Meet John Doe

Meet John Doe (1941) is Frank Capra's sharply-edged political comedy-drama — watch it online on iFILM. Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck lead a story about a newspaper hoax that accidentally becomes a national movement.

Reporter Ann Mitchell, facing the axe, publishes a fake letter from a fictional "John Doe" — an ordinary man so fed up with the state of society that he threatens to jump off a rooftop on Christmas Eve. The letter goes viral by 1941 standards. The paper rehires Ann, recruits an unemployed former baseball player named John Willoughby to play the role, and then watches helplessly as the whole fabrication takes on a life of its own.

Capra is often filed under "feel-good," but this one carries real menace — the people bankrolling the "Doe" movement have a plan that goes well beyond good PR. Stanwyck is the engine of the film, working every scene with a precision that still reads as modern. Stream Meet John Doe online on iFILM.