One of my favorite characters
Added 12/20/2008
Frank Capra had a knack of creating people that resonated with the audience. Here it was Mr. Deeds, a kind small town man whose main concern was his small business and his tuba playing. When he inherits 20 million dollard from an uncle, his life is turned around with being forced to deal with rich lawyers, gold-digging women, and arrogant poets. The only positive he sees out of the rich life is a woman whose name he thinkgs is Mary, but is actually a journalist whose aspiration is to get front page stories to make him look like a fool.
I was cheering Deeds the entire way. I loved how he was not too timid to punch people who deserved it, rip on the arts crowd when they expect him to choke up money for a mismanaged Opera house, and employ common sense deduction to know when someone was being sincere and when they were trying to take him for a ride.
The climax, where Deeds gives his money to buy a large chunk of farmland, who he gives to the unemployed to till, was incredible in its message. In the courtroom when the lawyers were arguing that Deeds' charity would only tilt the economic balance, what was really being said it was the government's job to help people, not other citizen's. In the depression era whewn the film was made, where FDR's New Deal was continuing to fail, the movie could almost be seen as a call to arms to help your fellow man make a living for himself, as opposed to waiting for a handout.
Grat acting, Great message, Great movie.
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not like the remake
Added 11/25/2008
After seeing the remake (Mr. Deeds), I wanted to see the original. And as usual, the original was head-and-shoulders above the remake, and made the remake seem pretty pointless.
The plot is the same--Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper) unexpectedly inherits a fortune from an uncle he'd never met, then goes to the city to take care of the legalities.
Babe Bennett (Jean Arthur) is a tough newspaper reporter who poses as sweet, innocent Mary Dawson to get the scoop on him.
But instead of a crooked board of directors, there's a greedy cousin, and there are no over-the-top silly jokes. It's still funny, but it doesn't resort to idiocy to accomplish that. Really made me wonder why lately Hollywood seems to think that only slapstick is funny.
It did take me a while to warm up to Gary Cooper in the role. I'd only ever seen him in macho roles, so this mild-mannered character seemed rather odd to me--I'd expected something more like Jimmy Stewart from It's a Wonderful Life. Not that he didn't play the role convincingly--it was just my expectations that were off.
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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.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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Not nearly as good as I thought it would be...
Added 7/30/2008
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.
1 out of 3 people found this helpful.
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Add Me To The List
Added 7/28/2008
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.
1 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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One of my favorite characters
Added 12/20/2008
Frank Capra had a knack of creating people that resonated with the audience. Here it was Mr. Deeds, a kind small town man whose main concern was his small business and his tuba playing. When he inherits 20 million dollard from an uncle, his life is turned around with being forced to deal with rich lawyers, gold-digging women, and arrogant poets. The only positive he sees out of the rich life is a woman whose name he thinkgs is Mary, but is actually a journalist whose aspiration is to get front page stories to make him look like a fool.
I was cheering Deeds the entire way. I loved how he was not too timid to punch people who deserved it, rip on the arts crowd when they expect him to choke up money for a mismanaged Opera house, and employ common sense deduction to know when someone was being sincere and when they were trying to take him for a ride.
The climax, where Deeds gives his money to buy a large chunk of farmland, who he gives to the unemployed to till, was incredible in its message. In the courtroom when the lawyers were arguing that Deeds' charity would only tilt the economic balance, what was really being said it was the government's job to help people, not other citizen's. In the depression era whewn the film was made, where FDR's New Deal was continuing to fail, the movie could almost be seen as a call to arms to help your fellow man make a living for himself, as opposed to waiting for a handout.
Grat acting, Great message, Great movie.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
not like the remake
Added 11/25/2008
After seeing the remake (Mr. Deeds), I wanted to see the original. And as usual, the original was head-and-shoulders above the remake, and made the remake seem pretty pointless.
The plot is the same--Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper) unexpectedly inherits a fortune from an uncle he'd never met, then goes to the city to take care of the legalities.
Babe Bennett (Jean Arthur) is a tough newspaper reporter who poses as sweet, innocent Mary Dawson to get the scoop on him.
But instead of a crooked board of directors, there's a greedy cousin, and there are no over-the-top silly jokes. It's still funny, but it doesn't resort to idiocy to accomplish that. Really made me wonder why lately Hollywood seems to think that only slapstick is funny.
It did take me a while to warm up to Gary Cooper in the role. I'd only ever seen him in macho roles, so this mild-mannered character seemed rather odd to me--I'd expected something more like Jimmy Stewart from It's a Wonderful Life. Not that he didn't play the role convincingly--it was just my expectations that were off.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
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.
1 out of 1 people found this helpful.
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