Mr. Deeds Goes to Town

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) is a Frank Capra comedy-drama you can watch online on iFILM. A small-town fellow from Vermont suddenly inherits twenty million dollars and heads to New York — where everyone is already lining up to take it from him.

Longfellow Deeds writes greeting-card verse and plays the tuba; now he controls his late uncle's fortune. The big city pegs him as an easy rube. A cynical editor plants reporter Babe Bennett in his path, and she fakes a fainting spell as a poor working girl to dig up a story. Trouble is, Deeds is far sharper than he looks — and Babe starts falling for the very man she is setting up.

Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur anchor one of those warm Capra fables where a plain man's decency outlasts big-money cynicism. The picture handed Capra his second directing Oscar and still plays beautifully. For anyone who loves old Hollywood, it is essential. Stream Mr. Deeds Goes to Town online on iFILM.