MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN

'''Mr. Deeds Goes to Town''' is a 1936 comedy film, based on the story ''Opera Hat'' by Clarence Budington Kelland. The film was written by Kelland and Robert Riskin, and directed by Frank Capra. It starred Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur.

Contents

Plot

Etymology of "pixilated"

Cast

Awards

Adaptations, remake and non-sequel

Popular culture

References

External links

Plot

In the middle of the Great Depression, Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper), part-time greeting card poet and tuba-playing inhabitant of the hamlet of Mandrake Falls, Vermont, inherits the enormous fortune of 20 million dollars from his late uncle, Martin Semple. He is found and taken to New York City by his uncle's unctuous attorney, John Cedar (Douglass Dumbrille).
Cedar gives his cynical troubleshooter, ex-newspaperman Cornelius Cobb (Lionel Stander), the task of keeping reporters away from the heir. He is outfoxed however by star reporter Louise "Babe" Bennett (Jean Arthur), who appeals to Deeds' romantic fantasy of rescuing a damsel in distress by masquerading as a poor worker named Mary Dawson. She pretends to faint from hunger in his presence and worms her way into his confidence. She proceeds to write a series of enormously popular articles mocking Longfellow's hick ways and odd behavior, naming him the "Cinderella Man." Meanwhile, Cedar tries to get Deeds' power of attorney in order to hide his financial misdeeds.
However, Deeds proves to be a shrewd observer of people, easily fending off greedy opportunists and Cedar as well. He wins Cobb's wholehearted respect and eventually Babe's love. Complications arise when Cobb finds out the reporter's true identity, leaving Deeds heartbroken.
Just as he is ready to return to Mandrake Falls in disgust, a dispossessed farmer breaks into his mansion and threatens him with a gun. He expresses his scorn for the seemingly heartless, ultra rich man, who won't lift a finger to help the multitudes of desperate poor. The intruder then comes to his senses, but Deeds realizes what he can do with his troublesome fortune: he decides to provide fully equipped ten-acre farms free to thousands of homeless families if they will work the land for several years.
Alarmed at the prospect of losing control of the fortune, Cedar joins forces with Deeds' only other relative and his grasping, domineering wife in seeking to have Deeds declared mentally incompetent. This, along with Babe's betrayal, finally breaks his spirit and he sinks into a deep depression.
During his sanity hearing, things look bleak for Deeds, especially since he initially refuses to defend himself. Cedar even gets his Mandrake Falls tenants, eccentric elderly sisters, Jane and Amy Faulkner (Margaret Seddon and Margaret McWade), to testify that he is "pixilated." However, when Babe convinces him that she truly loves him, he systematically punches holes in Cedar's case (before punching Cedar in the face) and the judge declares him to be "the sanest man who ever walked into this courtroom."

Etymology of "pixilated"

The film popularized the word "pixilated", which in this case meant craziness, or Deed's seemingly illogical behavior in the film. The 1932 book, ''The American Notebooks by Nathaniel Hawthorne: Based Upon the Original Manuscripts in the Pierpont Morgan Library'', edited by Randall Stewart, includes the entry:
:"Pixilated"—a Marblehead word, meaning bewildered–wild–&c &c Probably derived from Pixy—a fairy.
:''The New English Dictionary'' gives "pixyled," with the meaning "led astray by pixies," "bewildered," but not "pixilated."

Cast

★ Gary Cooper as Longfellow Deeds/Cinderella Man. Cooper was director Capra's first, last and only choice.

★ Jean Arthur as Louise "Babe" Bennett/Mary Dawson. Arthur was not the first choice for the role. Principal photography had already begun when Capra "discovered" his heroine in a rush screening.^[1]

★ George Bancroft as MacWade aka "Mac"

★ Lionel Stander as Cornelius Cobb

★ Douglass Dumbrille as John Cedar

★ Raymond Walburn as Walter

★ H.B. Warner as Judge May

★ Ruth Donnelly as Mabel Dawson

★ Walter Catlett as Morrow

Awards

Capra won the 1936 Academy Award for Directing, while Cooper received the first of his five nominations for Best Actor. The film was also nominated for Best Picture, Best Screenplay (Robert Riskin), and Best Sound Recording (John P. Livadary).
It was voted Best Picture of the Year (1936) by the New York Film Critics and the National Board of Review.

Adaptations, remake and non-sequel

A radio adaptation of the film was originally broadcast on February 1, 1936 on ''Lux Radio Theater''. A short-lived TV series of the same name ran from 1969 to 1970, starring Monte Markham as Longfellow Deeds. It was also remade as ''Mr. Deeds'' in 2002, starring Adam Sandler and Winona Ryder.
A mistaken belief is that a sequel called ''Mr. Deeds Goes to Washington'' was written and eventually became ''Mr. Smith Goes to Washington''. Although the latter has some similarities to ''Mr. Deeds Goes to Town'', including starring Jean Arthur and being directed by Capra, its 1939 screenplay was actually based on an out-of-print novel, ''The Gentleman from Montana'', and was an entirely separate project.^[2]

Popular culture

★ The lyrics to the 1977 Rush song "Cinderella Man" on the ''A Farewell to Kings'' album, are based on the story of ''Mr. Deeds Goes to Town''.

References

1. Capra 1971, p. 184.
2. Capra 1971, p. 254.


★ Capra, Frank. ''Frank Capra, The Name Above the Title: An Autobiography''. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1971. ISBN 0-30680-771-8.

★ Michael, Paul, ed. ''The Great Movie Book: A Comprehensive Illustrated Reference Guide to the Best-loved Films of the Sound Era''. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall Inc., 1980. ISBN 0-13-363663-1.

External links

★

★ ''Lux Radio Theater'' adaptation in the Internet Archive