Small town Tuby player and poet Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper) finds out he is the heir to his uncle's estate and moves to New York to take it over. He finds that more is expected of him than he is willing to give, that people he's supposed to trust are not necessarily trustworthy, and that the press is out to make a monkey out of him any chance they get. He gives them plenty. When a young woman in distress (Jean Arthur) gets Cooper's sympathy after fainting in front of his New York home, he plays her knight in shining armour. What he doesn't realize is that she is newspaper reporter Babe Bennett who is willing to lead him into all sorts of embarrassing situations to get on the front page. Then, when he discovers the truth, he decides to give up all of the money to needy farmers and ends up in court. This is where the comical situations of the first 3/4 of the movie turn into a serious message film, and the so-called "Capra-Corn" comes out in spades.
The early Roosevelt post-depression/pre-World War II era of New York is fully felt as the New Deal has been good for some, bad for others, and brought out the selfishness and greed in people who thought they could control the small-town "Cinderella Man". The film is filled with wonderfully wacky characters, most memorably eccentric poet Walter Catlett, "Pixilated" sisters Margaret McWade and Margaret Seddon, psychoanalyst Gustav von Seyffertitz, and Cooper's right-hand man Lionel Stander. The wonderful Ruth Donnelly is great as Babe's tough but ultimately tender sister. Douglas Dumbrille is appropriately smarmy as the estate's shady lawyer, and H.B. Warner is memorably sympathetic and tough as the judge in Longfellow's trial. There's a wonderful "echo" scene between Cooper and his male servants (which includes the wonderfully prissy Franklin Pangborn and Barnett Parker), and a great scene where Cooper turns down money for the opera much to the board member's surprise.
If the term "Capra-Corn" is ever used to be condescending, it fails because the Capra pictures take stories we see in the paper every day, play them out with an "every man" viewpoint, then serves up a finale where a message of decency and morality (as well as a bit of "we are our brother's keeper") with a message presented entertainingly but very directly. Cooper's decency softens the tough Arthur and proves to many cynical people (including raspy voiced Stander) that money cannot buy happiness and can sometimes lead only to misery. It is a serious message taught with comical overtones that only Frank Capra could do.
The early Roosevelt post-depression/pre-World War II era of New York is fully felt as the New Deal has been good for some, bad for others, and brought out the selfishness and greed in people who thought they could control the small-town "Cinderella Man". The film is filled with wonderfully wacky characters, most memorably eccentric poet Walter Catlett, "Pixilated" sisters Margaret McWade and Margaret Seddon, psychoanalyst Gustav von Seyffertitz, and Cooper's right-hand man Lionel Stander. The wonderful Ruth Donnelly is great as Babe's tough but ultimately tender sister. Douglas Dumbrille is appropriately smarmy as the estate's shady lawyer, and H.B. Warner is memorably sympathetic and tough as the judge in Longfellow's trial. There's a wonderful "echo" scene between Cooper and his male servants (which includes the wonderfully prissy Franklin Pangborn and Barnett Parker), and a great scene where Cooper turns down money for the opera much to the board member's surprise.
If the term "Capra-Corn" is ever used to be condescending, it fails because the Capra pictures take stories we see in the paper every day, play them out with an "every man" viewpoint, then serves up a finale where a message of decency and morality (as well as a bit of "we are our brother's keeper") with a message presented entertainingly but very directly. Cooper's decency softens the tough Arthur and proves to many cynical people (including raspy voiced Stander) that money cannot buy happiness and can sometimes lead only to misery. It is a serious message taught with comical overtones that only Frank Capra could do.