Mr. Deeds Goes To Town

MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN [1936 / 2016] [80th Anniversary Limited Edition DigiBook] [Blu-ray]
Another Great Frank Capra Production! Hilarious Combination of Comedy and Romance!

When small-town innocent Longfellow Deeds [Gary Cooper] heads to New York to collect a $20 million inheritance, he ends up a target of ridicule thanks to Babe Bennett [Jean Arthur], a cynical reporter whose demeaning stories have made him the joke of the city. So when he discovers his sweet and unassuming new girlfriend is actually the hardboiled Bennett in disguise, a disillusioned Deeds decides to give his fortune away, an act of charity his crooked lawyer will stop at nothing to prevent. Winner of the 1936 Academy Award® for Best Director and now fully restored in 4K, Frank Capra’s ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN’ is the quintessential screwball comedy, an irresistible blend of laughter, wit and romance.

FILM FACT No.1: Awards and Nominations: 1936 Venice Film Festival: Win: Frank Capra [Special Recommendation]. Nominated: Best Foreign Film for Frank Capra [Mussolini Cup]. 1937 Academy Awards®: Win: Best Director for Frank Capra. Nominated: Best Picture for Columbia. Nominated: Best Actor in a Leading Role for Gary Cooper. Nominated: Best Writing, Screenplay for Robert Riskin and Nominated: Best Sound, Recording for John P. Livadary (Columbia SSD). 1937 New York Film Critics Circle Awards: Win: Best Film. 3rd place: Best Actor for Gary Cooper.

FILM FACT No.2: ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN’ is based on the 1935 short story Opera Hat by Clarence Budington Kelland, which appeared in serial form in The American Magazine, the screenplay was written by Robert Riskin in his fifth collaboration with Frank Capra. The film was generally treated as likable fare by critics and audiences alike. Novelist Graham Greene, then also a film critic, was effusive that this was Capra's finest film to date, describing Capra's treatment as "a kinship with his audience, a sense of common life, a morality". Variety noted "a sometimes too thin structure [that] the players and director Frank Capra have contrived to convert ... into fairly sturdy substance.” This was the first Frank Capra film to be released separately to exhibitors and not "bundled" with other Columbia features. On paper, it was his biggest hit, easily surpassing ‘It Happened One Night.’ It was the 7th most popular film at the British box office between 1935 – 1936.

Cast: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, George Bancroft, Lionel Stander, Douglass Dumbrille, Raymond Walburn, H.B. Warner, Ruth Donnelly, Walter Catlett, John Wray, Margaret Seddon, Margaret McWade, Gustav von Seyffertitz, Emma Dunn, Charles Lane, Jameson Thomas, Mayo Methot, Stanley Andrews (uncredited), Frank Austin (uncredited), John W. Austin (uncredited), Irving Bacon (uncredited), Bobbie Beal (uncredited), Hank Bell (uncredited), Billy Bevan (uncredited), Georgie Billings (uncredited), John Binns (uncredited), Wyrley Birch (uncredited), Beatrice Blinn (uncredited), Harry C. Bradley (uncredited), Charles Brinley (uncredited), Jack Cheatham (uncredited), Jack Rube Clifford (uncredited), Gino Corrado (uncredited), Cecil Cunningham (uncredited), Ann Doran (uncredited), Walter Downing (uncredited), Tex Driscoll (uncredited), Emma Dunn (uncredited), Muriel Evans (uncredited), Adolph Faylauer (uncredited), Charles K. French (uncredited), Chuck Hamilton (uncredited), George 'Gabby' Hayes (uncredited), Paul Hurst (uncredited), Warren Hymer (uncredited), William Irving (uncredited), Gladden James (uncredited), Charles Lane (uncredited), Edward LeSaint (uncredited), Edwin Maxwell (uncredited), Lafe McKee (uncredited), Frank McLure (uncredited), George Meeker (uncredited), Mayo Methot (uncredited), Robert Milasch (uncredited), Harold Miller (uncredited), Jack Montgomery (uncredited), Gene Morgan Jack Mower (uncredited), John T. Murray (uncredited), Frank O'Connor (uncredited), Broderick O'Farrell (uncredited), Dennis O'Keefe (uncredited), Bud Osborne (uncredited), Franklin Pangborn (uncredited), Barnett Parker (uncredited), Paul Porcasi (uncredited), Hal Price (uncredited), Christian Rub (uncredited), Anne Schaefer (uncredited), Larry Steers (uncredited), Bert Stevens (uncredited), Jameson Thomas (uncredited), John Tyrrell (uncredited), Dale Van Sickel (uncredited), Gustav von Seyffertitz (uncredited), Pierre Watkin (uncredited), Lee Willard (uncredited) and Charles C. Wilson (uncredited)

