Mr. Deeds Goes to Town is a 1936 American comedy-drama romance film directed by Frank Capra and starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur in her first featured role. Based on the 1935 short story "Opera Hat" by Clarence Budington Kelland, which appeared in serial form in The American Magazine, the screenplay was written by Robert Riskin in his fifth collaboration with Frank Capra.
Theatrical release poster
Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur
Jean Arthur as Louise "Babe" Bennett
Frank Russell Capra was an Italian-born American film director, producer, and screenwriter who was the creative force behind some of the major award-winning films of the 1930s and 1940s. Born in Italy and raised in Los Angeles from the age of five, his rags-to-riches story has led film historians such as Ian Freer to consider him the "American Dream personified".
Capra, c. 1930s
Walter Brennan, Gary Cooper, Irving Bacon, Barbara Stanwyck, and James Gleason in Meet John Doe
Capra editing film as a Major during World War II
Capra receiving the Distinguished Service Medal from General George C. Marshall, 1945