Frank Capra directs Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck and Walter Brennan in this screwball comedy where a homeless baseball player finds himself pretending to be some grassroots political icon after a newspaper reporter makes “him” up.

A big future influence on The Coen’s marvellous The Hudsucker Proxy. The humour is dated and certain scenes drag on for an eternity… The scale and ferociousness of the final act save it. Too bitter to be called a screwball comedy anymore, the fall of “John Doe” certainly has teeth.

7

Perfect Double Bill: Mr Smith Goes To Washington (1939)

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