Director: Frank Capra

Producer: Frank Capra

Screenplay: Robert Riskin (screenplay) and Clarence Budington Kelland (story)

Composer: Howard Jackson (uncredited)

Cinematography: Joseph Walker, A.S.C. (Director of Photography)

Image Resolution: 1080p (Black-and-White)

Audio: English: 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
French: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
German: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Português: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Spanish [Castilian]: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
Spanish [Latin America]: 2.0 Dolby Digital Stereo Audio
English: 2.0  Dolby Digital Stereo Audio

Subtitles: English, English SDH, Arabic, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Português, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish

Aspect Ratio: 1.37:1

Running Time: 115 minutes

Region: All Regions

Number of discs: 1

Studio: Columbia Pictures / Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: Director Frank Capra built his career around the themes that he explores in ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN.’ For the populist director Frank Capra, the battle lines are clearly drawn; where he makes his point and sometimes heavy-handedly, by pitting small-town simplicity, selflessness, and idealism against big-city sophistication, greed, and cynicism. Frank Capra raised the “little guy” to iconic status, stereotyping him as effortlessly as he stigmatized the corrupt city slicker. Gary Cooper's Longfellow Deeds often looks as if he is visiting from a different era, an errant knight guided by an anachronistic code of chivalry.

Jean Arthur makes her appearance as the hard-nosed reporter who exposes Longfellow Deeds to total ridicule. Jean Arthur’s line delivery is sharp, precise and to the point, and Gary Cooper's trademark laconic delivery is also perfect for the role and Gary Cooper is at the top of his game, imbuing Longfellow Deeds with just the right blend of  empathy and intelligence. Because of Frank Capra’s professional approach to directing, especially ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN,’ it deservedly was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor, ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN,’ won Frank Capra his second of three Best Director trophies.

Longfellow Deeds is the hero of the occasion and becomes one of our favourite characters under the attentive handling of Gary Cooper, who is proving himself one of the best light comedians in Hollywood. Longfellow Deeds is the poet laureate of Mandrake Falls, Vermont and writes greeting-day verses, and is keen to play his tuba in the town band. Then an uncle dies, leaving his $20,000,000 estate to the Vermont innocent, and Longfellow Deeds, slightly dazed but unimpressed by his sudden riches, is tossed willy-nilly and tuba into scheming New York.

Crooked lawyers beset him, the board of the opera elects him chairman, and a girl reporter gains his confidence and then headlines him as the “Cinderella Man.” Crushed, derided, deceived, and disillusioned, the lean Longfellow prepares to share the wealth by establishing a collective farm colony and then, cruellest jest of all, he is hauled before a lunacy commission and only by the narrowest of margins and the love of Jean Arthur, the repentant sob sister, escapes being adjudged a manic depressive.

‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN,’ marked a change in director Frank Capra's films. It was the first time he consciously tried to make a social statement. The film's success would lead him to continue to make socially oriented films, including ‘You Can't Take It With You’ [1938], ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington’ [1939], ‘Meet John Doe’ [1941] and ‘It's a Wonderful Life’ [1946]. All of them dramatized the same theme, in which Frank Capra would define as “the rebellious cry of the individual against being trampled by mass production, mass thought, mass education, mass politics, mass wealth, mass conformity.” This was the seventh of 12 films in which Frank Capra would collaborate with screenwriter Robert Riskin, who played a key role in the development of Frank Capra's directorial style. Their other collaborations included ‘It Happened One Night,’ ‘You Can't Take It With You’ and ‘Meet John Doe.’

‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN’ established the screen persona in showing that Gary Cooper would play for the rest of his career. Whereas previously he had been a popular male sex symbol, making screens sizzle as he shared love scenes with the likes of Joan Crawford and Marlene Dietrich, after ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN’ Gary Cooper was seen as a pure, homespun all-American type. Future Gary Cooper characters would be easily vamped by the likes of Barbara Stanwyck and Ingrid Bergman. As compensation for losing the smouldering sexuality of his previous screen persona, he would become one of the screen's most beloved stars and win Oscars® for playing all-American heroes in ‘Sergeant York’ [1941] and ‘High Noon’ [1952].

‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN’ also made it possible for Gary Cooper to maintain his independence from the Hollywood studios. It was the first film he made after completing his contractual obligations to Paramount Pictures and independent producer Sam Goldwyn. Its success made it unnecessary for him to sign another long-term studio contract. Jean Arthur had been making films since 1923, but had made no great impact before ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN’ except for her appearance in John Ford's 1935 ‘The Whole Town's Talking,’ starring Edward G. Robinson and co-written by Robert Riskin. With ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN,’ she finally burst through to screen stardom. Frank Capra would re-team with Gary Cooper for ‘Meet John Doe,’ another tale of a simple man who takes on the powers of corruption. Frank Capra would use Jean Arthur as his leading lady again in ‘You Can't Take It With You’ and ‘Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.’

