Meet John Doe: A Frank Capra Production: A Classic Story For Our Time: Colorized

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"I've been lonely and hungry for something practically all my life."Long John WilloughbyThis Frank Capra film, unlike others he had made, leaned more towards drama than humor. Though there is humor, and many charming moments involving Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck, the tone of the Robert Riskin screenplay, based on a story by Richard Connell and Robert Presnell, has more serious implications than Capra's other films. For that reason, and perhaps because the prints of this film are not as good as the others, "Meet John Doe" sometimes gets unfairly dismissed when Capra's films are discussed. This was the meat in what many call "Capracorn."Barbara Stanwyck is Ann Mitchell, a reporter soon to be unemployed when her paper is gobbled up by D.B. Norton (Edward Arnold). Desparate to keep the thirty dollar a week salary that keeps her two young sisters and her mom (Spring Byington) afloat, she begs editor Henry Connell (James Gleason) for her job back, but her plea falls on deaf ears. She exits with a column that's a real doozy, pretending she has received a letter from a "John Doe" who, because of the injustice in the world, the state of civilization, and the downtrodden, plans to kill himself at Christmas.A groundswell of support for John Doe gets Ann her job back, but now she and boss Connell must find a "John Doe." In walks Long John Willoughby (Gary Cooper), a hungry baseball player with a bad wing. He and his pal, Colonel (Walter Brennan), are just hungry enough to play along. Colonel has reservations from the get-go, however, afraid that Long Johm will become a helot--a guy with a bank account.Long John just wants to earn enough to get the arm he injured pitching a 19 inning game fixed by Bonesetter Brown, but his shy affection for Ann keeps him around long enough to make a radio speech, written from words in her father's diary. His speach spreads the John Doe movement all across the country. It is the crusty Colonel who sees the train wreck coming, however, and takes off.Clubs start up everywhere, only the "little" people allowed to join. People start treating their neighbors with kindness, showing the spirit of Christmas on a day-to-day basis. D.B. Norton, however, has political aspirations, and sees a way to twist the movement to fit his ambitions. It is Henry Connell who clues in Long John on what is about to happen, letting the air out of his balloon and shattering his smitten image of Ann, with her chestnut hair and great legs.What follows, as the country discovers John Doe was a fake, will lead Long John to a rooftop overlooking the city on a snowy Christmas night.Stanwyck is wonderful here, as Ann slowly comes to realize she has found a man like her father but may have helped to destroy him. Cooper is memorable as Long John Willoughby, a shy ball player who realizes he has come to stand for more than he ever could have on the pitching mound. Brennan is his usual great character, looking out for Long John as much as he can.There are some warm and sentimental moments between Cooper's Long John and Stanwyck's Ann mixed in with the social drama, and some charm as well. Cooper's scene with Ann's mom, whose help he needs to ask her daughter to marry him, has a sweetness to it that is long gone from today's films. And the baseball scene in a hotel room, when they play pretend ball, is a classic.This is a wonderful film about the little guy that sometimes gets analyzed too much. All Capra was trying to do, was remind people that the first John Doe came a long time ago, and people still weren't listening. This is a film that works best if you forget it is a Frank Capra picture, and just enjoy it on its own merits. It can then be placed proudly beside the director's other classics on your movie shelf.

I'm trying to figure out whether it's good or bad that Walter Brennan steals just about every scene he's in. I guess it's a good thing. The lines they give him are priceless. My favorite is, "I don't read no papers, and I don't listen to radios either. I know the world's been shaved by a drunken barber, and I don't have to read it."Of her too many to count great scenes, I think the scene in Gleason's office when she's pitching her John Doe idea is her finest. And for my money she never looked better than she did in this movie. She looks beautiful and brilliant and cute all at the same time.It's corny and completely dated and that's why I love it so much because I'm corny and dated too. But it's profound. It's a tail of love thy neighbor. It's the war between cynicism and hope.

VCI is a lot like Microsoft in that they keep releasing stuff, half finished (ever wonder why when your computer messes something up, you get a prompt asking if you'd like to report the problem to Microsoft, well that's because you're essentially "Beta Testing" for them, and by answering "YES" to the prompt, you're helping them fix the bugs in the program that should have been ironed out before it was installed in your computer).This newest version of, Meet John Doe, plays out more like a restoration in progress than an actual finished product.The most annoying thing is the missing frames, I've only watched about 25 minutes of the movie so far, and in that time there were at least 5 spots where frames (and we're talking more than on frame) were missing (one really bad one during a talking scene, were the audio is fine, but everything shifts causing the actions and sound to un-sync for a moment).Next there's the varying degree of light and dark in each scene as well as softness (blur is more like it).Then sometimes the scene has decent black tones, then the next minute the blacks are more an off dark green tone, then a blueish hue, and so one (and remember, like I mentioned before, this happens all within the first 25 minutes of the movie, I actually turned it off as the missing frames where driving me nuts, I mean my cheapie Madacy copy of this film has less missing frames then this one does as well as no black level issues, the only drawback is that the Madacy version is a little overly light).I did watch some of the extras which although interesting, are pretty slight (the 3 "Meet" featurettes are about 16 minutes long each and don't have much on, Meet John Doe).So, like with VCI's many versions of, A Christmas Carol, I'm sure that this is just the beginning of the VCI road for, Meet John Doe, so let's hope that they eventually get it right (because with at least 3 different versions of, A Christmas Carol, VCI still hasn't gotten it right).

there is no extras, and the quality of this version is simply awful - try and find a upgraded version if you can - people should see this movie seeing as how the world is presently - it should make you think again for sure!!!

There's no point in writing a review of the movie itself, others have explained just how great this film is. Just beware of buying the Elstree Hill Entertainment version. The transfer to DVD is terrible. The picture quality and sound are appalling.

This is a very poor Public Domain version fo the film. Looks like a third generation copy and is all but unwatchable. Avoid. This review refers to the unbranded DVD with catalogue number GMVS 1143.

This disc is awful quality, unclear fuzzy images make it uncomfortable viewing. I am hoping the new copy, of course not from this release dvd company, is a clear print and I can finally get to see Meet John Doe.

Excellent acting by Stanwyck