Mr. Deeds is going into town

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Movie
German title Mr. Deeds is going into town
Original title Mr. Deeds Goes To Town
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1936
length 115 minutes
Rod
Director Frank Capra
script Robert Riskin
Clarence B. Kelland
production Frank Capra
music Howard Jackson
Louis Silvers
Dimitri Tiomkin
camera Joseph Walker
cut Gene Havlick
occupation
synchronization
chronology

Successor  →
Mr. Deeds

Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (Original Title: Mr. Deeds Goes To Town ) is an American comedy film directed by Frank Capra from 1936. It is based on the short story Opera Hat by Clarence Budington Kelland .

action

The banker Martin Semple dies in a car accident in Italy. An inheritance needs to be found who shouldn't look into the books, which seem to have some inconsistencies. The listed legacy is Longfellow Deeds, a simple lucky card poet from a small Vermont town . The lawyers hope Deeds is so impressed with the big city that he will put everything in their hands. But they are wrong. The butler Walter and Semple's friend, the tough journalist Cornelius Cobb, try to convey the "real life" to Deeds.

In the meantime, “Babe” Bennet, star reporter for a competing newspaper, uses a trick to approach the millionaire heir to get a cover story. She accompanies him to a well-known literary restaurant, where they get closer. Well-known poets and writers frequent there who ask Mr. Deeds to come to their table to make fun of his postcard poems. When he realizes this, he gets angry and hits the tormentors. One of the poets is so pleased that he invites Deeds to go on a drinking spree, during which he does the craziest things while drunk. a. he feeds donuts to a horse at a crossroads.

In the meantime, the reporter has stayed at a friend's house under a false name so that Cobb cannot expose her. Her articles, in which Mr. Deeds is mocked as a Cinderella man, are very well received and meet with angry rejection from those affected. But in the meantime he has fallen hopelessly in love with the beautiful press lady, because she knows how to act as he always wanted a woman to do.

He writes a heartbreaking poem for her and confesses his love in it. As a result, she gets the worst remorse and can no longer continue her job. Because she is also extremely impressed by this unusual man. So she quits the newspaper and lets him take her to dinner privately. While Mr. Deeds looks forward to the date like a little boy, Cobb discovers the true identity of Mr. Deed's great love and informs him. He calls her and when she cannot refute his accusation, he is so deeply affected that he decides to go back home and give his fortune to unemployed farmers. He buys a larger piece of farmland and creates the basis for 2000 farm positions.

While he is in the process of sifting through the candidates, he is arrested on the pretext of being insane and wasting his fortune. Because in the meantime John Cedar, the corrupt lawyer of his deceased uncle, who had waited in vain for the confirmation of the old general power of attorney by Deeds, has identified another relative of the deceased. Cedar now wants to get a share of the inheritance for him. Because this would also mean a lot of money for him and his law firm, he spared no expense or effort to get Mr. Deeds incapacitated in a public trial.

He is first taken to a psychiatric institution, where he defends himself against an examination and, apart from Cobb, does not want to see anyone, especially not Louise Bennet. Then there is a big showdown in the form of a typical American court hearing. The room is packed with witnesses called by Mr. Cedar and farmers keeping their fingers crossed for Mr. Deeds. Deeds has not brought in his own lawyer and since he refuses to speak, Mr. Cedar can go through with his program at first.

In order to make Mr. Deeds seem crazy, he even had two old women brought from his hometown and a Viennese psychology professor. Everyone has to testify, the owner of the “donut” horse, the policeman who delivered Mr. Deeds to his home in his underpants after the drinking spree, and the head waiter from the literary restaurant. Louise is also called to the stand, but when she tries to defend the "accused" full of emotion, the judge cut her off. Nevertheless, she fights again for Mr. Deeds and when she is asked if she loves him - the lawyer wants to prove her bias - she shouts it out.

And that is the initial spark for Deeds. Now he politely asks the judge to speak and makes an ingenious defense speech. He makes it clear that actually everyone develops some crazy traits when they want to concentrate or come under pressure. One of them paints the "O" s on the piece of paper, such as B. the judge, another draw a drudel, yet another twitch his nose or pull his finger joints. In conversation with the two old ladies, who have lived rent-free in a house owned by Mr. Deeds for ages, it turns out that they basically think everyone is crazy - except themselves.

The audience went wild and cheered the speaker on when he explained why he wanted to give away all the money to the farmers. Finally, he sends Mr. Cedar to the boards with a chin hook. The court withdraws to deliberate, the tension mounts and when the judge announces that Mr. Deeds is probably the only sensible person in the whole room, there is no stopping it. The farmers carry their benefactor out the door on their shoulders. Only Louise and the two old ladies are still sitting there. Louise can no longer hold back the tears. But then Mr. Deeds, who has freed himself from his admirers, comes back in, picks Louise up and gives her a long kiss.

background

To film with Gary Cooper in the title role, Capra had to wait six months for Cooper to fulfill his contractual obligations. The film cost the enormous sum of $ 800,000 for the time, with the six-month delay alone consuming $ 100,000. At the box office, however, the film easily recouped the costs.

Until 1972, Jean Arthur had not seen the final version of the film until she did so as a guest at a film festival together with Capra.

Columbia Pictures and its main director, Capra, wanted to do a sequel with Cooper and Arthur after the success of Mr. Deeds Goes Into Town . According to the story The Gentleman from Wyoming by Lewis Foster “Mr. Deeds Goes to Washington ”. The film never came out in this form, but then in 1939 Capra directed Mr. Smith goes to Washington with James Stewart and Jean Arthur. The plot of both films is similar, and "Mr. Smith “is a somewhat naive, idealistic main character, whose unusual appearance in the big city is exploited by the press and who has to defend himself against deceit by the elites.

In the late 1960s, a television series called Mr. Deeds Goes To Town was produced by Columbia Pictures in which Monte Markham played the lead role. In 2002 the material was remade with Adam Sandler under the title Mr. Deeds .

synchronization

The first dubbed version was made in the late 1940s, when Mr. Deeds was first shown in German cinemas. The second dubbed version used today was made on the occasion of a German television broadcast in 1981. Niels Clausnitzer was responsible for the script and direction .

role actor Voice actor 1981
Longfellow Deeds ("Cinderella Man") Gary Cooper Hartmut Reck
Louise "Babe" Bennett Jean Arthur Rose-Marie Kirstein
Cornelius Cobb Lionel Stander Wolfgang Hess
Editor-in-Chief MacWade George Bancroft Michael Cramer
John Cedar Douglass Dumbrille Thomas Reiner
Judge May HB Warner Leo Bardischewski
Butler Walter Raymond Walburn Michael Rüth

Reviews

Mr. Deeds goes to town is largely positively reviewed by both then and now film critics . Graham Greene described it in August 1936 as the best Capra film to date, the "kinship to its audience, a sense of community, a moral" in his film. The film-dienst described Capra's directorial work as “a lovable, optimistic comedy about the 'pure fools' in the fight against the established powers”. When Mr. Deeds goes to town , the “satirical tips” are particularly effective in dialogue.

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Mr. Deeds is going into town. In: synchronkartei.de. German synchronous index , accessed on April 4, 2017 .
  2. ↑ Mr. Deeds at Rotten Tomatoes
  3. ↑ Graham Greene: Mr. Deeds. In: The Spectator , August 28, 1936.
  4. ↑ Mr. Deeds is going into town. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .Template: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used