The film is so well directed by Frank Capra who is one of my all-time favourite directors. It isn’t one of his best, but is one of his better works for sure. It is well shot and so well paced. Its running time is two hours and it never felt boring to me as I was fully invested in it how great it was. The dialogue is so snappy and wonderfully sophisticated. And the humour is just amazing! The entire courtroom part is so great and so hilarious. The humour here is fast, clever and exceptionally strong and the film also works perfectly as a fairy tale, even though it is not real, but despite this, I loved it and it is one of the best films of the year without a doubt. ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN’ is immensely charming, funny and at times even hilarious, heart-warming and wonderfully inspirational and optimistic, and the direction from director Frank Capra expectedly gets the stellar performances from Jean Arthur and Gary Cooper are phenomenal and he in particular shamefully lost at the Oscars as his performance here is just amazing. The film has strong humour, especially in those courtroom scenes, the romance is so good and the film is touching and just beautiful. ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN’ has stood the test of time with its heartfelt depiction of endearing characters and its victory over greed and corruption. Well worth the watch

MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN MUSIC TRACK LIST

FOR HE’S A JOLLY GOOD FELLOW (uncredited) (Traditional) [Played in the score during the opening credits and often throughout the film]

AULD LANG SYNE (1788) (uncredited) (Traditional Scottish 17th century music) [Played by a band at the train station, including Mr. Deeds on tuba]

OLD FOLKS AT HOME (Swanee River) (1851) (uncredited) (Written by Stephen Foster) [Played with drumsticks and sung by Jean Arthur] [Also sung a cappella by Gary Cooper]

HUMERESQUE, Op. 101/7 (1894) (uncredited) (Music by Antonín Dvorák) [Hummed by Gary Cooper]

Blu-ray Image Quality – Once again Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has brought us something truly special with this ultimate 1080p Black-and-White crisp sharp encoded image quality that really looks good in the 1.37:1 aspect ratio presentation. As to this new Blu-ray release, there is a lot to admire, given the 4K restoration and incorporation of 16mm elements and other more recently found footage that really gives you excellent detail levels can be seen, especially given the scope the production. Thanks to the clever use of visual effects of the time, there are layered qualities to the sets and environments that allow for a proper level of depth to appear on this Blu-ray disc. Black levels are quite sharp here. The contrast has been handled very well for this Black-and-White feature film. Character detail level is strong enough, especially with some close-ups yield surprisingly clear results and are a very clear presentation. There is a very nice light layer of grain on another really clean and fresh looking image presentation.

Blu-ray Audio Quality – Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has also brought us an equally lovely clear solid audio presentation, with the impressive upgrade of the 2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio, is surprisingly clear, and very well-modulated audio sound that suites this Frank Capra film of this calibre. The bass sounds and tones are strong and stand out really well and especially when Mr. Longfellow Deeds plays his beloved tuba. The music throughout the film is used sparingly when employed, and it has a fine fidelity which helps it achieve a good degree of presence and tonal resonance. Much of the dialogue is delivered really well as one would expect in a Frank Capra directed film, but almost all of it is very clear, precise and easy to comprehend. When it comes to the subtleties of the accents come through cleanly, and any age-related defects, such as hiss, pops or crackles, have been meticulously eliminated as you would expect form a SONY Blu-ray release. So all in all, this is a beautiful audio presentation of the highest calibre.

Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:

