Word: capra
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...finally sells himself on the cause when confronted by one of the dozens of mushrooming John Doe Clubs. In a small town he hears the local soda jerker (Regis Toomey) tell how Love Thy Neighbor really works. In this scene a number of Hollywood types give Capra-Riskin some of the best character acting on film. Thereafter Doe makes a nationwide tour, falls in love with the girl writer, acquires such a nationwide reputation that his face appears on the cover of TIME...
...people into some sense. Doe learns this from the newspaper editor (James Gleason), a patriot who has got drunk with the horror of the idea. The notion of having the prime patriotic appeal of the picture delivered by a soused journalist (and ex-soldier) is a crowning piece of Capra-Riskin-Gleason virtuosity...
...this point Capra-Riskin ran into trouble. In the original version the girl's lovelorn pleading worked. But a preview-audience felt that the ending was not strong enough for what had preceded. For a while Capra-Riskin thought they would have to make Doe jump. They finally landed on the present ending-the girl not only tells Doe of her love but also reminds him that what he is trying to do has already been done, unsurpassably -by Jesus...
...Picture has many excellent, many not so excellent details, and will doubtless accent for millions the virtues of neighborly compassion. Fundamentally there is just one thing wrong with it. When an organist draws on the full resources of his instrument, as have Messrs. Capra & Riskin in invoking almost every great emotional appeal from the Nativity to The Star Spangled Banner, the largest possible music had better come out. Anything else may topple artistically from sheer pompous top-heaviness. When Capra-Riskin open up the cinema organ in Meet John Doe, what comes out is not solid but uncertain musical structure...
...most popular, if not the most active, man at the waterfront bars. Had he gone to Yale he might well have been the Most Popular Man in his class. As it was, he went to Hollywood and became the most popular man in the nation-an ideal choice for Capra-Riskin's Meet John...