Review of Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) by Anne F — 14 Mar 2011

Now looks more than ever like Capra's warm-up for "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"... This version misses the complicating politics. Even at the squawking, floppy-haired stage of his career, James Stewart was able to convey the lived experience of a senator having to negotiate his way between vested interests; Cooper, conversely, is just a little bit weird as the kind of thirtysomething naif who delights in sliding down banisters and discovering his front hall functions as an echo chamber - there really does seem to be something wrong with him in the head.

The whole scenario turns on Deeds's poetry, which starts out conspicuously ghastly before - at a certain point - Capra comes to insist it should break your heart. Moderately charming, nonetheless, with some fun contributions down the supporting cast, though arguably not as many as Sturges would have found room for - and Sturges would almost certainly have made a tougher, wittier, livelier film out of this or similar material.

("Hail the Conquering Hero", for example, which - despite its title - was less concerned with proving its lead character was, after all, a jolly good fellow.) Later earmarked by Adam Sandler for a remake - in this instance, evidence not of the arrogance and creative bankruptcy of today's Hollywood, but of a certain easily understood simplemindedness in the original.