Director: FRANK CAPRA. Screenplay: Robert Riskin. Based on the story, "Opera Hat", by Clarence Budington Kelland. Photography: Joseph Walker. Film editor: Gene Havlick. Art director: Stephen Goosson. Costumes: Samuel Lange. Music director: Howard Jackson. Special photographic effects: E. Roy Davidson. Stills: Howard Lippman. Assistant director: C. C. Coleman. Sound recording: Edward L. Bernds. Producer: Frank Capra.Copyright 8 April 1936 by Columbia Pictures Corp. of California, Ltd. New York opening at the Radio City Music Hall, 16 April 1936 (ran 2 weeks). U.K. release: August 1936. Australian release: 22 July 1936. 12 reels. 115 minutes.SYNOPSIS: Millionaire proves that despite his resolution to give all his money away, he is actually perfectly sane.NOTES: Academy Award, Best Director, Frank Capra (defeating Gregory La Cava's My Man Godfrey, Robert Z. Leonard's The Great Ziegfeld, W. S. Van Dyke's San Francisco and William Wyler's Dodsworth).Also nominated for Best Picture (The Great Ziegfeld); Best Actor, Gary Cooper (Paul Muni in The Story of Louis Pasteur); Screenplay (The Story of Louis Pasteur); Sound Recording.Best Motion Picture of 1936 — New York Film Critics. Best American Film of 1936 — National Board of Review. 2nd Best Picture of 1936 (Mutiny on the Bounty was first) — The Film Daily annual poll of U.S. film critics.COMMENT: Although it has some marvelously amusing scenes and some wonderful set-pieces, this Depression-era comedy is a trifle dated to-day. As usual, Capra is unable to bring himself to cut into a lot of the dull, moralizing dialogue between his hero and heroine. This is a real pity. With a bit of judicious trimming, Mr. Deeds would be a very amusing fellow: a philanthropist with a heart of originality and a slyly inverted sense of humor.The acting, as usual, under Capra's skillful direction, is both faultless and ingratiating. In fact, all the technical craftsmanship (aside, of course, from the script's slow passages), could be rated as impeccable.

"Mr. Deeds Goes to Town" is a wonderful comedy-romance and drama that has more than subtle social commentary in its plot. The film is set in the middle of the Great Depression when unemployment in America was 15% to 20%. There's symbolism even in the title of the film and name of the hero – Deeds. The movie is about good deeds, especially in time of great needs, and with greed present even then. Longfellow Deeds leads a comfortable life in his small New England town of Mandrake Falls, Vermont. When he suddenly inherits $20 million, he is thrust into the limelight of the Big Apple. He soon comes to see moochers around every corner, but not from where they might be expected. Here, it's the well-to-do looking for a patron or patsy to bail out their favorite social venue or pet project. Into this dramatic scenario come romance and comedy – though both are gradual and even disguised. This is not a comedy of witty dialog or even crazy antics. It has some subtle humorous situations, and then a slam-bang hilarious courtroom scene at the end. It's one of the best courtroom comedy scenes on film. The performances all are fine, especially with the leads. Gary Cooper is excellent as Longfellow Deeds. I wonder if he really played the tuba. Jean Arthur gives a beautiful performance as Babe Bennett, a tough newspaper woman whose cold heart melts in the presence of "real goodness" – and romance, of course. Lionel Stander is superb as Cornelius Cobb, the publicity manager and protector for Deeds. And, Douglass Dumbrille is at his best as a conniving attorney, John Cedar. Deeds comments after shaking hands with him, "Even his hands are oily." H.B. Warner is very good as Judge May. The only character that wasn't that good was George Bancroft as MacWade, the tough newspaper editor. His laugh seems forced and unreal, and his bombastic, loud character is way overdone. Hollywood seemed to do that with all the newspaper editors in the films of the 30s and 40s to the point that it became stereotype. One other character worth mentioning is just a bit part by George "Gabby" Hayes. He has just a couple of lines, as a spokesman for the farmers to thank Longfellow Deeds. Any boy who grew up in the mid-20th century would recognize Gabby Hayes (1985-1969). Hayes was in more than 190 films, including many of the "B" Westerns cranked out in the 1930s and 1940s. He was a sidekick to Roy Rogers in his films for many years. Before that he played in many Westerns with Hopalong Cassidy (William Boyd), John Wayne and others. This film is the second of three to win director Frank Capra an Oscar. His first Oscar for directing was "It Happened One Night" of 1934, and his last was "You Can't Take it With You" of 1938. He received three other nominations, for "Lady for a Day" of 1933, "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" of 1939, and "It's a Wonderful Life" of 1946. Those were up against great films, including major best pictures. Victor Fleming won best director in 1939 for "Gone With the Wind," and William Wyler won in 1946 for "The Best Years of Our Lives."My DVD of "Mr. Deeds" came with a 1999 Columbia Pictures short featurette that the IMDb Web site doesn't have listed for a film. It's entitled, "Frank Capra Jr. Remembers: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town." (EUE/Screen Gems Studios, Wilmington, NC, © 1999, Columbia Telstar Inc.) (IMDb has others of Frank Capra Jr. Remembers – Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, – It Happened One Night, – It's a Wonderful Life.") This featurette is the second time in which I've heard people from the film industry talk about Jean Arthur, especially how difficult it was to worth with her. Frank Capra Jr. says, "she was very insecure, almost neurotic." For as tremendous an actress as she was, she couldn't hide her anxiety and dread off-scree. She was "very difficult to get in front of the camera," Capra says. Once in front, she was great, but getting her there was the problem. Most of the time she wanted to stay in her dressing room. She seldom was ready and made excuses. "My hair's not done. I'm not ready. I don't feel like it." But in the end, Capra says, "you had to just almost drag her out in front of the cameras and say, 'Roll 'em! Film! Action! And then she would just come to life.""Mr. Deeds" is a classic comedy-romance from Hollywood's Golden Years that people should enjoy for decades to come. It's not high comedy, but its social commentary adds a touch of humaneness that gives it a lift

