May 7 Gary Cooper

To celebrate Gary Cooper’s birthday I watched Mr. Deeds Goes To Town. Gary Cooper plays a small town man who inherits his uncle’s estate. At his farewell reception the lawyer is waiting for him at the station and is worried he won’t show up. The camera turns and he is playing the tuba in the band. Gary Cooper plays the role with childlike innocents and exuberant. He is intelligent and has common sense. He can see through everyone except Jean Arthur. Jean plays a reporter who purposely faints in his presence. He takes her out to dinner because she is hungry. She uses a phony name. They spend time together and fall in love, while all the time she is writing newspaper stories about him. He finds out she is a reporter and plants to leave town.

As he is leaving a man comes to see him to tell him off about all the wasted money while people go hungry. Gary feeds the man (the dinner he was going to give the Jean that he was going to propose to). Gary sits with the man and watches him eat. He decides to give away the money to people who apply for farmland. He personally interviews each person. One day the police come to arrest Gary. His cousin and wife (who thought they should have inherited) and Gary’s former lawyer think that Gary is insane for giving away the money. Most of the trial he doesn’t say a word and has little reaction. He movies a little bit but looks bored and exasperated by what is going on. The character witnesses, two sisters from his home town, think that he is pixilated because he walks in the rain without a hat, talks to himself, whistles and sometimes sings. Turns out everyone in that town is pixilated except for the two sisters. Jean speaks out for him when he wont. The forgotten people press him to speak. He takes stand (he moves the chair away from his former lawyer). He points out that everyone does something to help them think, whether it is doodling, nail-biting or playing the tuba. All he wants to do is help his fellow man in the way that he can. He is proven to be sane and gets Jean Arthur.

I don’t care much for Capra films. He is a talented director but is a little to sentimental or preachy for me. Gary Cooper even when doing nothing always grabs your attention. Walking in a room he has such a presence you can’t take your eyes off him.