Romancefest 2017: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Here's a title I've always heard but never actually seen, Frank Capra's 1936 hit MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN, starring Gary Cooper. I've been a fan of the Capra films I'd seen up until now, and DEEDS is just as good as the rest, with the same core values that make Capra's voice so unique.

The story concerns Cooper as a small-town guy who inherits a fortune and is brought to the big city by a crooked lawyer (Douglass Dumbrille). Dumbrille wants Cooper to grant him power of attorney, but Cooper's too smart for that.

Jean Arthur, who I've always loved thanks to SHANE, shows up as a plucky reporter who goes undercover as a damsel in distress to get close to Cooper and expose his hillbilly eccentricities (which aren't even that bad -- just shocking to the New York elite). This is all in spite of the fixer hired by Dumbrille specifically to keep the press away from Cooper played by Lionel Stander who did the voice of Kup in the all time classic (to me) TRANSFORMERS: THE MOVIE. Stander almost steals the show, here, with his gruff, streetwise performance.

Cooper eventually hits on an idea to give his fortune away to poor, struggling farmers -- promising to purchase each of them a plot of land to work that they can eventually own. This is insanity to Dumbrille, who hatches a plot to get Cooper officially declared insane and transfer his fortune over to another potential inheritor who might be more malleable.

The movie moves along at a nice brisk pace with lots of jokes but also lots of sincerity, and most of the heart of the movie is in Jean Arthur, who goes from a cynical reporter out to exploit Cooper for her own success to really honestly falling in love with what he stands for and eventually inspiring him out of his depression when things get rough. Cooper's good, too, but he's given an almost Christ-like or Superman-esque role as the square good guy. It's necessary to making Capra's points but not the most showy of characters. Still it's the kind of thing Cooper is good at -- exuding a basic goodness and simpleness without seeming dumb. He's kinda like Robert Redford.

One thing I never realized was how much of an influence this movie was on the Coen Brothers' THE HUDSUCKER PROXY. You've got the hillbilly coming to the city, ending up in charge of a big corporation, the elites trying to take him down, and a reporter disguised as his lover exploiting him. It was fun to see where this stuff came from and realize guys considered as cool as the Coens are fans of a director as unrightfully pegged as square as Frank Capra.