Meet John Doe (1941) [Comedy]

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“Meet John Doe” is a 1941 American comedy drama film directed and produced by Frank Capra, and starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. The film is about a “grassroots” political campaign created unwittingly by a newspaper columnist and pursued by a wealthy businessman. It became a box office hit and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story. Though the film is less well known than other Frank Capra classics, it remains highly regarded today. It was ranked #49 in AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Cheers.

Infuriated at being told to write one final column after being laid off from her newspaper job, Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) prints a letter from a fictional unemployed “John Doe” threatening suicide on Christmas Eve in protest of society’s ills. When the note causes a sensation and the paper’s competition suspects a fraud and starts to investigate, the newspaper editor rehires Mitchell who comes up with a scheme of hiding the fictional nature of “John Doe” while exploiting the sensation caused by the fake letter to boost the newspaper’s sales, for which she demands a bonus equal to 8 months’ pay. After reviewing a number of derelicts who have shown up at the paper claiming to have penned the original suicide letter, Mitchell and editor Henry Connell (James Gleason) hire John Willoughby (Gary Cooper), a former baseball player and tramp who is in need of money to repair his injured arm, to play John Doe. Mitchell now starts to pen an article series in Doe’s name, elaborating on the letter’s ideas of society’s disregard of people in need.

Willoughby gets $50, a new suit of clothes, and a plush hotel suite with his tramp friend (Walter Brennan), who launches into an extended diatribe against “the heelots”, lots of heels who incessantly focus on getting money from others. Willoughby is hired to give radio speeches, guided by Mitchell who is promised $100 a week to write his speeches, paid by the newspaper’s publisher, D.B. Norton (Edward Arnold). Willoughby turns down a $5,000 bribe to admit the whole thing was a publicity stunt, gives Mitchell’s speech, and dashes off to the countryside with “The Colonel”. They ride the rails, playing the harmonica and ocarina until they show up in Millsville, where John Doe is recognized at a diner. He’s brought to City Hall, where he’s met by Hanson, who gives a five-minute monologue about how he was inspired to start a local John Doe club.

The John Doe philosophy spreads across the country, developing into a broad grassroots movement whose simple slogan is, “Be a better neighbor”. Far from being an altruistic philanthropist, however, Norton plans to channel the support for Doe into support for his own national political ambitions. As a culmination of this plan, Norton has instructed Mitchell to write a speech for Willoughby in which he announces the foundation of a new political party and endorses Norton as its presidential candidate.

When Willoughby, who has come to believe in the John Doe philosophy himself, realizes that he is being used, he tries to expose the plot, but is first stymied in his attempts to talk his own mind to a nationwide radio audience at the rally instead of reading the prepared speech, and then exposed as a fake by Norton, who claims to have been deceived, like everyone else, by the staff of the newspaper. Frustrated by his failure, Willoughby intends to commit suicide by jumping from the roof of the City Hall on Christmas Eve, as indicated in the original John Doe letter. Only the intervention of Mitchell and followers of the John Doe clubs persuades him to renege on his threat to kill himself. At this point in the movie, a reference to Jesus Christ is made, that a historical “John Doe” has already died for the sake of humanity. The film ends with Connell turning to Norton and saying, “There you are, Norton! The people! Try and lick that!”

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Produced and directed by Frank Capra, written by Richard Connell and Robert Presnell, Sr., starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck.

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Source: “Meet John Doe” Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.. 18 July 2012. Web. 29 July 2012.

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33 Replies to “Meet John Doe (1941) [Comedy]”

  3. One of the Greatest Films ever made , Walter Brennan the Colonel the true voice of reason, MY LIFE LONG HERO !
    The Heelots ! Colonel , "Have you ever been broke" ? guy : Yes mostly often . Colonel. Alright , you dont have a Nickle in your jeans , your walking along free as the wind nobody bothers you hundreds of people pass you in every line of business , shoes, hats , automobiles , furniture, cloths everything and they are all nice lovable people and leave you alone . Is that right ? Guy : head nod , yes.
    Colonel : then you get some dough (money ) in your pocket . All those nice sweet lovable people become Heelots, allot of Heels !
    They begin creeping up on you tring to sell you something , they got long claws and they get a strangle hold on you , and you squirm and you duck and you holler and your try and push them away but you have not got a chance, and they got ya !
    First thing ya know ya own things , a car for instance ! Now your life is messed up with a whole lot more stuff , ya got licenses fees, and number plates , and gas n oil
    taxes, and insurance, and identification cards , and letters n bills , n tires , n dents ,and traffic tickets, and motorcycle cops , and court rooms and lawyers , fines and a million and 1 other things ! And what happens ? Guy : shakes his head (i dont know)
    Colonel " Your not the free and happy guy you used to be you have to have money to pay for all those things ! So you go after what the other fellow has got !
    AND THERE YOU ARE YOUR A HEEELOT YOUR SELF !

  9. Capra's films never get old and are even more relevant today! This is 1 of the best.  Coop's radio speech and Walter Brennan's "Heelot" (helot?) are so true and so great, I never get tired of this movie.

  10. A near great movie dragged down only by the supremely irritating Walter Brennan, who is given way too much screen time, and waaaaay too much dialogue. A necessary
    character, so as to balance out Cooper's sensibilities, but man, is he a drag.

  11. Grimly prescient, like John Doe TRUMP began to believe his OWN con job, actually thinks he's a leader, lost now  in mad Trumpworld.

  13. wow I am watching the movie at this time on the tv and the comparion of then and today wow the Damn Banker and Corporation like today in our madern time

  16. One of my classic favorites! Truly Amazing acting. even in the smallest details: a particular flip of the shoulder, a minute expression… wow.  I miss that kind of stirring artistry. We lack a lot of THAT in this day and age.

  18.  
    My favorite movie of all time!  This movie explains exactly what is going on economically in our world today, and why and how "We the people" can stop it! This movie is fantastic!

  19. This video is defective…it stalls at the ending…..And the situation today is just as valid as the one in the movie…..the battle between good and evil will always be with us…..Download Mister Smith goes to Washington … also good

  23. frank C. was a genius.  He understood America, it's people, and their dreams.
    Check out Mr. Smith goes to Washington.  Very relevant, more than ever.

  27. MY favorite movie of all time!  This movie explains exactly what is going on economically in our world today, and why and how "We the people" can stop it!

  29. Sir/Lady- can you help me..? I'm searching for another noir film with Barbara Stanwyck. It's called "No man of her own" and it's from 1950 year. :

  30. I'm very sorry but my screen changed at the end of my movie and I read the comments to the wrong film, then commented myself but this is not the film that I watched! 🙁 I will watch some other time. 😉

  31. I enjoyed this film so much. This was an excellent choice for a relaxing Mothers day and I'm so glad Ayn Rand did not get her way in having them not release it! A nice little gem. Thank you for sharing!

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