Meet John Doe (Frank Capra, 1941)

[hearthesilence]

Part of the public domain, you can view it on archive.org.

The original negative was poorly cared for and trashed decades ago - to my understanding, the Library of Congress restored it not too long ago from the best available materials, but I don't believe this restoration's ever been used for DVD release. In fact, current DVDs are all pretty crummy, which is a damn shame.

I first heard about this film years ago - forgot the name of the professor, but he wrote an essay on Frank Capra and singled out this film as his favorite, acknowledging that it was far from Capra's most-beloved film.

I wish there was a better print, because this may be my favorite Gary Cooper film - at the very least, it's my favorite Gary Cooper performance, and it certainly would benefit from a print that showed the details of his face with greater clarity. Even on the battered print seen on archive.org, his first close-ups are powerful.

I love him as a film actor, but I'm actually not that big on his 'classics.' Many of them are still decent films, but except for Cooper, I'm not that interested in seeing any of them again for various reasons. (Not a fan of Pride of the Yankees, Sergeant York, or even High Noon. Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is all right, Ball of Fire is much better.) It's too bad Meet Mr. John Doe has been treated with so much neglect, it deserves to be better-known.

[tarpilot]

Aside from Ball of Fire, my favourite Cooper performance is probably The Cowboy and the Lady, maybe the best work of the most ludicrously underrated director of the studio era, or Vidor's The Wedding Night.

Been meaning to check it out for a while, will report back.

[hearthesilence]

FWIW, a better version than what's on archive.org may be available on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZZEHV1T5B6g" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[JonasEB]

Isn't the copy TCM shows high quality? I'm not absolutely sure, I have a recording of it but haven't watched it for a while, but that's what I recall.

[Cold Bishop]

For the curious, they're airing it on Wednesday.