Taglines: Rocking America with laughter!
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town movie storyline. Frank Capra’s populist romantic screwball comedy based on Opera Hat, a Saturday Evening Post story by Clarence Budington Kelland. Mandrake Falls, Vermont greeting-card poetry-writing, tuba-playing rube Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper) inherits $20 million from his wealthy NYC uncle, but eccentrically decides to be philanthropic and give it to Depression-Era needy.
A hot-shot news reporter Babe Bennett (Arthur) poses as an out-of-work stenographer to get close to him for a story – calling him “The Cinderella Man.” She falls in love, defending him when he is declared insane and goes to trial, and is accused of being ‘pixilated.’ Eventually, he defends himself and is acquitted by the judge: “…you are not only sane but you’re the sanest man that ever walked into this courtroom.”
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (a.k.a. A Gentleman Goes to Town and Opera Hat) is a 1936 American romantic comedy film directed by Frank Capra, starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur in her first featured role. 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.
Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)
Directed by: Frank Capra
Starring: Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, George Bancroft, Lionel Stander, Douglass Dumbrille, Raymond Walburn, Ruth Donnelly, Walter Catlett, John Wray, Stanley Andrews, Frank Austin
Screenplay by: Robert Riskin
Cinematography by: Joseph Walker
Film Editing by: Gene Havlick
Costume Design by: Samuel Lange
Art Direction by: Stephen Goosson
Music by: Howard Jackson
Distributed by: Columbia Pictures
Release Date: April 16, 1936
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