Audio Commentary by Frank Capra Jr.: Here we are personally introduced by Frank Capra Jr., and his personal audio commentary on his father, the director Frank Capra and talks in great depth of the film ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN.’ Frank Capra Jr., informs us that his father’s film was very difficult project to get started, but once Frank Capra go the go ahead, it of course turned out to be a very successful film. While Frank Capra was off sick after finishing the previous film, he started to read loads of novels to get some inspiration for his next project, and two novels that really interested him were “Valley Forge” and “Opera Hat,” and the latter was his preferred choice, about a humble man that comes into a very large fortune from a long lost relative, who was killed in a freak accident, and was set in the depression ere, so Frank Capra got his favourite screenwriter Robert Riskin to do the screenplay. But after a while we get lots of silent gaps. Then after a while we hear how frank Capra would cast his actors to appear in the film. Other Directors warned Frank Capra about this particular film that you cannot have a character, the hero, who keeps playing his tuba, especially when the character is informed he has come into a fortune of $20,000,000. Also you cannot have a hero who is accused of insanity, because it demeans the hero, but as you will see in the film, and frank Capra dismissed all of this as silly negative remarks and still went ahead and as you will see the critics were proved very wrong, and especially choosing Gary Cooper as the lead actor and hero. Because Harry Cohen had a thing about cutting costs with negative printing, Frank Capra ignored this dictate and instead used multiple of three cameras to shoot the same scene, so all shots would be perfect when editing the film, and get the perfect shot every time. Another reason Frank Capra films really worked so beautiful, as he liked to use some of the same actors again, as he liked their character performances. Because of the logistic of using heavy equipment, the mansion house in the film was actually built in Burbank and is sometimes referred to as the Deeds Mansion, and was cheaper than building sets on the film set. Jean Arthur was very difficult to work with, but Frank Capra gave the actress a sympathetic hearing to get the best out of her performance. People use to tell Frank Capra that his film ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN’ was his funniest film ever, because this film had something to say about the American society in 1936. People say that Frank Capra film endings might be happy, but, he really makes you pay for it. As we see with the newspaper headlines about Longfellow Deeds in not accepting a councillor, we hear two unknown words that are now used today, like pixelated and doodling, and both these words were very new in 1936, which were invented by the screenwriter Robert Riskin. Because this Frank Capra film was made in the depression, and a lot of people went to the cinema to forget their worries, and of course this film made a lot of money, and frank Capra use to feel guilty about this situation, but despite this, people really loved this film, because they liked to see a simple man who fights against people in authority, and that is why the picture won an Oscar, but not Garry Cooper or Jean Arthur. Frank Capra’s mantra is to show things about people’s foibles, that we do not recognise at first and again with this particular Frank Capra film shows all these foibles so perfectly. As we come to the end of the film and this audio commentary, Frank Capra Jr. says that you can see why this film was a hug box office success and especially with audiences around the world. The picture continues today to be seen on various video formats and still continues to do very well, especially outside the United States of America, and the reason for this is that it translates very well in all languages and at that point Frank Capra Jr. audio commentary stops.

Special Feature: Frank Capra Jr. Remembers . . . ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN’ [1999] [1080i] [1.37:1] [11:11] Here we have a nice short documentary that originally appeared with the inferior DVD release of ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN.’ Frank Capra Jr. [Producer] talks fondly about his father Frank Capra making of the 1936 smash hit film and gives lots of fascinating anecdotes about the process of casting of the actors and the filming. Frank Capra Jr. was only two years old when Columbia Pictures released ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN,’ so his remarks are based on the stories and things he heard from his father and others. Frank Capra died at the age of 94 in 1991. In his years of growing up, Frank Capra Jr. would hear his father talk about the various films he made. He would tell stories about the cast and crew and would recall incidents that happened behind-the-scenes. Frank Capra Jr. was captivated by the stories, particularly since they were about well-known real life people and would meet some of them on film sets as he was growing up. ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN’ was the first of three films that Frank Capra made with Jean Arthur. As tremendous an actress as she was, Jean Arthur was very high strung before shooting. Frank Capra Jr. says she would be a bundle of nerves and find every excuse not to be on the set for the start of shooting. But once his father Frank Capra got her in front of the cameras and shooting began, she took on her role naturally. With this short special feature we get to view some film clips from the film.

Special Feature: Vintage Advertising Gallery [2017] [1080p] [1.78:1] This new special feature includes 8 colourful reproductions of lobby cards from the film, which can be viewed with the composed music from the film.

Theatrical Trailer Re-Release [1936] [1080i] [1.37:1] [1:28] This is the Theatrical Trailer Re-Release for the film ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN.’

BONUS: The Beautiful Designed Collectable DigiBook Packaging with an All-New Essay on ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN’ by Film Historian Jeremy Arnold. It also includes Gary Cooper Key Credit List; Jean Arthur Key Credit List; Frank Capra Key Credit List; ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN’ Restoration in 4K. We also get a rare Film Poster; Colourful reproductions of the Cinema lobby cards. But best of all you get some stunning promotional black-and-white photographs from the film.

Finally, ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN’ is a heart-warming slice of Americana with picture-perfect performances from Jean Arthur and Gary Cooper. All in all, ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN’ finds director Frank Capra in fine form, even if not at the top of his game and ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN’ is proof of that claim. Director Frank Capra coaxes great performances from the top to the bottom of his company and also shows directorial brilliance in his unusual and highly effective visual choices, and Frank Capra gets great intimacy from the dialogues between all the characters in the film by capturing them in well-composed two-shot images, and Frank Capra is a total master of pace, unafraid of long silences as characters think, but capable of fast-talking hilarity as well at the same time. The picture is as dramatically sound as it is very funny. ‘MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN’ was influential in its time and on its eightieth anniversary, it is every bit as entertaining as it ever was. Very Highly Recommended!

Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado 
Le Cinema Paradiso 
United Kingdom