Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. 1936. USA. Directed by Frank Capra. Screenplay by Robert Riskin, based on the short story by Clarence Budington Kelland. With Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, George Bancroft, Lionel Stander. 115 min.
When small-town greeting card poet and tuba player Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper) inherits $20 million from a distant uncle, his arrival in Depression-era New York ignites both media frenzy and opportunistic schemes. The second of Capra's social comedies following It Happened One Night, this Columbia Pictures classic establishes the director's quintessential blend of populist sentiment and screwball elements. Cooper's earnest, plainspoken portrayal of a man whose decency comes to seem a radical force in the face of big-city cynicism counterpoints Jean Arthur's conflicted journalist "Babe" Bennett, who exploits Deeds for headlines before succumbing Cooper's moral and physical charms. The film earned Capra the second of his three Oscars for direction and set the style soon to be affectionately known as "Capra-corn."