Popcorn and Inspiration: ‘Mr. Deeds Goes to Town’: Frank Capra’s ‘If I Were a Rich Man’

Unrated  | 1h 53min | Drama, Comedy | 1936

Trustful giving is at the center of Frank Capra’s classic “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.” It’s about how trust in our goodness and the goodness of others can unleash tremendous good. It’s also about how a lack of this same trust can hold us back.

Mr. Deeds (Gary Cooper), scraping by as a musician-poet, has lived all his life conscientious and contented in the guileless town of Mandrake Falls, Vermont. The sudden, accidental death of his multi-millionaire uncle, Martin Semple, leaves him a $20-million-dollar fortune that he probably needs but doesn’t quite want.

Semple’s lawyers, led by the scheming Mr. Cedar (Douglass Dumbrille), mistaking Deeds for a simpleton, haul him to New York. Their plan? To distract him with preoccupations of the prosperous, to secure custody of Deeds’ inherited estate and, of course, to eventually swindle him out of it.

(L–R) Babe Bennett (Jean Arthur) christens Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper) as "Cinderella Man" and watches him shake hands with Mabel Dawson (Ruth Donnelly), in "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town." (MovieStillsDB)

Meanwhile, NYC’s tabloid hound Babe Bennett (Jean Arthur) and her paparazzi make headlines (and money) from Deeds’s indiscretions, and many also coax him into indiscretions when they’re not making enough—enough money, that is. Never mind the headlines. To paint him as a yokel, she christens him “Cinderella Man,” and has the elite—Deeds’s newfound neighbors and guests—laughing.

With help from press agent Cobb (Lionel Stander), Deeds resists attempts of others to milk or misuse his money. But when Deeds decides to fund downbeat Depression-era farmers, a furious Cedar hopes a state-sanctioned insanity-clause will deem Deeds unfit, easing all that wealth into Cedar’s impatient lap.

Deeds must decide if he’ll be railroaded by the city’s well-oiled cynicism. That confrontation throws up questions to us: Is “living in the moment” a sign of senility? Is trust, by itself, an error of judgment? Is charity a character flaw?

Gary Cooper’s spontaneous acting style was so deceptively understated that many doubted that there was any art to it. Here, he’s outstanding: making believable a character that other actors might have struggled to keep from looking cartoonish.

Deed's new butler, Walter (Raymond Walburn), removes shoes from his employer after a night on the town, in "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town." (MovieStillsDB)

Yes, screenwriter Robert Riskin stuffs his script with sermons. Sure, in places, Capra’s storytelling is too tidy. Not every Deeds has a Cobb watching his back. And several sections seem forced. But Cooper makes them work. Most of them, anyway.

His eyes communicate powerfully. On hearing he’s been duped, he stands silently near a curtain, his downcast eyes conveying shock and anguish. Watching a famished farmer wolf down the dinner he’d planned for Babe, Cooper’s upturned eyes express regret over his past choices and resolution over his future ones.

Jean Arthur plays a two-timing scribe with ease, Stander plays an excellent muse, and Dumbrille is oily enough as the lawyer with an eye on someone else’s jackpot.

Critique of Elitism 

Everyone figures Deeds is a simpleton. He’s not. It isn’t that he doesn’t think for himself. He does. It’s just that money matters aren’t his top priority. He’s thinking instead of people, of relationships expressed through his poems, of enjoying the moment and cherishing its memories (singing, playing his tuba, or helping someone in trouble).

So, when money enters the equation, he’s thinking of how money can serve his established priorities, not of new priorities to create because he now has money.

Deeds’s priorities that appear odd to others, make for some funny sequences. When Cedar tries to hustle him into hurriedly signing a power of attorney, Deeds dawdles. When the opera board flatters him by making him chairman, Deeds wonders why he should cover a deficit they’ve mismanaged. When starstruck Deeds crashes a dinner of poets he admires, he quickly realizes he’s being lampooned, but displays his disgust before departing: “All famous people aren’t big people.”

Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper) holds a trombone as he leaves his hometown of Mandrake Falls, Vermont in "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town." (MovieStillsDB)

Cobb has a one-liner for Deeds’s display of assertiveness: “Lamb bites wolf. Beautiful!”

Watch also for comedian Walter Catlett, whose monologue as poet Mr. Morrow, spoofs a snooty elite at the exclusive dinner that Deeds and Babe attend. You’ll see Cooper and Arthur giggle, not always for the camera, at Catlett’s drunken demagoguery.

Generosity Transforms

Capra knew that the Great Depression saw banks failing, businesses cutting wages, and administrations raising taxes. Many ordinary people lost their jobs, others starved, or lost their farms and their homes. If there was one thing on their minds, it was the dollar, and they didn’t care if it reached them by pure chance.

But through his 1936 film, Capra isn’t excited merely by the prospect of chance. He asks: What if you did wind up a millionaire overnight? Would you just hit the town? Or would you share your luck with others less privileged?

Capra believed that generosity could transform. According to some of the latest estimates, worldwide public and private philanthropy—giving and volunteering—is just shy of 3 percent of global GDP. Who gives? Some 70 percent are individuals, not institutions. And individuals in the United States account for some 60 percent of individual cash donations, globally.

Perhaps Capra and his Mr. Deeds were on to something.

Trustful giving is at the center of Frank Capra’s classic as promoted in a lobby card for "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town." (MovieStillsDB)

‘Mr. Deeds Goes to Town’ Director: Frank Capra Starring: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, Douglass Dumbrille, Lionel Stander Not Rated Running Time: 1 hour, 53 minutes Release Date: April 12, 1936 Rated: 4 stars out of 5