{"id":16314,"date":"2011-03-24T09:19:33","date_gmt":"2011-03-24T16:19:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=16314"},"modified":"2021-01-14T15:43:22","modified_gmt":"2021-01-14T22:43:22","slug":"meet-john-doe-1941","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=16314","title":{"rendered":"Meet John Doe (1941)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;If you ask this column, the wrong people are jumping off the roofs.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Poster21.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Poster21-189x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"189\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-16349\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Poster21-189x300.jpg 189w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Poster21-80x128.jpg 80w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Poster21.jpg 303w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 189px) 100vw, 189px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nWhen a &#8220;John Doe&#8221; letter concocted by a reporter (Barbara Stanwyck) hits a nerve with the public, her oily newspaper editor (Edward Arnold) decides to hire an out-of-work baseball player (Gary Cooper) to impersonate Doe, with the intention of building a mass political movement.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Barbara Stanwyck Films<\/li>\n<li>Edward Arnold Films<\/li>\n<li>Folk Heroes<\/li>\n<li>Frank Capra Films<\/li>\n<li>Gary Cooper Films<\/li>\n<li>Journalists<\/li>\n<li>Media Spectacle<\/li>\n<li>Naive Public<\/li>\n<li>Political Corruption<\/li>\n<li>Walter Brennan Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary is pretty much accurate in his scathing review of this &#8220;self-congratulatory, pretentious, gloomy, [and] heartless&#8221; film, which remains one of Capra&#8217;s most iconic movies (and was &#8220;shamelessly calculated to become a commercial success&#8221;) but simply hasn&#8217;t held up well at all. Peary argues that it feels like it was &#8220;made by someone who always climbs out of the wrong side of the bed&#8221;, given that it &#8220;shows an America perpetuated solely by corrupt individuals and simpletons who&#8217;ll believe anything told to them and accept anything done to them&#8221;. He says he &#8220;can&#8217;t stand how Capra lines up his common folk, has them talk in humble, hushed tones, and shines a light on their well-scrubbed faces so that we may think they have angels sitting on their shoulders&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Grubel.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Grubel-1024x771.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"482\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-63314\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Grubel-1024x771.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Grubel-300x226.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Grubel-128x96.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Grubel-768x578.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Grubel-359x270.png 359w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Grubel.png 1239w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>He specifically calls out the seemingly endless &#8220;discourse&#8221; narrated by a soda jerk (Regis Toomey) about &#8220;his town&#8217;s people coming together after being inspired by John Doe&#8217;s help-your-neighbor speech&#8221; (which never rings true, not for a minute): <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Crowd.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Crowd-1024x757.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"473\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-63311\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Crowd-1024x757.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Crowd-300x222.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Crowd-128x95.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Crowd-768x568.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Crowd-365x270.png 365w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Crowd.png 1243w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; and notes that Cooper&#8217;s speeches &#8220;could have been delivered to a junior-high civics class&#8221; (I&#8217;ll admit to nearly falling asleep in the middle of the first interminable one).<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Speech.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Speech-1024x761.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"476\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-63316\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Speech-1024x761.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Speech-300x223.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Speech-128x95.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Speech-768x571.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Speech-363x270.png 363w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Speech.png 1239w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Indeed, it&#8217;s actually difficult to argue that this film IS must-see, and I went back and forth in my vote &#8212; ultimately deciding that film fanatics will probably be too curious not to check it out at least once for themselves (I&#8217;ve now seen it twice, and that&#8217;s enough for me). With that said, I do find Barbara Stanwyck&#8217;s performance to be worth a watch &#8212; though her character, as written, is somewhat inconsistently motivated (it&#8217;s difficult to believe that the daughter of two such noble parents would be willing to perpetuate such an elaborate hoax on the public), this is no fault of Stanwyck&#8217;s, and she does the best she can with her role. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Stanwyck2-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Stanwyck2-1-1024x746.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"466\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-63318\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Stanwyck2-1-1024x746.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Stanwyck2-1-300x219.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Stanwyck2-1-128x93.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Stanwyck2-1-768x559.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Stanwyck2-1-371x270.png 371w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Stanwyck2-1.png 1267w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Edward Arnold is quietly menacing as the film&#8217;s Big Baddie (he&#8217;s eerily effective, especially in earlier scenes):<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Arnold-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Arnold-1-1024x753.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"471\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-63319\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Arnold-1-1024x753.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Arnold-1-300x220.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Arnold-1-128x94.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Arnold-1-768x564.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Arnold-1-367x270.png 367w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Arnold-1.png 1245w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8230; and Walter Brennan, while typecast in a tiny supporting role, adds some much needed cynicism to the proceedings. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Brennan-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Brennan-1-1024x755.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"472\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-63307\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Brennan-1-1024x755.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Brennan-1-300x221.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Brennan-1-128x94.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Brennan-1-768x566.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Brennan-1-366x270.png 366w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Brennan-1.png 1255w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately, Cooper himself merely comes across as an uninteresting <a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/film\/reviews\/73013\/meet_john_doe.html\">&#8220;bore&#8221;<\/a>, someone without much charisma at all; I guess that&#8217;s part of the point (he&#8217;s supposed to be the ultimate &#8220;every man&#8221;, after all), but he makes for an awfully dull protagonist. <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Cooper3.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Cooper3-1024x772.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"483\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-63312\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Cooper3-1024x772.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Cooper3-300x226.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Cooper3-128x97.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Cooper3-768x579.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Cooper3-358x270.png 358w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Cooper3.png 1245w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Barbara Stanwyck as Ann Mitchell<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Stanwyck4.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Stanwyck4-1024x763.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"477\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-63309\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Stanwyck4-1024x763.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Stanwyck4-300x223.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Stanwyck4-128x95.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Stanwyck4-768x572.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Stanwyck4-362x270.png 362w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Stanwyck4.png 1239w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Edward Arnold as D.B. Norton<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Arnold2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Arnold2-1024x782.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"489\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-63308\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Arnold2-1024x782.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Arnold2-300x229.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Arnold2-128x98.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Arnold2-768x586.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Arnold2-354x270.png 354w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/03\/Meet-John-Doe-Arnold2.png 1227w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes &#8212; but only as a one-time must-see, for its historical notoriety as prime &#8220;Capra-Corn&#8221;. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Historically Relevant<\/li>\n<li>Important Director<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0033891\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1941\/03\/13\/archives\/meet-john-doe-an-inspiring-lesson-in-americanism-opens-at-the.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmsite.org\/meet.html\">FilmSite Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.combustiblecelluloid.com\/classic\/meetjohnd.shtml\">Combustible Celluloid Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.filmsite.org\/meet.html\">Greatest Films Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/3827\/meet-john-doe#articles-reviews\">TCM Articles<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.timeout.com\/movies\/meet-john-doe\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;If you ask this column, the wrong people are jumping off the roofs.&#8221; Synopsis: When a &#8220;John Doe&#8221; letter concocted by a reporter (Barbara Stanwyck) hits a nerve with the public, her oily newspaper editor (Edward Arnold) decides to hire an out-of-work baseball player (Gary Cooper) to impersonate Doe, with the intention of building a mass political movement. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Barbara Stanwyck Films Edward Arnold Films Folk Heroes Frank Capra Films Gary Cooper Films Journalists Media Spectacle&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=16314\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16314"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63320,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16314\/revisions\/63320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}