Frank Capra is one of a handful of directors, like Alfred Hitchcock and Federico Fellini, whose films bear such a personal stamp that their names have entered the English language. “Capraesque” is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as “a story affirming democratic values, individual decency and perseverance, and the power of the ordinary American citizen to influence community and society.” Capra’s best films feature regular people taking on corrupt systems, whether political (“Mr. Smith Goes to Washington”), financial (“It’s a Wonderful Life”) or social (“Mr. Deeds Goes to Town”).
In “Meet John Doe,” which will be shown Tuesday, Dec. 3, as part of the Tuesday Nights at the Movies series at Woodmere Art Museum, Capra and frequent collaborator, writer Robert Riskin, give us another everyman, this time going up against the unscrupulous media tycoons and power brokers who wield the press as a way of controlling the masses.
As the film opens, newspaper columnist Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) has just been “streamlined” out of a job. As her final story, she prints an anonymous letter claiming the sender, “John Doe,” plans to commit suicide on Christmas Eve to protest societal ills. There’s just one problem – Ann has made it all up.
With readers captivated and the rival newspaper suspicious, Ann must now produce “John Doe.” Enter “Long John” Willoughby (Gary Cooper), an unemployed one-time baseball player Ann hires to impersonate her fictitious letter writer. With $50 in the pocket of his brand new suit, he and his skeptical buddy, the Colonel (Walter Brennan), settle into a cushy hotel suite to become the very “heelots” – greedy powers-that-be who take advantage of everyday folks – they have been railing against.
As Willoughby’s initial delight and bemusement turn to disillusionment and disgust, he attempts to return to his previous tramp life. While riding the rails, Willoughby learns that “John Doe Clubs” have swept the country with the simple slogan, "Be a better neighbor." But just as this grassroots movement has adopted the John Doe story as a symbol of hope and reform, the “heelots” are planning to use it to further their own ambitions.
At the time of “Meet John Doe’s” release, America had endured more than a decade of The Great Depression, when the chasm between the haves and the have-nots had never been more profound. Scandal and exploitation were rampant. And all eyes were following the news of the war in Europe where Nazism and Fascism imperiled the continent’s democracies. In the original New York Times review for “Meet John Doe” (March 13, 1941), Bosley Crowther wrote that the film’s hero “finds himself confronted with a ... sinister and pertinent foe: the man – or rather, the class – that would obtain dictatorial control by preying upon the democratic impulses and good-will of the people of the land. In substance...Capra and Riskin are hinting broadly at the way this country might conceivably fall into the hands of a ruthless tyrant. It could happen here, they say – if it were not for the American John Doe.”
While their unabashed sincerity and idealism caused some of Capra’s contemporaries to smirkingly refer to his films as “Capra-corn,” the director understood audiences’ anxieties and made movies that offered hope that together they could rise above desperate circumstances and systemic corruption. So good was Capra at influencing public opinion that during WWII, he joined the Army as an official propagandist, creating the popular “Why We Fight” series of films, which he would come to regard as his most important work.
Boasting a stellar supporting cast, including Gene Lockhart, James Gleason, and Edward Arnold, “Meet John Doe” is a film whose enduring themes of integrity and the power of people working together to make the world a better place resonate today as strongly as they did more than 80 years ago.
Tuesday Nights at the Movies is a partnership between The Chestnut Hill Film Group and Woodmere Art Museum. For the full fall season schedule, visit woodmereartmuseum.org. To join the CHFG mailing list, email lwilliams@woodmereartmuseum.org.
“Meet John Doe,” (1941, 122 minutes) will be presented on Tuesday, Dec. 3, at 7 pm (doors open at 6:30) at Woodmere Art Museum, 9201 Germantown Avenue. Light refreshments are served. Films are free to attend, but contributions are gratefully accepted.
Lily Williams is President of The Chestnut Hill Film Group and Director of Development of Woodmere Art Museum.
