Meet John Doe

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This movie was made at a time in our history when the US was at war, and patriotism was high. A lot of movies were made at this time with the purpose of keeping spirits up, and presenting what the American ideal was all about. This movie is full of symbolism. Every scene and every utterance has a message. A common man elevated-- being pulled in both directions. On the one hand, by a beautiful woman, on the other hand, by his old life- represented by Walter Brennan. Almost everyone in the movie praises the goodness of man, as long as man is on the right side and can be manipulated. There is a scene of a crowd in one accord, praising their hero-- the reverse image of a Hitler rally, because these people were good. Suddenly it starts to rain, and everyone has a large black umbrella. As they sing "God Bless America" the overhead shot shows the tops of the umbrellas gently moving in unison-- "huddled masses". Then the mood of the crowd changes-- can anyone say "Crucify him?" The same people who love him, suddenly hate him. Later in the movie Barbara Stanwyck reminds him of the John Doe of 2000 years ago. Christ. A beautiful tall building, glowing in the dark. A symbolism of capitalism. Anyone who wasn't around during the l940's, or have not read the history of that time. will miss all the symbolism- but the symbols are very clear to those in the know. All in all, a pretty good movie, if a bit long and drawn out, and very preachy, even if the preaching was well intended.

This movie couldn't be more salient and relevant to our times. The "John Doe Clubs" had the appearance of embodying the disgruntled sentiments of the "Little Man", just like the "Tea Party Movement" today (which one quipster rightly has called "an exercise in mass false consciousness"). These movements of the "little man" have a long history in the US and Europe (in the US, the "Know-Nothings" of the 1850s & Father Coughlin of the 1930s, in France, the "Poujadistes", in Italy the "Qualunquisti"); and all of them end up diverting attention away from the real enemies of little people, the fat cats at the top--in Capra's movie wonderfully incarnated in Edward Arnold's character, D.B.Norton (the real-life counterparts today to D.B. Norton, and who've done a fab job of manipulating "the little people", are the Koch brothers). Capra rightly sensed that the little man's rage at being buffeted about by forces bigger than himself was exploited by the fascist movements of Europe to create right-wing mass parties which, in the end, served to protect the privileges of the wealthiest social classes from revolutionary egalitarian movements.

"Meet John Doe" epitomizes the topsy-turvy world (a favorite of Capra). A bum is pulled from the masses to become the unique "John Doe"; his speeches are written by another but they eventually define him; a fake persona and movement becomes a rallying point for the masses; a fake threat of suicide becomes the only reason to live, and so on. Too many scenes are static. The baseball scene in the hotel is a waste of time. Barbara Stanwyck's attempts to create a news story from a fake letter is eerily reminiscent of today's headlines, but any good editor would have fired her. Gary Cooper plays an inarticulate man who speaks the words of others. Somehow Babs, an articulate writer, finds him irresistible. The ending is vague. Why is Norton (Arnold) on the roof? Is is hoping Doe (Cooper) will jump? The film ends with ringing bells.

A film intended to serve an explicitly political purpose needs a very light touch. Say what you like about Frank Capra, he cannot be accused of having a light touch. What we have here is a ham-handed propaganda film intended to warn America about the imminent fall of America to the forces of fascism. It might be easier for me to take the film's purpose seriously if America had not gone to war against the European fascists barely seven months after the film's release, with the lusty support of virtually the entire American people. Makes you think we weren't so close to a fascist takeover after all, doesn't it? Capra previewed five different endings for this film to find the one the audience liked best (and ended up with sentimental bilge, because that's what John Doe wanted). To me, that says a lot about Capra's artistic vision. 5/10, because I like Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan, and Barbara Stanwyck is hot.

After doing Mr Deeds Goes To Town and Mr Smith Goes To Washington for Columbia, Capra quit and made this third film about an average Joe thrust into a powerful world where exploitation is high on the agenda, but in true Capra style the story unfolds to a customary flip flop triumph. Ann Mitchell is a struggling journalist who gets fired from her newspaper job by new editor Henry Connell, by way of venting her frustrations she writes in her stinging last article about a man called John Doe who is tired of being pushed around and held back by the big bosses, she finishes the piece by claiming that Doe will commit suicide on Christmas Eve by leaping off the roof of city hall, the public react to the letter with tremendous heart and Doe becomes a champion of the people. After Connell gets interested in the letter Ann has to confess that she made it up, they hatch a plan to turn a real unemployed drop out into John Doe so as to continue the story and sell more papers, and of course Ann gets to keep her job. This brings in ex minor league pitcher Long John Willoughby, who is down on his luck and very short of cash, and this is when the story shifts from amiable comedy on to a much darker path, the result making for a riveting watch. Whilst not being up with the best Capra films in his armoury, it is, however, one of his smartest. The portrayal of the human spirit in many guises is stark and poignant, whilst thematically Capra got his point over about the unsavoury elements blossoming in America. The cast are nailed on watchable, Gary Cooper is John Doe, the right amount of sympathy and guts is garnered from his performance, and in one rousing speech he has the viewers in the palm of his hand. Barbara Stanwyck is Ann Mitchell and she delivers a great turn that calls for a number of emotions to be performed convincingly, while the support cast are all solid with the stand out a bizarrely unnerving Edward Arnold as D B. Norton; a man wishing to be a dictator if ever there was one. 10/10

