Meet John Doe
Director: Frank Capra
Year Released: 1941
Rating: 2.0
Journalist Barbara Stanwyck concocts a risky scheme to save her job by inventing a self-loathing martyr for the people - a worn-out "John Doe" - who plans to commit suicide on Christmas Day to protest all the wrongs of the world. When she finds someone to play the part - former baseball player turned bum Gary Cooper - people flock to his fake message and familiar platitudes as if they never heard them before. I find myself less enthused about the cornier parts of Capra's oeuvre - mainly Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town - because of their overbearing self-importance - this, too, divides the world into the honest and the crooked, with little shading in between.
