BEFORE: As I get closer to the end of the year, I'm finding it necessary to relax the rules on linking a bit, if I want to include certain films in the 2014 chain. From this point, I'm going to allow two versions of the same film (or two films that are so similar that one is "essentially" a remake of the other) and for those leaps, the linking will be suspended. For example, I'll follow tonight's film with the remake starring Adam Sandler - I don't think one would expect any actors to carry over from a film made six decades earlier, or for the linking in that case to be anything close to productive. Watching two versions of the same story in succession should allow me to judge them better - I'll do the same next year with two versions of "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty".
But for tonight, Joan Crawford and John Barrymore were both in the 1925 version of "Ben-Hur" with Gary Cooper (last seen in "For Whom the Bell Tolls").
AFTER: This seems like a proper wrap-up for the week, since the topic of economics kept coming up over and over - going back a full week to the inheritance scam seen in "Anastasia", then the search for hidden valuables in "Gaslight", then Bette Davis playing rich women in "Dark Victory" and "Now, Voyager", and a middle-class mother in "The Catered Affair". Then "Mildred Pierce" went from working-class to upper-class with her restaurant chain, and back again, and the classes clashed at the "Grand Hotel".
(Back in February, I watched a few films on reporters falling in love, like "It Happened One Night", "Love on the Run" and "His Girl Friday", I didn't realize this one would have fit right in there - but then, I think I didn't have a copy of this one then, it's a more recent addition to the list.)
In tonight's film a small-town man unexpectedly inherits 20 million dollars from his uncle - and as I've noted before, money just seemed to be worth a lot more back in the 1930's (or things now are more expensive, I'm not really sure which) so with 20 million, a man would be set for life - but instead of just walking away with the cash, Longfellow Deeds lets himself be drawn into the big city, where lawyers and accountants elect him chairman of his own company, and he explores the mysteries of business.
For example, he can't understand why a business like an opera company can operate at a loss. Of course, any artistic endeavor runs the risk of not being profitable, but Deeds assumes that if it's not making money, it must be doing something wrong - either they're charging too much, or not enough, or just not putting on a good enough show.
I'm not sure I followed all the logic in the ways that Deeds' folksiness manifests itself - his reporter girlfriend writes stories about him feeding doughnuts to a horse, and you'd think someone from a rural area would know a little more about horses. Actions like this, and his plan to use his fortune to buy land for homeless families willing to farm it, lead to a competency hearing - because naturally, anyone who wants to give away his money must be crazy.
It's a little convenient that he's too loveless and forlorn to defend himself for the first part of the hearing, allowing the opposing lawyers to make their entire case. (Don't they get a chance to do that, anyway?) And since it features the sort of wishful success that Depression-era moviegoers no doubt dreamed of, it's also probably a form of fulfillment when Deeds is declared to be the sanest man in the room. After all, everyone is a little bit crazy, yet everyone also thinks themselves to be completely sane.
This film was directed by Frank Capra, and when you look at it next to his other big hits like "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" and "It's a Wonderful Life", it's easy to spot the similar themes - the star is the common man, the individual working within/against the system to fight political or financial corruption. In fact Capra had plans to make a sequel to this film, called "Mr. Deeds Goes to Washington", and eventually that got changed around to feature the new character of Mr. Smith.
Also notable is the first use of the word "doodle" to mean absent-minded scribbling, and also the word "pixilated", but in a different context than the word "pixelated" we use today - here it means "as if touched by pixies", also meaning to be a bit funny in the head.
Also starring Jean Arthur, George Bancroft, Lionel Stander (last seen in "Call Northside 777"), Douglass Dumbrille, H.B Warner.
RATING: 4 out of 10 sirens
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