This was a very absorbing story and one of director Frank Capra's best efforts. There is some great acting in here, almost mesmerizing at times. The story is a typical Capra-esquire populist one in which the average man is elevated to high status, his worth and valued boosted in a cynical world. Yes, it's a far-fetched story but it's fun to watch and has some powerful messages, leading with "Love thy neighbor." I was very impressed with Barbara Stanwyck's speech near the end, noting Jesus' words to that effect while pleading to Gary Cooper. By the way, having Cooper and Stanwyck as the leads isn't all bad, either! Adding actors like Walter Brennan, James Gleason and Spring Byington make it all the better. Photography-wise, the film has an almost-eerie look to it in parts and is very interesting to view. I have yet to see this on DVD, but I plan to soon, I hope. Script- wise, it has a very good mixture of drama, comedy and romance. The story and the convincing actors all make it an involving experience and an emotional film. As I said, I think this is one of Capra's best films, if not THE best.

This is a great movie. Gary Cooper is wonderful as John. At first, he does it for the money, but then, he feels bad because some people really have faith in him, and trust him. He feels guilty about being a fake. My favorite part is when he says: "The John Doe idea may be the answer though! It may be the one thing capable of saving this cockeyed world. Yet you sit back there on your fat hulks and tell me you'll kill it if you can't use it. Well you go ahead and try, you couldn't do it in a million years with all your radio stations and all your power. Because it's bigger than whether I'm a fake, it's bigger than your ambitions and it's bigger than all the bracelets and fur coats in the world!" I also think Barbara Stanwyck gives a wonderful performance as Ann. I love it when he's standing on the building, threatening to jump, and she tells him that she loves him, and the world does too, and they'll forgive him for lying. I cried so much! I first saw this movie on Christmas Eve and I loved it. I guarantee it will be a tradition for many Christmases to come!

Meet John Doe was rudely jerked back into relevance in the Nineties by the emergence of a third party presidential candidate, wealthy enough to finance his own campaign, who ran in two presidential elections. H.Ross Perot and Edward Arnold's D.B. Norton have some definite similarities. Both men of wealth, both ego maniacal enough to try and eschew the normal political route to the White House. Both firmly convinced they are what the USA needs. Perot for all those graphs and charts didn't have much going for him in his candidacy other than a grudge against the Bush family. Although his platform isn't spelled out in Meet John Doe, Arnold says quite bluntly there's a new order of things coming and America needs a firm hand in the leadership. 'New Order' in 1941 meant fascism. There's a marvelous bit of imagery that Frank Capra give us right at the beginning, it's one of my favorite moments in his films. The image of the old Daily Bulletin sign being sandblasted away about a free press guaranteeing a free people and vice versa. Replacing it is something about the new Daily Bulletin being a streamlined paper for the modern era. Streamlining involves layoffs and the new editor James Gleason is giving out pink slips a plenty. One goes to Barbara Stanwyck who writes an innocuous chatty column. Gleason won't listen to her pleas so she fakes an anonymous letter from a man who signs it John Doe who threatens to jump off the City Hall Tower on Christmas Eve. Stanwyck gets more than she bargained for and she and Gleason have to come up with a real John Doe. A sore armed former baseball pitcher, Gary Cooper, fills the bill. This gets bigger and bigger and soon Arnold sees possibilities in it. Cooper goes on radio and delivers some homilies about love thy neighbor and being kind to others. He puts it over and a John Doe movement on these principles commences. Homilies and bromides they may be. But love thy neighbor is a concept that should never go out of style. As is proved it's quite a bit bigger than the political aspirations of a snake. This was the first teaming of Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. They followed it up with Ball of Fire another classic. Said to say that their third film, Blowing Wild, from the fifties hardly lived up to the first two. Capra used a whole lot of familiar faces from his previous films in Meet John Doe. Also one new face who made his one and only Capra film, Cooper's good friend on screen and in life, Walter Brennan. He's Coop's cynical traveling companion on the open road, the Colonel. Edward Arnold is one cold and sinister force in this film. I'm not sure but that this may be his penultimate role as a screen villain. His ambitions here would warrant that appraisal. One performance I like is that of Regis Toomey. He plays a soda jerk who starts a John Doe Club in his small town. He has some great lines that he delivers simply and eloquently about how Cooper's first radio speech inspired him to really get to know some of the neighbors he had not bothered with before. The lessons of Meet John Doe are simple and profound. Love Thy Neighbor and be kind to others are taught in all major religions and philosophies and the power is there when its focused. The other lesson I like is that the ordinary common people have a lot more in common than the things that divide them, be it race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, you name it. Meet John Doe is a profound and moving film, but I be it's not one of H. Ross Perot's favorites.

There's an Italianate "cinema verite" in Capra's work, perhaps genetic . . . I find this film so powerful, and its characters so sympathetic, that I can hardly watch the riot scene. It's almost too terrifying. Cooper's performance at first seems wooden, but he's an actor whom you need to watch, like a pond, to see the emotions swimming beneath the surface. Barbara Stanwyck is one of my favorite actresses--she never makes a false move and is beautiful to watch from any angle. I find some lines of dialogue chilling in this age of Patriot Acts I and II and corporate globalism/global corporatism: "The American people need an iron hand," declares D. B. Norton, whose sneer looks like Cheney's.