was in the way this film portrays the rich class. It’s said that a movie can be shown as the way a director views the world. Capra must have had some bad experiences with wealthier people. In here, basically all
the richest men in New York, lead by the only other living relative of Deeds, want part of Longfellow’s money, though they are wealthy enough. This plot is similar to Capra’s later “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”, where a naive senator has to fight crooked politicians who want the land he has set aside for a boyscout’s camp. And it’s similar in ways to “It’s a Wonderful Life”, where the manager of a Savings and Loans building has to prevent a wealthy businessman from taking it over. I can’t speak for all the rich men of the world, but I assume there must be a few good ones who aren’t greedy and, if they are unselfish, they don’t come from a small town. I also think that it took Deeds a little long to find out who Babe Bennett really was; A news story about him appears every morning following a date with her, yet he can’t put the two together.

But that doesn’t mean I don’t like the movie. Being the critic that I am, I need to be fair and balanced. I think the movie is even better for tackling such lighthearted, simple and universal beliefs liked kindness and acceptance. I haven’t seen the remake with Adam Sandler. I have nothing wrong with Sandler: Though he regularly plays the same guy in his movies, some of them have been funny. But from what I see on T.V ads, this remake seems to agree with today’s belief that money makes you a great and happy person. As we learn here, that isn’t always so. Deeds was a great man before he got all that money because he had character, integrity, honesty and dignity (Until “Donut Gate”, that is). But tell me, how happier was he with all those millions? Instead, his longing for his home and friends in Mandrake Falls grows with each day. There, in that small town in Vermont, he really was wealthy.