Meet John Doe

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Meet John Doe
Image:Mjd1941.jpg
Directed by	Frank Capra
Produced by	Frank Capra
Written by	Robert Riskin
Starring	Gary Cooper Barbara Stanwyck
Music by	Dimitri Tiomkin
Cinematography	George Barnes
Editing by	Daniel Mandell
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release date(s)	May 3, 1941
Running time	122 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

Meet John Doe is a 1941 comedy drama film directed and produced by Frank Capra and starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck. The film, about a "grassroots" political campaign, created unwittingly by a newspaper columnist and pursued by a wealthy businessman, became a box office hit and was nominated for an Academy Award for best original story (for Richard Connell and Robert Presnell Sr.). Though the film is less well known than other Capra classics, it remains highly regarded today.

[edit] Plot

Infuriated at being laid off from her job as a newspaper columnist, Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck) prints a fake letter from the unemployed "John Doe," threatening suicide in protest of society's ills. When the note causes a sensation, the newspaper is forced to rehire Mitchell. Together, the paper and Ann hire a John Willoughby (Gary Cooper), a former baseball player and tramp to play "John Doe." As the Doe philosophy spreads across the country developing into a political movement, Ann discovers the real motives of her publisher D.B. Norton (Edward Arnold). It was ranked #49 at AFI's 100 Years... 100 Cheers.