Meet John Doe (film)

• Release Date: 1941
• Director(s): Frank Capra
• Writer(s): Robert Riskin
• Principal Actors and Roles: Gary Cooper (John Doe / Long John Willoughby); Barbara Stanwyck (Ann Mitchell); James Gleason (Henry Connell)

Director Frank Capra is famed for his "everyman" comedy-dramas, of which Meet John Doe is a perfect example. Like the director’s earlier films Mr. Smith Goes to Washington and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Meet John Doe is a populist tale in which the "little man" stands up against powerful economic interests and wins in the end.

Meet John Doe was released in 1941 and is a strong response to the horrors of fascism in Europe. In Meet John Doe a newspaper publisher with fascist tendencies and aspirations tries to use an everyman as a cynical means to gain the presidency. The casting of the everyman hero was important, and Gary Cooper fit the bill. He was tall and lean with an ordinary-sounding Montana voice, an actor who embodied all the good in the common man. The result is a historic collaboration that unabashedly celebrates the virtues of American democracy.

Plot

The plot of Meet John Doe is intrinsic to its meaning and importance because the entire film is an exercise in social consciousness. It begins with an unseen new owner of a local newspaper changing its name from The Bulletin to The New Bulletin. The new owner, the pseudo-fascist Norton, changes the paper’s motto from "A free press for a free people" to "A streamlined newspaper for a streamlined era." One of his first streamlining moves is to order the managing editor to fire the advice columnist Ann Mitchell because her column does not produce the "fireworks" needed to generate subscribers.

Mitchell tries to save her job by fabricating a letter from a man who claims to be in despair over his long-term unemployment and the injustice of hunger across such a wealthy nation. He intends to leap from the roof of City Hall at midnight on Christmas Eve. The letter is signed John Doe. Her ruse works. The public is enraptured by the story. Mitchell uses the powerful reaction to convince the editor to keep running stories about John Doe—or to admit the fraud. Trapped, the editor puts Mitchell back on the staff and gives her a $1,000 bonus.

The catch is, they must find a John Doe. A variety of unemployed men claim to be the letter writer. Mitchell and the editor cynically decide on a former baseball pitcher named "Long John" Willoughby. Long John goes along because he wants money for surgery on his injured arm, but his savvier partner, the Colonel, objects. The Colonel warns Long John that he’ll become a "hee-lot"—a slave to comfort and wealth.

Almost immediately Norton hatches a plan to use the supposed John Doe to promote his own political ends. Mitchell is assigned to write a radio speech for John, which she bases on the idealism of her father’s diary.

A competing newspaper tries to convince John to expose the hoax, but he is falling in love with Mitchell. He delivers the speech, though he later regrets it. He and the Colonel try to escape, but Norton and Mitchell find them in a nearby town. Mitchell asks John to meet with members of the local John Doe club, a network of groups that has formed as a result of his plain-spoken doctrine of being a good neighbor. She appeals to Long John’s idealism, asking if he will continue to represent the John Doe club members across the country. Moved by the sincerity of the local club’s president, Long John agrees to maintain the charade.

However, Norton intends to use John Doe to form a political party, which he plans to use as a platform for becoming president. Norton bribes Mitchell to persuade Long John to go along. The idea is that John will announce the new party at the national John Doe club convention. Finally fed up with the whole cynical mess, the managing editor gets drunk and reveals the plan to Long John, who confronts Mitchell and Norton. John tells them that he is going to expose the plot at the convention that night.

Naively storming away, John is outfoxed at the convention by Norton, who spreads the story that John is a fake while cutting the microphone cord to prevent him from revealing the truth. The crowd turns against "John Doe," and Long John goes into hiding. He decides that the only way to save the movement is to go through with Doe’s original plan: Long John will jump from the top of City Hall at midnight on Christmas Eve.

The rest of the main characters foresee this, so when John steps out of the darkness on top of the building, Mitchell, Norton, the Colonel, and the managing editor are waiting for him. Norton tries to stop him by telling him the public won’t even know he has jumped, and Mitchell tries to convince him not to jump as well. But what prevents John’s suicide is a group of John Doe Club members. They convince him that they believe in him and his cause, and he turns away from the edge with a renewed trust in humanity. The film ends with John carrying Mitchell, who has fainted, from the rooftop.

Significance

Frank Capra is so closely identified with the message-laden storytelling that Meet John Doe typifies, his name has become an adjective: Capraesque. The term denotes a sentimental morality tale with a heartfelt populist message. It can also be negative, meaning a film is corny and overly sentimental. From Capra’s Depression-era paeans to the dignity of the "little guy" who honorably prevails over the seemingly overwhelming interests of the rich and powerful (such as 1939’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) to his 1946 classic It’s a Wonderful Life, Capra’s patriotic vision of democracy and his optimistic faith in the decency of individuals is unmistakable.

Although it is not considered one of Capra’s best films, Meet John Doe is still considered an excellent movie. It was nominated for an Academy Award for best story, and it is ranked forty-ninth in the American Film Institute’s 100 Years . . . 100 Cheers as one of the "100 Most Inspirational Movies" of the last century.

Awards and nominations

Nominated

• Academy Award (1941) Best Story

Bibliography

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Wolfe, Charles. Meet John Doe: Frank Capra, Director. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1989. Print.