Mr. Deeds Goes to Town
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| Mr. Deeds Goes to Town | |
|---|---|
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| Directed by | Frank Capra |
| Produced by | Frank Capra |
| Written by | Clarence Budington Kelland (story) Robert Riskin (screenplay) |
| Starring | Gary Cooper Jean Arthur |
| Cinematography | Joseph Walker |
| Editing by | Gene Havlick |
| Distributed by | Columbia |
| Release date(s) | April 16, 1936 |
| Running time | 115 min. |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is a 1936 comedy film, based on the story Opera Hat by Clarence Budington Kelland. It tells the story of a simple small-town man, Longfellow Deeds, played by Gary Cooper, who inherits a fortune and encounters people who want to use his money for their own aims. He is able to fight all of them off until a scheming newspaperwoman (Jean Arthur) comes on the scene.
In casting the role of Longfellow Deeds, Cooper was director Capra's first, last and only choice. The film popularized the word "pixilated", which was used (in this case) to imply craziness, or the seeming illogical nature of Longfellow Deeds' actions in the film.
The film was written by Clarence Budington Kelland and Robert Riskin, and directed by Frank Capra. The film earned star Gary Cooper his first nomination for Best Actor, and was voted Best Picture of the year (1936) by the New York Film Critics and the National Board of Review.
The movie was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture. Capra won an Academy Award for Directing.
A sequel called Mr. Deeds Goes to Washington was written. However Gary Cooper was unavailable. James Stewart was hired for the lead role and the title was changed to Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Minor changes were also made to the script.
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[edit] Plot
In the middle of the Great Depression, Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper), part-time greeting-card poet and tuba-playing inhabitant of the hamlet of Mandrake Falls, Vermont, inherits the enormous fortune of twenty million dollars from his late uncle, Martin Semple. He is found and taken to New York City by his uncle's oily attorney John Cedar (Douglass Dumbrille).
Cedar gives his cynical troubleshooter, ex-newspaperman Cornelius Cobb (Lionel Stander), the task of keeping reporters away from the heir. He is outfoxed however by star reporter Louise 'Babe' Bennett (Jean Arthur), who appeals to Deeds' romantic fantasy of rescuing a damsel in distress by masquerading as a poor worker named Mary Dawson. She pretends to faint from hunger in his presence and worms her way into his confidence. She proceeds to write a series of enormously popular articles mocking Longfellow's hick ways and odd behavior, naming him the 'Cinderella Man'. Meanwhile, Cedar tries to get Deeds' power of attorney in order to hide his financial misdeeds.
However, Deeds proves to be shrewder than people give him credit for, easily fending off greedy opportunists and Cedar as well. He wins Cobb's wholehearted respect and eventually Babe's love. Complications arise when Cobb finds out the reporter's true identity, leaving Deeds heartbroken.
Just as he is ready to return to Mandrake Falls in disgust, a dispossessed farmer breaks into his mansion and threatens him with a gun. He expresses his scorn for the seemingly heartless, ultra-rich man, who won't lift a finger to help the multitudes of desperate poor. The intruder then comes to his senses, but Deeds realizes what he can do with his troublesome fortune: he decides to provide fully equipped ten acre farms free to thousands of homeless families if they will work the land for several years.
Alarmed at the prospect of losing control of the fortune, Cedar joins forces with Deeds' only other relative and his grasping, domineering wife in seeking to have Deeds declared mentally incompetent. This, along with Babe's betrayal, finally breaks his spirit and he sinks into a deep depression.
During his sanity hearing, things look bleak for Deeds, especially since he initially refuses to defend himself. Cedar even gets his Mandrake Falls tenants, eccentric elderly sisters Jane and Amy Faulkner (Margaret Seddon, Margaret McWade), to testify that he is "pixilated." However, when Babe convinces him that she truly loves him, he systematically punches holes in Cedar's case (before punching Cedar in the face) and the judge declares him to be "the sanest man who ever walked into this courtroom."
[edit] Etymology of "pixilated"
The 1932 book The American Notebooks by Nathaniel Hawthorne: Based Upon the Original Manuscripts in the Pierpont Morgan Library, edited by Randall Stewart, includes the entry:
- "Pixilated"—a Marblehead word, meaning bewildered–wild–&c &c Probably derived from Pixy—a fairy.
- The New English Dictionary gives "pixyled," with the meaning "led astray by pixies," "bewildered," but not "pixilated."
The word has commonly been used to suggest drunken behavior.
[edit] Cast
| Actor | Role |
|---|---|
| Gary Cooper | Longfellow Deeds/Cinderella Man |
| Jean Arthur | Louise 'Babe' Bennett/Mary Dawson |
| George Bancroft | MacWade aka Mac |
| Lionel Stander | Cornelius Cobb |
| Douglass Dumbrille | John Cedar |
| Raymond Walburn | Walter |
| H.B. Warner | Judge May |
| Ruth Donnelly | Mabel Dawson |
| Walter Catlett | Morrow |
[edit] Awards
| Year | Group | Award | Won? | Recipient |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1936 | Academy Awards | Best Director | Yes | Frank Capra |
| Best Picture | No | Frank Capra | ||
| Best Leading Actor | No | Gary Cooper | ||
| Best Screenplay | No | Robert Riskin | ||
| Best Sound Recording | No | John P. Livadary |
[edit] Trivia
- The film was remade in 2002 as Mr. Deeds, starring Adam Sandler and Winona Ryder.
- The lyrics to the 1977 Rush song "Cinderella Man", on the A Farewell to Kings album, are based on the story of Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.
