Mr. Deeds Goes to Town opens with our titular character, Longfellow Deeds, receiving guests from the "big town." This group of lawyers have some surprising news for him; his uncle, who he barely knew has died, leaving Mr. Deeds the sole heir to his $20 million empire. Reluctantly, Mr. Deeds heads to the "Big City" to see where this ride takes him.
There he meets, not by accident, Babe Bennett. A fast talking tabloid journalist. Who, unknown to Mr. Deeds, has been given the assignment to get close to him for the purpose of getting juicy newspaper stories. Of course, Babe's motives are purely business at first but she can't help but fall in love with Mr. Deeds, the closer she gets to him. There are parties that want Mr. Deeds' fortune and will do everything they can to separate him from it. This leads to a silly (did this stuff actually happen back then) and quite public, sanity hearing. You see, the lawyers handling the estate of Mr. Deeds uncle have been trying all along to take it from him, and if they can just convince the public that the sweet and simple Mr. Deeds is crazy, they will get what they want.
This courtroom scene tries to put across some admirable concepts, Mr. Deeds argues that being kind and caring are traits that should be aspired to and being different is a good thing not something to be ashamed of. I appreciated the sentiment here but I don't think the writing was quite up to the job. It ended up being just a bit unbelievable.
I underestimated how much I was going to like Mr. Deeds Goes to Town. It looked simple and sappy, but that's why I liked it. It definitely seemed to be a movie of it's time. In his films, Capra (Director) was able to walk that line of over-the-top sentiment, as opposed to some modern directors that have tried to duplicate the skill but rarely succeed. It's a sweet, goofy movie but don't let it fool you, it has something to say.
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