Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

Director:

Frank Capra

Writers:

Clarence Budington Kelland (story)
Robert Riskin (screenplay)

Release Date:

16 April 1936 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

Rocking America with laughter!

Plot:

Longfellow Deeds, a simple-hearted Vermont tuba player, inherits a fortune and has to contend with opportunist city slickers.

Plot Keywords:

Gun | Fire Truck | Farmer | Psychiatrist | Psychiatric Hospital

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 3 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

Gary Cooper	...	Longfellow Deeds
Jean Arthur	...	Louise 'Babe' Bennett
George Bancroft	...	MacWade
Lionel Stander	...	Cornelius 'Corny' Cobb
Douglass Dumbrille	...	John Cedar
Raymond Walburn	...	Walter
H.B. Warner	...	Judge May
Ruth Donnelly	...	Mabel Dawson
Walter Catlett	...	Bill Morrow
John Wray	...	Farmer

Runtime:

115 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | South Korea:12 | UK:U | USA:Approved (PCA #1966) | Australia:G

Company:

Frank Capra Productions

Trivia:

Harry Cohn had a dictum in that he would only allow his directors to print any one of their takes, thereby saving the studio a great deal of money. Capra found a loophole in getting round this. At the end of each take, instead of shouting "Cut" he would shout "Do it again", and the actors would launch immediately into an unbroken repetition of the scene.

Goofs:

Continuity: When waking up from his bender, Deed's hair changes.

Quotes:

Morrow: You hop aboard my magic carpet and I'll show you sights that you've never seen before.
Longfellow Deeds: Well, I'd kinda like to see Grant's tomb and the Statue of Liberty.
Morrow: Well, you'll not only see those, but before the evening's half through, you'll be leaning against the Leaning Tower of Pisa, you'll mount Mount Everest, I'll show you the Pyramids and all the little pyramidees, leaping from sphinx to sphinx!

Movie Connections:

Featured in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers: America's Most Inspiring Movies (2006) (TV)

67 years on and the film is still pertinent.....

Of all Capra's films this is the one I like the best, partly, I think, because there has never been anybody in the history of cinema to match Gary Cooper at putting on the boyish charm. As Longfellow Deeds, a man who inherits a lot of money he does not need and therefore does not want, Cooper is just right, a hick, but not a fool, a gentle man but not one who will let the wool be pulled over his eyes. The films' pertinence arises from its' depiction of a rich man prepared to give his wealth away to benefit his fellow man. It was a fantasy then, and is as much a fantasy now, because we do not learn, least of all from pictures even as good as this one.