Meet John Doe (1941)

This Movie Can Only Be Described With One Word.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?

Capra-corn. This moniker is often used for many of the films of Frank Capra. Are his films a little corny? A little too homespun? Perhaps a bit. But I see them as being a balance on the scales of Hollywood, which has a tendency -- all too often -- as painting Americans as less than admirable people. Of course, some of us Americans are less than admirable, and we see a lot of those types in movies. But some of us are a little corny and homespun. We don't see those folks in many films. So Capra and occasionally other producers and directors toss a few films on the scale to balance out our view of American life.This is a fine film, although not my favorite Capra flick; I prefer "Lost Horizon" and "It's A Wonderful Life". But this is so good. I find the early part of the film a bit slow, but the film continues to build and is ultimately quite inspirational.Gary Cooper is excellent here. As he career matured, and particularly because of "High Noon", we sometimes tend to think of Cooper as a star of Westerns. This film is a good reminder that he was in plenty of other types of dramatic films. In fact, at least for me, it was his films that were not Westerns that I tend to enjoy most. Some people jump to the conclusion that Frank Capra should have used Jimmy Stewart here. I disagree strongly, although I very much like Jimmy Stewart's work. Cooper was perfect for the role. Stewart could have done it, but it would have been that Stewart that we sometime saw as sneering that would have marked a Stewart appearance here.Barbara Stanwyck is also excellent here. In fact, I would have to say this was one of her better roles.James Gleason has the standout supporting role here. I always enjoy him, but here -- as the newspaper editor -- I think he had one of his best roles, and he really shines in the scene where he's drunk...and honest with John Doe.Edward Arnold made a fine villain. I think Walter Brennan got the short end of the stick here. He's too much an old grump in this film; I didn't find him very likable. Spring Byington is here in a small role as Stanwyck's mother; a rather typical role for her. Gene Lockhart has a significant role as a mayor, but gets little screen time. Regis Toomey doesn't have much screen time, but he has a fine role in a supporter of John Doe. J. Farrell MacDonald has a small role here as "Sourpuss", and he's a character actor we never saw enough of. Interesting that Ann Doran has a small, but significant role, but got no billing.

From THE PRESIDENTIAL PAPERS by Norman Mailer: "There are situations which belong more to the movies than to life..." Mailer never made it THIS far. We live in an age when a rich kid "suffering" from "affluenza" (i.e.; being born with a silver spoon in his mouth) can get away with the vehicular homicide of four people while driving drunk (and, at last count, had fled the country- and possible prosecution); an age when "the mass of Americans are not felt as a Political reality" (as Mailer put it); an age of "prefabricated politics;" an age of industrial accidents and deregulation that have left "all the food poisoned. And the waters of the sea we are told." (from CANNIBALS AND CHRISTIANS); an age when "the sense of a long last night over civilization is back again..."; an age when "terror" has us all quaking in our boots, although "we had had a secret police organization and an invisible government large enough by now to occupy the moon... and we had not found that many, and had looked like Keystone cops."; an age when "the country was (IS) taking a turn... the knives of the afternoon (are) out..."; an age of hyper-surveillance, where (THE PRESIDENTIAL PAPERS) "the great shadow is that there is a place for everybody in our country who is willing to live the way other people want him to, and talk the way others want him to;" an age of "America's tortured psychotic search for security;" an age of "a false security in the power and the panacea of organized religion, family, and the FBI... the stultifying techniques of the mass media;" an age when misinformation is the order of the day; "Sad. A nation as large as ours, blinded by the lies of the men who feed us our news." CANNIBALS AND CHRISTIANS: "For a time it had been an interesting history." We find out that the people of Flint, Michigan, have been poisoned by Lead in their drinking water, that the death toll of American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan has now come close to 7,000 (with far many more wounded and homeless, some kicked to the curb by the very people who sent them off to war) and on and on and on (in the past few weeks, the carcasses of a 12 foot shark and a 30 foot whale have washed up on local beaches; it doesn't bode well). "America," wrote Mailer, "has come to a point from which she will never return." And, finally: "No age of high ideals is close at hand." Like prostitutes (whose profession is, next to the Politician's, the Second-oldest), most of today's "elected representatives" "have no memory." Of most it could be said: "He gave the sort of speech... which serves to clot the aisles of history." Their intentions are clear: "to steal the land." To milk the Earth of all its Resources, without regard for those who Have Not. One would do well to mind the words of physicist Neil Tyson: "There are a lot of Races, but only one Species."

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.

Capracorn it may be but it's still hard to resist this anti-fascist message simply because of the sheer professionalism on display from all departments beginning, of course, with the screenplay. Arguably Robert Riskin's finest hour was when - smarting from all the PR that spoke of the 'Capra touch' whilst completely ignoring the screenplays - he marched into Capra's office, tossed an unopened box of typing paper on the director's desk and said 'let's see you put the Capra touch on THAT', but this screenplay, like most of the others he supplied Capra with, is solidly constructed albeit manipulative, so that actors like Cooper, Stanwyck, Gleason, Brennan, Arnold, Byington, and the rest, could more or less have phoned it in. Working as an ensemble they add a high gloss to what boils down to little more than a sampler,love thy neighbour, but, as someone probably said, it's not the arrival, it's the journey, and this is a swell trip.