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Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Comedy · Drama · Romance · 1936

Longfellow Deeds lives in a small town, leading a small town kind of life. When a relative dies and leaves Deeds a fortune, Longfellow moves to the big city where he becomes an instant target for everyone. Deeds outwits them all until Babe Bennett comes along. When small-town boy meets big-city girl anything can, and does, happen.

Movie details

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

“Rocking America with laughter!”

1936 Comedy · Drama · Romance 1h 55m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.8 / 10

23.6K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

90 %

Tomatometer

TMDB

7.6 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Longfellow Deeds lives in a small town, leading a small town kind of life. When a relative dies and leaves Deeds a fortune, Longfellow moves to the big city where he becomes an instant target for everyone. Deeds outwits them all until Babe Bennett comes along. When small-town boy meets big-city girl anything can, and does, happen.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Mr. Deeds Goes to Town?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Frank Capra

Written by

Robert Riskin

Gary Cooper

Gary Cooper

Longfellow Deeds

Jean Arthur

Jean Arthur

Babe Bennett

George Bancroft

George Bancroft

MacWade

Lionel Stander

Lionel Stander

Cornelius Cobb

Douglass Dumbrille

Douglass Dumbrille

John Cedar

Raymond Walburn

Raymond Walburn

Walter

H.B. Warner

H.B. Warner

Judge May

Court is in session

Put Mr. Deeds Goes to Town on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.