The Bulletin newspaper is being revamp with mass laid offs. Reporter Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) is fired and as a final story, she hands in a fake letter from unemployed "John Doe" who threatens to commit suicide in protest. It picks up political heat and editor Henry Connell is forced to rehire Ann. Ann convinces them to hire somebody to impersonate "John Doe". Many claim to be Doe and they pick former pitcher John Willoughby (Gary Cooper) who is just looking for work. His tramp friend The Colonel (Walter Brennan) isn't so sure about the newfound wealth. The newspaper's publisher D. B. Norton (Edward Arnold) has his own designs for Doe.Both leads are terrific and perfect for their roles. Stanwyck is a ballsy broad and Cooper is the everyman. It's a Frank Capra modern fairy tale. It takes on a lot of themes like media manipulation, modern fame, and a social commentary. However Norton's scheme is too grandiose. It does need some simplification. It's the only thing that I find problematic.

It always seemed to me that Capra's dark allegory against fascism has been unfairly overlooked down the years in favour of the more celebrated "Mr" films "Deeds" and "Smith" as well of course as the universally loved "It's A Wonderful Life". It could be just down to it having had a lower circulation down the years (you rarely see it on TV schedules, at least here in the UK), or its war-time genesis, or just that it has a less clearly defined happy ending than its three siblings, but for me there's no question that it fully punches its weight and continues to do so almost 70 years since its release."Capra-corn" cynics may again mock the director's seemingly simplistic take on the malleability and simplicity of the American public at large, which here sees them swallow whole self-serving journalist Barbara Stanwyck's phony story about an "everyman" so disenchanted with the selfishness of society that he will make a suicidal sacrifice of himself on Christmas Eve to drive home his point. When she produces a stooge to actually play the part (Cooper's vagrant, baseball-loving Long John Willoughby) his scripted "John Doe" idealism strikes home in Anytown USA, fanned by Stanwyck's initially manipulative and no less cynical newspaper editor James Gleason. So far so good. However the the cause takes an altogether darker turn when it's later taken up by would-be dictator Edmund Arnold's sinister megalomaniac magnate DB Norton and his acolytes of faceless power-sharers. The initial scene where we are introduced to Norton, with a high-power display of motorcycle riders seems to these eyes a premonition of the way that today's dictators invariably preside over displays of their war machinery, usually at May Day parades. The more things change...The movie brilliantly takes us on the respective journeys of all these major characters to self-awareness at the same time making its bigger point about the dangers of state control (a rallying call against the rise of fascism engulfing war-torn Europe at the time of the movie's creation) with great subtlety and conviction. I've read that Capra agonised over a suitable ending for the movie and balk a little myself at the perhaps over-zealous religious symbolism of Cooper's character as a Christ-like figure, rebuffed as a prophet in his own time, turned on by the mob and walking towards self-destruction on Christmas eve. That said, some fantastic acting by Cooper and superb direction by Capra at the climactic scene held enough sway for me to trust the outcome as seen.Capra as ever, deftly handles his actors, prising superb performances from Arnold, Stanwyck, Gleason and Walter Brennan (as Willoughby's vagrant chum, the only one to see through the emperor's new clothes with his humorous "Helots" pronouncements) and especially Cooper who progresses his trademark gawky, bumbling sub-Deeds "average-Joe" character to someone altogether more complex and real by the finish. The cinematography too, is great, particularly in evidence at the pivotal mob scene where Capra again displays his mastery of editing and crowd control.I'd forgotten the tie-in to Christmas at the finale and was glad that I was watching a movie at this time with a weightier message than most every other film of this festive season (even as I appreciate it was initially released in May of 1941!). On the DVD mini-focus on Capra, he's described at one point as a 20th Century Dickens. Taking into account the quality of the peak of his work from "It Happened One Night" in 1934 through to "State Of The Union" in 1948 (with "Meet John Doe" at the epicentre both episodically and fundamentally) I firmly believe he deserves this "timeless" accolade more than any other director I can think of.

