Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Country: US
Technical: bw 115m
Director: Frank Capra
Cast: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, Lionel Stander, George Bancroft, H. B. Warner
Synopsis:
An eccentric hick inherits a fortune, goes to the big city (New York) to decide what to do with it, and is pursued so much by lawyers, plaintiffs and the press that he has no time to consider. When he resolves to give it to the poor they gang together and try to have him certified.
Review:
Not really a Christ allegory, though the disarming mixture of naïvety and shrewdness that characterise Deeds's dealings with his antagonists has something of JC's responses to the rich men and the pharisees about it. Rather it is another of those films pointed to remind the rest of society what being a citizen of the greatest god-fearing nation should be about: decency, individualism (he plays the tuba and writes poems for postcards) and standing up for the interests of the litte guy. Cooper has rarely been better than portraying this complex man, part jester, part innocent, part tormented soul, but still a variation on his upright hero. Thematically, in its contribution to the philosophy of the New Deal, it has much in common with Holiday, in which a similarly radical character decides that there are more important things in life than money.
Country: US
Technical: bw 115m
Director: Frank Capra
Cast: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, Lionel Stander, George Bancroft, H. B. Warner
Synopsis:
An eccentric hick inherits a fortune, goes to the big city (New York) to decide what to do with it, and is pursued so much by lawyers, plaintiffs and the press that he has no time to consider. When he resolves to give it to the poor they gang together and try to have him certified.
Review:
Not really a Christ allegory, though the disarming mixture of naïvety and shrewdness that characterise Deeds's dealings with his antagonists has something of JC's responses to the rich men and the pharisees about it. Rather it is another of those films pointed to remind the rest of society what being a citizen of the greatest god-fearing nation should be about: decency, individualism (he plays the tuba and writes poems for postcards) and standing up for the interests of the litte guy. Cooper has rarely been better than portraying this complex man, part jester, part innocent, part tormented soul, but still a variation on his upright hero. Thematically, in its contribution to the philosophy of the New Deal, it has much in common with Holiday, in which a similarly radical character decides that there are more important things in life than money.
Country: US
Technical: bw 115m
Director: Frank Capra
Cast: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, Lionel Stander, George Bancroft, H. B. Warner
Synopsis:
An eccentric hick inherits a fortune, goes to the big city (New York) to decide what to do with it, and is pursued so much by lawyers, plaintiffs and the press that he has no time to consider. When he resolves to give it to the poor they gang together and try to have him certified.
Review:
Not really a Christ allegory, though the disarming mixture of naïvety and shrewdness that characterise Deeds's dealings with his antagonists has something of JC's responses to the rich men and the pharisees about it. Rather it is another of those films pointed to remind the rest of society what being a citizen of the greatest god-fearing nation should be about: decency, individualism (he plays the tuba and writes poems for postcards) and standing up for the interests of the litte guy. Cooper has rarely been better than portraying this complex man, part jester, part innocent, part tormented soul, but still a variation on his upright hero. Thematically, in its contribution to the philosophy of the New Deal, it has much in common with Holiday, in which a similarly radical character decides that there are more important things in life than money.