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Heard it was recently on TCM but I saw it on the big screen as a part of the UCLA film project in conjunction with a small interview about the film. nothing is like the shared experience of being in crowd responding to movie entertainment.
Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwick really put in some big work leading a top supporting cast in this one. Easy to see why they were stars.
It starts out light , as with the rest of the big hits from frank capra and this writer, but gets a sly yet heavy message towards the end, unlike, say , it happened one night, from the same writer director team.
It seems the writer was vacationing in Europe for a little break after signing a million dollar contract with a studio back in the thirties, when he became concerned with the rise of european fascism all around him .
This was the anti fascism screen play he wrote when he returned , after quitting the studio and rejoining Capra forming their own company. This was the first and only product, losing european distribution when war broke out , it didn't make enough money.
But it is quite a show, right from the first scene where the carved in stone old newspaper name, with the words "free press" being jack hammered off in the opening scene and replaced with a new bronze plaque for the new "better" approach. In one madison square garden scene it is shot like the nazi rallies shown in newsreels. A pro production all the way, including the top talent supporting cast.
That convention scene was expensive and capra complained to his writer about the studio always being so tight fisted all the time, he needed more money to make his shots. His writer replied," We are the studio!" it's a shame I can't remember the writers name, his daughter was there in conjunction with a book she had written about her dad and fay ray, a married team.
CApra and the writer had nothing but big hits before this one, as evidenced by the million dollar contract that capra never thought he, the writer, would never walk away from , when they formed their own company. Capra later made other big films, but nothing very good, funny girl was mentioned as a casual example, if I recall correctly.
A lot of material in this film matches todays events, the little guy being played by big money behind the scenes, grass roots tea party like. Big money buying a respected news outlet, in those days, a news paper, to control information, and thus to gain enough political power to make even more money once in the drivers seat.
I saw this with a nice group audience . By the time it was over, most were all torn down. Cooper,Stanwick and crew really put the material over. Long difficult speeches went by like nothing, they were so well done. A classic renewed by todays raise of fascism across the world.
P.S. The petersen museum has a bunch of hollywood cars,if you have the interest, and are ever in town. It sometimes displays coopers old custom duzy . The last time I saw it, it was covering second base in a culver city park with a bunch of high quality low rider cars dominating the event by sheer numbers. it won the classic class, without contest, being a pebble beach quality car.
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Topic - "Meet John Doe," an old classic made relevant again. - beach cruiser 18:09:10 03/11/19 (1)
- I remember it well, but would not mind seeing again - Victor Khomenko 06:49:37 03/13/19 (2)
- RE: I remember it well, but would not mind seeing again - beach cruiser 18:43:32 03/13/19 (1)
- I have soft spot for Stanwyck - Victor Khomenko 11:38:16 03/14/19 (0)
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