It's best to think of this as a Great Depression story, when it was probably conceived. Barbara Stanwyck is a reporter who tries to keep her job by concocting a letter from a nonexistent "John Doe" who is mad as hell and is not going to take it anymore. So he's going to jump off a skyscraper at midnight on Christmas Eve. When the letter is published, the public reacts with excitement. They vow support for the phantom Doe. Stanwyck's editor, James Gleason, decides that the newspaper and its owner, Edward Arnold, should go with the flow and hire some bum off the street to play John Doe.They pick the friendly, innocent Gary Cooper, ex-minor-league baseball pitcher, accompanied by his equally crummy buddy, Walter Brennan. These two hobos are raggedy and hungry, the kind of people who at the time were called "bindle stiffs." The "bindle" was the bundle of personal effects they carried over their shoulders. A "stiff" was a person of no importance. You can still hear the word in the expression "working stiff." Where was I? These damned voices keep distracting me. Oh, yes.So Cooper is hired to act as John Doe. After Christmas Eve, when he has his phony date with the angels, he is to be given a railroad ticket straight out of town and disappear.Surprisingly, though, his radio speech turns the audience on. They love it. They form multitudes of John Doe Clubs all around the world. The John Doe philosophy? Nothing dangerous, don't worry. "Let's be kind to our neighbors." "Let's break down the walls separating all of us John Does." The villainous Edward Arnold, the paper's owner, gets an idea. As the John Doe Clubs spring up all over, he sees their members not as airheaded do-gooders but as voters. This leads to a bright idea. In his next radio speech, John Doe will announce that Edward Arnold is forming a third party and running for president. All those John Does out there will vote for him -- "that's ninety percent of the vote." And Arnold's philosophy is a little different from that of Cooper and Stanwyck, who has been writing his speeches. "Everybody's complaining," Arnold tells his cohort of corrupt goons, gangsters, politicians, and labor leaders. "What this country needs is a firm hand, some discipline." Does Arnold's scheme work? Of course it does. That's why he was elected president in 1944 and switched our allegiance to Nazi Germany and we lost the war and were occupied by the UN.Well, the fact is that Arnold may be evil but these targets are pretty soft ones. The film is so stripped of real-life counterparts that it almost amounts to a fantasy. The private police force that Arnold has at his disposal are all dressed as State Police but their shoulder patches read "Norton Motorcycle Squad." Something else about Arnold. He probably gives the best performance in the movie. It's really quite subtle. He has to activate several latent roles -- loudmouthed dictator, thoughtful schemer, avuncular con man, and repentant fomenter of discord. He's followed closely by Barbara Stanwyck, in one of her fine performances of the period, and by Cooper himself, who must look simultaneously stupid but sensitive. Cooper has a priceless moment near the beginning as he is shown to a fancy hotel room and allowed to order five hamburgers from room service. With a wide smile he hangs up the phone, then notices the statue of a bouquet-holding nude woman on the stand. His expression changes instantly to an exopthalmic gawk. Capra and the editor give him a full half minute to stare at it, touch it tentatively, and gulp, before Stanwyck's voice comes from behind him and he jumps. It's a small moment but an exquisitely comic one.This was the last of three films that Frank Capra directed before entering the Army for World War II -- the others being "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town." All have in common an innocent young hero who runs into greed and corruption and through strength of will manages to overcome his adversaries. Capra was an apolitical populist and humanist, and there's a good deal of corniness in these movies, but that doesn't stop them from being successful. "John Doe", unlike the others, becomes almost tragic before the improbable end. After his war service, Capra directed one more wildly successful film, "It's a Wonderful Life," perhaps the best modern Christmas story, but it too had its moments of genuine anguish.

This is the story of a fired newspaper reporter, Ann Mitchell, who make up a fake letter from an unemployed "John Doe," who threatens suicide in protest of social ills. She manages to get the letter published in the paper and she is rehired. Ann must find a John Doe for her letter and hires John Willoughby to impersonate "Doe." Ann and her bosses cynically milk the story for all it's worth, until the made-up "John Doe" philosophy starts a whole political movement. The bosses take the made up story and the hired John to the brink. At the last everyone, even Ann, takes her creation seriously...but publisher D.B. Norton has a secret plan.This movies shows us why Gary Cooper is the consummate actor that he came to be. Paired with legendary actress Barbara Stanwyck, this picture is a lesson on their acting techniques. Nominated for Best Writing Original Story in 1942, the story can't help but remind you of Citizen Kane or Mr. Smith Goes To Washington. Standing up to the bigger than life acting of these heros of the screen is Edward Arnold as publisher DB Norton. His performance as the old rich man in charge is sparked with realism and is a heartfelt but flawed character. The story has over tones ranging from the political to the religious. Though the story may be hokey at times it still can resonate with today's times and some of the subject matter seems to come straight from the headlines of some of today's newspapers. Directed by Frank Capra, the sets and visuals are what you want from a movie like this that can rip your heart wide open. Capra's skills are as apparent here as other Capra work. The movie gets so real at times that during the riot you'll wonder how Capra kept control on the set.