Meet John Doe (1941)

Director:

Frank Capra

Writers:

Richard Connell (story) and
Robert Presnell Sr. (story) ...

Release Date:

3 May 1941 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

ALL AMERICA WANTS TO MEET THE "MR. DEEDS" OF 1941! (original print media ad - all caps)

Plot:

A man needing money agrees to impersonate a nonexistent person who said he'd be committing suicide as a protest, and a political movement begins.

Plot Keywords:

Suicide | Reporter | Publisher | Media | Unemployment

Awards:

Nominated for Oscar.

Cast

Gary Cooper	...	Long John Willoughby - 'John Doe'
Barbara Stanwyck	...	Ann Mitchell
Edward Arnold	...	D. B. Norton
Walter Brennan	...	The Colonel
Spring Byington	...	Mrs. Mitchell
James Gleason	...	Henry Connell
Gene Lockhart	...	Mayor Lovett
Rod La Rocque	...	Ted Sheldon - Norton's Nephew
Irving Bacon	...	Beany
Regis Toomey	...	Bert Hansen - Soda Jerk
J. Farrell MacDonald	...	Sourpuss Smithers
Warren Hymer	...	Angelface - Bodyguard
Harry Holman	...	Mayor Hawkins
Andrew Tombes	...	Spencer of 'Daily Chronicle'
Pierre Watkin	...	Hammett - Political Boss

Also Known As:

Frank Capra's 'Meet John Doe' (USA) (complete title)
John Doe, Dynamite (UK)

Runtime:

USA:122 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

Australia:G | Argentina:13 | Finland:K-16 | Sweden:Btl | Brazil:14

Filming Locations:

Wrigley Field - 42nd Place & Avalon Blvd., Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Frank Capra Productions

Trivia:

Frank Capra didn't want anyone to play John Doe except Gary Cooper, who agreed to the part (without reading a script) for two reasons: he had enjoyed working with Capra on Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and he wanted to work with Barbara Stanwyck.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the Governor sits, the ear piece of his glasses changes position between shots.

Quotes:

Mayor Hawkins: O.K. folks, but remember your manners. No stampeding. Walk slow, like you do when you come to pay your taxes.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Dawson's Creek: Boyfriend (#1.8)" (1998)

Soundtrack:

OH! SUSANNA

The Forgotten And Anonymous Get A Voice

Meet John Doe was rudely jerked back into relevance in the Nineties by the emergence of a third party presidential candidate, wealthy enough to finance his own campaign, who ran in two presidential elections.

H.Ross Perot and Edward Arnold's D.B. Norton have some definite similarities. Both men of wealth, both ego maniacal enough to try and eschew the normal political route to the White House. Both firmly convinced they are what the USA needs.

Perot for all those graphs and charts didn't have much going for him in his candidacy other than a grudge against the Bush family. Although his platform isn't spelled out in Meet John Doe, Arnold says quite bluntly there's a new order of things coming and America needs a firm hand in the leadership. 'New Order' in 1941 meant fascism.

There's a marvelous bit of imagery that Frank Capra give us right at the beginning, it's one of my favorite moments in his films. The image of the old Daily Bulletin sign being sandblasted away about a free press guaranteeing a free people and vice versa. Replacing it is something about the new Daily Bulletin being a streamlined paper for the modern era.

Streamlining involves layoffs and the new editor James Gleason is giving out pink slips a plenty. One goes to Barbara Stanwyck who writes an innocuous chatty column. Gleason won't listen to her pleas so she fakes an anonymous letter from a man who signs it John Doe who threatens to jump off the City Hall Tower on Christmas Eve.

Stanwyck gets more than she bargained for and she and Gleason have to come up with a real John Doe. A sore armed former baseball pitcher, Gary Cooper, fills the bill.

This gets bigger and bigger and soon Arnold sees possibilities in it. Cooper goes on radio and delivers some homilies about love thy neighbor and being kind to others. He puts it over and a John Doe movement on these principles commences.

Homilies and bromides they may be. But love thy neighbor is a concept that should never go out of style. As is proved it's quite a bit bigger than the political aspirations of a snake.

This was the first teaming of Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. They followed it up with Ball of Fire another classic. Said to say that their third film, Blowing Wild, from the fifties hardly lived up to the first two.

Capra used a whole lot of familiar faces from his previous films in Meet John Doe. Also one new face who made his one and only Capra film, Cooper's good friend on screen and in life, Walter Brennan. He's Coop's cynical traveling companion on the open road, the Colonel.

Edward Arnold is one cold and sinister force in this film. I'm not sure but that this may be his penultimate role as a screen villain. His ambitions here would warrant that appraisal.

One performance I like is that of Regis Toomey. He plays a soda jerk who starts a John Doe Club in his small town. He has some great lines that he delivers simply and eloquently about how Cooper's first radio speech inspired him to really get to know some of the neighbors he had not bothered with before.

The lessons of Meet John Doe are simple and profound. Love Thy Neighbor and be kind to others are taught in all major religions and philosophies and the power is there when its focused. The other lesson I like is that the ordinary common people have a lot more in common than the things that divide them, be it race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, you name it.

Meet John Doe is a profound and moving film, but I be it's not one of H. Ross Perot's favorites.