Mr. Deeds goes to Town

Frank Capra, 1936

In Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Gary Cooper stars as the small-town, poetry-writing, and tuba-playing Mr. Longfellow Deeds. Upon our being introduced to Mr. Deeds in the first scene, it is quickly evident that he has no materialistic tendencies and is content with his simple life in the small town of Mandrake Falls. There is not even a girlfriend or wife in his life, which certainly makes it easy for him to pick up and go to New York when he is summoned due to the fact that he has inherited twenty million dollars from his recently deceased uncle.

Deeds is catapulted into New York, and is immediately surrounded by spit-polished big-city-type men. He is the center of attention in the room, and while he physically looms large in the scene, he stands like a marionette, submissively allowing a tailor to piece together a suit on his body. The scene seems to be a symbolic gesture. The people around him are attempting to take control, as well as alter him and fashion him into the person they want him to be. They want a puppet, and it appears Mr. Deeds is in peril of losing control of his own life and the fortune he has inherited.

In New York, Mr. Deeds connects with the woman who will steal his heart, Babe Bennett (Jean Arthur). In stark contrast to Deeds, she is worldly and conniving. Her motivation for spending time with Deeds is to get the inside scoop on the new millionaire for a newspaper. She secretly writes articles about Deed’s activities, and pokes fun at the many ways he reveals his naiveté. In the meantime, Deeds becomes completely smitten with Babe and believes she is the only good person he’s met in New York. He is devastated when he finds out that his heartthrob is the one who has been writing embarrassing articles about him for the newspaper. Babe is equally devastated because she realizes she has fallen for the guy, just as her true identity is revealed to Deeds.

Frank Capra does a wonderful job with casting and bringing the story together. He plays upon Gary Cooper’s boyish charm to make his character believable and likable, with a perfect mixture of naïveté, masculinity and one who wears his emotions on his sleeve. Jean Arthur is the perfect antithesis. She is worldly, undeniably feminine, and keeps her cards close to her chest. In spite of this, it is easy to cheer for Babe in the end, because his influence has brought a transforming softness to her.

This is a lovely film, with solid acting, artful directing, and a storyline that brings a moral tale without being preachy. There is nothing to hate and everything to love in Mr. Deeds.