Classic
There is a tendency amongst some to think that all the art produced by a great artist is great. This is false, but it gives cover for bad critics who just recycle old blurbs and tendencies about the artist. Think of the unthinking and fawning that goes on in discussions of Shakespeare. Yes, he was a great writer, but all but a dozen or so of his sonnets were mediocre tongue-twisters, and two thirds of his thirty-seven known plays were mediocre to terrible, so by being uncritical one actually diminishes the great art produced, for an uncritical stance makes it seem as if the touching of greatness is a product alien to all but the blessed. In short, it negates the hard work that all great endeavors require.
This thought was ubiquitous as I watched the 1936 black and white Frank Capra classic film Mr. Deeds Goes To Washington. The film was adapted from a story, Opera Hat, by Clarence Budington Kelland, by longtime Capra collaborator, and dialogue expert, Robert Riskin. It's a good film, to be sure, as all Capra fare is, but it's not in a league with It's A Wonderful Life, nor even his earlier Oscar-winning classic, It Happened One Night. It lacks the overall depth of the former- and is far more preachy, and, in comparison to the latter, it lacks the quick pacing and tart-tongued dialogue, as it clocks in at 115 minutes in length.
This film was, in many ways, a precursor to the later Capra-Cooper film, Meet John Doe, as both films feature rags to riches tales in which men are manipulated by the women they love. This film, however, is not as bleak as the later film. Yet, despite the use of many familiar tropes, what sets Capra apart from lesser directors are his believable lesser characters- all of whom get moments to shine, as well as the peerless dialogue. Add to that Capra's relentless glare at his leading actors' characterizations, and his films- which with lesser directors would have truly been the cornfests his worst critics claim, are ones always presented with a grittiness that could be from later films noir, in the midst of the feelgoodery.... All in all, Mr. Deeds Goes To Town is Capra in fine form, if not at the top of his game. Yet, if it's true that not all the art produced by a great artist is great, the opposite sentiment has merit: even the lesser art from great artists is better than that produced by lesser artists. This film is proof of that claim.

Not nearly as good as I thought it would be...
It was too long and a little too slow for my liking. He was too brooding, too silent, and was it okay then to punch everyone when you felt like it? I like other Capra films, but this was just okay for me. I like to divide movies into "would I watch it again if someone else wanted me to watch it with them or not?" The answer would be 'no'. I'd find something else better and more interesting to do with my two hours.

Add Me To The List
Add me to the list of fawning reviews. If you do not cry at the end of this movie, you are not human. The acting, direction, dialogue, and above all, sheer humanity of this picture make it one of the cinematic greats. Thank you Turner Classic Movies! As a side note, I should disclose that I am a practicing trial attorney. The depiction of my profession is vicious, bordering on hateful. This movie loses a half star for this, but since Amazon only provides full star increments, I'm erring on the side of a one star de-merit. Don't get the wrong idea, I have the ability to laugh at myself and bought into the lawyer bashing as I watched the movie. Only in retrospect do I express this half-star-de-meriting outrage. The lawyers depicted here violated nearly every rule of professional ethics and would be disbarred in any jurisdiction. Shame on you, Frank, for this cheap effort to move the plot! Ironically, it's really at its base a form of stupid intolerance that this very movie seeks to critique.

High Noon In The Big Apple
Great title isn't it? I thought so, but then I'm jaded. But then I love Frank and everything he's done.

Don't waste your time (or money) on cheap imitations. You know there is nothing like the original. It is impossible for any remake of any Frank Capra film to be a cinematic improvement over the original, even if the original is in black and white. (Sorry Adam Sandler, it's nothing personal) Capra's character development is genius. The interactions and transformations along with laugh out loud humor make the movie go by way too quickly.

A Most Sublime Piece of "Capra-Corn" with Cooper and Arthur at Their Youthful Zenith
This is "Capra-corn" at its most sublime as this 1936 comedy is still one of the legendary director's best works due primarily to the sterling, career-defining performances of Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. In the 1930's and 40's, Frank Capra's oeuvre was the humanistic picture, inspirational to the common folk reeling from the Great Depression and later World War II. Written by his frequent (and later quite embittered) collaborator, Robert Riskin, this was his first film fully in this direction after his Oscar-winning success with the quintessential runaway heiress comedy, 1934's It Happened One Night. It's intriguing to know that Capra only made this film because he could not start production on the far more ambitious Lost Horizon as scheduled and fit this in only when Cooper became available for the title role.

Cooper portrays Longfellow Deeds, a young poet and volunteer fireman in a small Vermont town who suddenly inherits $20 million, a huge fortune at the time, from a distant uncle who died in an automobile crash in Italy. Having never been outside of his hometown, Deeds is thrust into the limelight and moves to Manhattan to take care of his uncle's estate and related business interests. The first half has all the trappings of a "fish out of water" situation (which Capra pretty much perfected with this film), but it doesn't take Deeds long to figure out that the people around him are not as sincere as they want him to think. One exception, he believes, is Mary Dawson, a small-town girl looking for a job before she faints from hunger. He falls in love with her not realizing that she is really ace reporter Babe Bennett out to land a juicy newspaper story about Deeds' "Cinderella Man" exploits. Tired of the selfish cynicism surrounding him, Deeds gives away his fortunes to establish a program to help poor farmers. In response, his advisors attempt to have him put away for insanity.

Previously a stoic straight arrow in primarily westerns and female-oriented weepies, Cooper emerges here as a multi-dimensional leading man with a deft comedy touch, while the throaty-voiced Arthur (in a role abandoned by no less than Carole Lombard) shows her natural élan as a tough newspaperwoman who discovers her vulnerability thanks to Deeds' magnanimous gestures. It's no wonder these two returned to Capra's hands in subsequent features - he in Meet John Doe, she in You Can't Take It With You and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. The top-notch supporting cast is headed by Lionel Stander as Deeds' confidante (a role similar to the agent he played in the 1937 A Star Is Born); H.B. Warner as the sympathetic Judge May (who would later return to Capra for Lost Horizon as the wizened Chang and for It's A Wonderful Life as the drunken druggist who slaps George on his deaf ear); and Douglass Dumbrille as the nasty Cedar. The 2006 DVD has a scene-specific commentary track, fairly interesting, from the director's son, Frank Capra, Jr., who is also featured in a ten-minute short about the film. Several vintage trailers of the senior Capra's films are included though surprisingly not one for Deeds.