Title: OK Populist Drama
Review: "Meet John Doe" is an engaging populist drama with some elements of screwball comedy, but it lacks the resonance of director Frank Capra's "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington". Now Capra is not the most subtle of directors but he is really wearing his sentiments on his sleeve here. Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck are fine here but not outstanding. Walter Brennan is, well, Walter Brennan. The presence of Edward Arnold as the newspaper magnate with political ambitions telegraphs the ominous direction the film's story is going to go. I kept thinking that what if an actor with a little more subtlety who doesn't wear the black hat so prominently was cast instead, like say, Claude Rains. I also thought to myself while watching this how the Coen brothers were influenced to some degree by Capra in films like "The Hudsucker Proxy" or "O Brother, Where Art Thou?". This is a good film but not one of Capra's best.
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