I laughed quite a lot near the start of this movie. It clicked for me right away. It's a simple story with an inherently funny concept behind it. A nice man from a little town inherits a large fortune that he doesn't particularly want. He doesn't blink an eye when they tell him how much money he now has. He sits and plays his tuba a bit. The city people don't think he understands. But he does, it just doesn't affect him. His new acquaintances take a while to get used to his personality and its hilarious seeing their reactions at his unexpected behaviour.Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is full of hilarious moments. Several adults have fun creating echoes in a mansion. Deeds looks around to make sure nobody is watching before he rides down a stair railing. He plays the tuba at his own farewell party even as he gets on a train and then later worries about where they'll find a replacement tuba player. He points out the personal ticks of multiple people who then struggle to keep still without involuntary movement arising again. A very touching moment is followed by some perfectly executed slapstick comedy that comes out of nowhere.I find the most annoying kind of people are those that overact to everything, going through extreme emotions constantly. Panicking, complaining, gossiping, getting over-excited. Mr. Deeds is the opposite - always calm and collected and very direct with what he says. But he is passionate about justice as well and throws a punch several times in the movie. He enjoys a simple life but is not stupid in the way people expect him to be. He sees through people and calls them out on their hypocrisy. He can tell when he is being manipulated.I really liked Gary Cooper in the title role. He makes the character seem innocent and charming. Jean Arthur has a funny, high-pitched voice but she's likable as the conflicted love interest. She is also like a child, spending free time trying to shake a rope into a knot. Frank Capra's direction is effective, keeping the focus on the main characters and their emotions.Mr. Deeds is a funny movie with a powerful message. It's full of nice details. There is even some darkness and tension. His purity and simple refusal to lie or do things for personal benefit shames others into becoming better versions of themselves. His life was rich before he inherited the money and he enriches the city with his outlook on life and incorruptibility.

During the hearing to determine whether Longfellow Deeds should be institutionalized in an insane asylum, a psychiatrist explains the difference between the mood swings of a normal person, which are confined to a narrow range, and those of a manic-depressive, which lurch from one extreme to another. This is the one part of the movie that actually makes sense and is realistic. Furthermore, it is a correct diagnosis.If a normal person inherited a $20,000,000 fortune, which would be over $300,000,000 adjusted for inflation, he might give a portion of it to charity, but he would never give it all away, even if he were perfectly happy before he got the inheritance. But that is what manic-depressives do when they are in their manic phase. They'll pick up a hitchhiker and give him the car.Furthermore, if a normal person were placed in a mental institution against his will by people trying to get possession of his money, he would get a lawyer and defend himself. He would not sit there listlessly at his own hearing, refusing to utter a word, even if he were despondent on account of his having been betrayed by a lover. Only a manic-depressive, in one of his extreme states of melancholy, could reach a state of depression so dark that he would not care if he were institutionalized for the rest of his life.But we are supposed to reject this diagnosis on the part of the psychiatrist. Instead, we are supposed to think of Deeds as a saint, someone who is too good for this world, whose despondency is the result of being overwhelmed by a realization of how evil other people are. However, even though the diagnosis is correct, that in itself would be no reason to confine someone to a mental institution. The lawyer representing Deeds' relatives, who want to get possession of the fortune, argues that Deeds needs to be locked up because his scheme to give all his money away to needy farmers threatens to cause civil unrest and undermine the very foundations of our nation. That is preposterous, and no court would take such an argument seriously. Deeds' excessive philanthropy might be a justification for having a court-appointed fiduciary take control of the inherited fortune for Deeds' protection, although I doubt it. But it would be in no way a reason for locking someone up in an insane asylum.On the other hand, what would justify Deeds' being institutionalized gets very little attention, which is that he routinely assaults people: two poets in a restaurant, a psychiatrist (in a scene we only hear about), the lawyer opposing him at the hearing, and possibly an operatic diva (in another scene we only hear about). Now, anyone who goes around punching people is either going to be arrested and put in prison or confined to a mental institution for the criminally insane. But even though the judge at the hearing witnesses one of those assaults, he seems unimpressed by it.Suffice it to say that much in this movie is totally unrealistic. The real question is, What is it about this movie that people find appealing? We are not like Longfellow Deeds, nor would we want to be like him, nor would we want to live where he did, in Mandrake Falls. He is a virginal bachelor who never married because he dreamt of saving a lady in distress, a naïve bumpkin living in a small town, where everyone seems a little dotty. Apparently, people like the idea that there are places like Mandrake Falls, even though they would not like to live there themselves; and they like the idea that people like Longfellow Deeds live in towns like that, even though they have no desire to be like him, or even to be around someone like that for very long. It would simply be too dull.