Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936)

Actors: Spencer Charters (actor), James Carlisle (actor), Georgie Billings (actor), Walter Catlett (actor), Hank Bell (actor), Stanley Andrews (actor), Frank Austin (actor), Irving Bacon (actor), George Bancroft (actor), Sammy Blum (actor), Joe Bordeaux (actor), Harry C. Bradley (actor), Charles Brinley (actor), Billy Bevan (actor), Jack Cheatham (actor),

Plot: Longfellow Deeds lives in a small town, leading a small town kind of life - including playing the tuba in the town band. When a relative dies and leaves Deeds a fortune, Longfellow picks up his tuba and moves to the big city where he becomes an instant target for everyone from the greedy opera committee to the sensationist daily newspaper. Deeds outwits them all until Babe Bennett comes along. Babe is a hot-shot reporter who figures the best way to get close to Deeds is to pose as a damsel in distress. When small-town boy meets big-city girl anything can, and does, happen.

Keywords: 1930s, arrest, board-meeting, board-of-directors, bodyguard, butler, car-accident, character-name-in-title, charity, columnist
Genres: Comedy, Drama,
Taglines: Rocking America with laughter!

Quotes:

[Deeds and attorney Cedar shake hands in parting]::Longfellow Deeds: Even his hands are oily.

Longfellow Deeds: He talks about women as if they were cattle.::Walter: Every man to his taste, sir.::Longfellow Deeds: Tell me, Walter, are all these stories I hear about my uncle true?::Walter: Well, sir, he sometimes had as many as twenty in the house at the same time.::Longfellow Deeds: Twenty! What did he do with them?::Walter: That is something I was never able to find out, sir.

Longfellow Deeds: People here are funny. They work so hard at living they forget how to live.

Longfellow Deeds: When the servant comes in, Mr. Hallor, I'm going to ask him to show you to the door. Many people don't know where it is.

[Two shy sisters testify at Deeds's sanity hearing]::John Cedar: Do you know the defendant, Mr. Longfellow Deeds?::[long pause]::Jane Faulkner: Oh yes, yes, of course we know him.::John Cedar: How long have you known him?::[Jane whispers to Amy; Amy whispers back]::Jane Faulkner: Since he was born.::Amy Faulkner: Yes, Elsie Taggart was the midwife.::Jane Faulkner: He was a seven months' baby.::John Cedar: Thank you, that's, that's fine. Do you see him very often?::[Jane whispers to Amy; Amy whispers back]::Jane Faulkner: Most every day.::Amy Faulkner: Sometimes twice.::Judge May: Must we have the echo?::John Cedar: Suppose you just answer, Miss Jane. Now, will you tell the court what everybody at home thinks of Longfellow Deeds?::[pause; then Jane whispers to Amy; Amy whispers back]::Jane Faulkner: They think he's pixilated.::Amy Faulkner: Oh, yes, pixilated.::Judge May: He's what?::John Cedar: What was that you said he was?::Jane Faulkner: Pixilated.::Amy Faulkner: Mm-hmm.::John Cedar: Now that's rather a strange word to us, Miss Jane. Can you tell the court exactly what it means?::Board member: Perhaps I can explain, Your Honor. The word "pixilated" is an early American expression derived from the word "pixies," meaning elves. They would say the pixies had got him. As we nowadays would say, a man is "barmy."::Judge May: Oh. Is that correct?::Jane Faulkner: Mm-hmm.::Amy Faulkner: Mm-hmm.

John Cedar: Your Honor, what she is saying has no bearing on the case. I object!::Judge May: Let her speak!::Babe Bennett: I know why he won't defend himself! That has a bearing on the case, hasn't it? He's been hurt, he's been hurt by everybody he met since he came here, principally by me. He's been the victim of every conniving crook in town. The newspapers pounced on him, made him a target for their feeble humor. I was smarter than the rest of them: I got closer to him, so I could laugh louder. Why shouldn't he keep quiet - every time he said anything it was twisted around to sound imbecilic! He can thank me for it. I handed the gang a grand laugh. It's a fitting climax to my sense of humor.::John Cedar: Why, Your Honor, this is preposterous.::Babe Bennett: Certainly I wrote those articles. I was going to get a raise, a month's vacation. But I stopped writing them when I found out what he was all about, when I realized how real he was. He could never fit in with our distorted viewpoint, because he's honest, and sincere, and good. If that man's crazy, Your Honor, the rest of us belong in straitjackets!::John Cedar: Your Honor, this is absurd. The woman's obviously in love with him.::Babe Bennett: What's that got to do with it?::John Cedar: Well, you are in love with him, aren't you?::Babe Bennett: What's that got to do with it?::John Cedar: You ARE, aren't you?::Babe Bennett: Yes!

Longfellow Deeds: About my playing the tuba. Seems like a lot of fuss has been made about that. If, if a man's crazy just because he plays the tuba, then somebody'd better look into it, because there are a lot of tuba players running around loose. 'Course, I don't see any harm in it. I play mine whenever I want to concentrate. That may sound funny to some people, but everybody does something silly when they're thinking. For instance, the judge here is, is an O-filler.::Judge May: A what?::Longfellow Deeds: An O-filler. You fill in all the spaces in the O's with your pencil. I was watching him. [general laughter] That may make you look a little crazy, Your Honor, just, just sitting around filling in O's, but I don't see anything wrong, 'cause that helps you think. Other people are doodlers.::Judge May: "Doodlers"?::Longfellow Deeds: Uh, that's a word we made up back home for people who make foolish designs on paper when they're thinking: it's called doodling. Almost everybody's a doodler; did you ever see a scratchpad in a telephone booth? People draw the most idiotic pictures when they're thinking. Uh, Dr. von Hallor here could probably think up a long name for it, because he doodles all the time. [general laughter; he takes a sheet off the doctor's notepad] Thank you. This is a piece of paper he was scribbling on. I can't figure it out - one minute it looks like a chimpanzee, and the next minute it looks like a picture of Mr. Cedar. You look at it, Judge. Exhibit A for the defense. Looks kind of stupid, doesn't it, Your Honor? But I guess that's all right; if Dr. von Hallor has to, uh, doodle to help him think, that's his business. Everybody does something different: some people are, are ear-pullers; some are nail-biters; that, uh, Mr. Semple over there is a nose-twitcher. [general laughter] And the lady next to him is a knuckle-cracker. [general laughter] So you see, everybody does silly things to help them think. Well, I play the tuba.

Longfellow Deeds: Cedar, Cedar, Cedar and Budington. Funny, I can't think of a rhyme for "Budington".::Cornelius Cobb: Why should you?::Longfellow Deeds: Well, whenever I run across the funny name, I like to poke around for a rhyme.

Longfellow Deeds: [to the Court] From what I can see, no matter what system of government we have, there will always be leaders and always be followers. It's like the road out in front of my house. It's on a steep hill. Every day I watch the cars climbing up. Some go lickety-split up that hill on high, some have to shift into second, and some sputter and shake and slip back to the bottom again. Same cars, same gasoline, yet some make it and some don't. And I say the fellas who can make the hill on high should stop once in a while and help those who can't. That's all I'm trying to do with this money. Help the fellas who can't make the hill on high.

Longfellow Deeds: [to the Court] It's like I'm out in a big boat, and I see one fellow in a rowboat who's tired of rowing and wants a free ride, and another fellow who's drowning. Who would you expect me to rescue? Mr. Cedar - who's just tired of rowing and wants a free ride? Or those men out there who are drowning? Any ten year old child will give you the answer to that.