Review of Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) by Edith N — 06 Oct 2006

First, if someone's deciding whether I should be locked up or not, I really, really want them to know what bipolar disorder is. I have to say, Mr. Deeds does seem to suffer from at least a mild case of it, but very few people are seriously bipolar enough to be locked up.

I resent the manipulation the more because I don't like the movie as much. Mr. Deeds says and does some genuinely hurtful things early in the film, and I don't think it makes him seem homey; I think he seems cruel in places. He's right that the "literati" are mean, too, but that's not a justification for him to do it.

I'm also really tired of watching Mr. Deeds punch people he doesn't like. It's also not an endearing trait. I doubt he stops to think what it would be like if everyone did it.

Now. I like that he's nice to the servants, except the bodyguards, and I can kind of see his point about them. I like what he eventually decides to do with the money. I like that he sees through what people try to snow him with.

But I don't like that he expects an opera to be like another business. Art isn't business; that's rather the point. I don't like that he has to be yelled at, that he has to have a gun pointed at him, to realize that maybe there are people in trouble. He must [i]know[/i] there are people in trouble, given that he lets those two weird little old ladies live rent-free in a house he owns, but it's still as if he's just never thought of it.

And I don't care how drunk you are. Feeding doughnuts to a horse is not just wasteful, it's bad for the horse.