Meet John Doe is perhaps more Frank Capra than Capra's other films. It's a classic good guy in a dilemma piece, except here there are a few dilemmas. First, we have the newspaper reporter played by the amazing Barbara Stynwick. (Looking less sexy than her Double Indemnity wig wearing self, but still pulling off the working woman reporter cutie look. This was Lois Lane before Lois Lane was Lois Lane.) She loses her job to cutbacks, but writes one last column to stir things up. She writes an "open letter" to the editor saying she's John Doe and is fed up with the world, threatening to throw himself from a building on Christmas Eve. The letter makes a splash, as she hoped, but too big of a splash. People are clamoring for John Doe, to help him, to marry him, to offer him a job. So what does the editor do? First, he listens to her crazy ideas and then he acts on them, hiring a man to play the John Doe, then building him up as a new American hero, writing columns about the travesties in the world.
Next we have the John Doe, who's hired by the paper to play the down and out man. He's humble, perhaps a little too humble. Soon, they have him going around the country, speaking at rallies, inspiring people. A super tycoon invests in the whole enterprise, and then John Doe Clubs start forming all over the country, started by people who want to help their neighbors. A mass of people has join this new cause, all built around knowing your neighbor and helping him, and standing up for the little guy.
Stynwick is torn because it's all gotten so huge, and the tycoon keeps building this bigger and bigger, and she's started to have feelings for John, but where does it all end? It can't end good for them. And then John, of course, is torn because he believes in the message of John Doe, but knows it was built on a lie, and now the tycoon is using him to persuade this new mass of people. How can you keep the message alive, while not exploiting it, especially after the tycoon outs the whole thing after John threatens to expose him.
Then, the last dilemma surrounds the people themselves. The mass of followers that's gathered at a John Doe Convention, quickly turn on him when faced with the reality that John Doe isn't who he says he is. But can't the message of John Doe still last?
This film pre-dates so much of the madness of today's media world. Advertising hits us left and right, and our rational minds know they shouldn't be completely right, but somehow we're persuaded to eat something, or see something, or vote for something. What are the real intentions?
But my favorite part of the film centers around another theme and character, that of John's hobo friend. I failed to mention that John was kind of a hobo, after an accident that ruined his baseball career. As John gets more notoriety, his friend tries to ground him, with speeches about all the leeches that are soon to come. He rants about the freedom that comes from solitude, and how money messes everything up. That's really the essence of the film; no matter how good an idea is it can always be corrupted, just like people. But then, countering that, the real dilemma of the film is, how much do you need other people? Stynwick needs John. The John Doe faithful, who come to his aid even after the truth is revealed, show that John needs them, and of course, they all need each, to look after their neighbors. And then, everyone needs a John Doe, someone to look up to, as well as someone who can ground them to what's really important.
Hoorah!
Watch the linked video about Heelots.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M84XBBd-h_M&feature=related
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