Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

When a financier dies leaving the enormous sum of $20 millions, the race to find an heir takes us to a tiny hamlet where we meet the pixilated poet “Longfellow Deeds” (Gary Cooper). He’s an honest, slightly flighty, man who hasn’t the foggiest idea what to do with his new fortune except, perhaps, serenade it with his tuba! His rise to fame hasn’t gone unnoticed in the press, and one newspaper decides to send a reporter to ingratiate herself with him, and to write reports ridiculing him and naming him the “Cinderella Man”. She (Jean Arthur) gradually starts to realise that her naive and impressionable mark actually has an heart of gold, but when his grandest scheme of all to spend his money attracts the lawyers who try to certify him, can she do anything to help him fight back? Cooper is great here, and together with Arthur delivers a punchy comedy that shines a light on greed, power and their best counter-measure - decency. There’s a great ensemble cast supporting too, especially his sagely butler (Raymond Walburn) and Walter Catlett’s lively “Morrow”, but it’s really just down to Cooper showing us he has comedy timing, too.