Today, Meet John Doe. From the mid-1930s through the mid-1940s, director Frank Capra had one of the most notable runs of high quality films anyone has ever made, beginning with 1934’s It Happened One Night and culminating in 1946’s It’s A Wonderful Life. In between those two, either of which would automatically be the best works of any other director’s filmography, he made a seemingly non-stop run of masterpieces, including Mr. Deeds Goes To Town, Lost Horizon, and Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, as well as You Can’t Take It With You and Arsenic And Old Lace.
And then there’s Meet John Doe.
The Production: 3.5/5
Meet John Doe isn’t a bad film by any stretch of the imagination. Frank Capra was simply too good of a craftsman and storyteller, too good at bringing voice to popular sentiment, too good at capturing the national mood of the time, to produce a genuinely awful work. Working again with leading man Gary Cooper, and teaming up with many of usual contributors including the writer Robert Riskin and the composer Dmitri Tiomkin, Meet John Doe certainly has the look and feel of Capra’s other Everyman films. But where Mr. Deeds and Mr. Smith succeeded by addressing genuine issues and guiding their audiences from outrange to catharsis, Meet John Doe doesn’t pack quite the same punch.
In the end, Capra’s talents are unable to transcend the film’s rudimentary story, which has desperate newswoman Ann Mitchell (Barbara Stanwyck, overemphasizing nearly every beat) recruiting a ‘John Doe’ (Cooper, very self-contained) to serve as personification for a fictitious letter-to-the-editor she herself wrote in an attempt to save her job and boost circulation. The paper’s owner, D.B. Norton (Edward Arnold, effective in a one-note role) quickly gets behind the scheme, but seeks to use Doe’s rising popularity for his own gain. Will Norton’s nefarious scheme be stopped in time? Will Mitchell get her man? Will Doe triumph over or give in to adversity? Your first guess is almost certainly right. The best of Capra’s work makes you believe in the possibility of the implausible, sweeping you up in the moment. Here, things seem to happen more because the script requires them to happen, and credulity is strained long before the film’s conclusion.
What’s ultimately most disappointing about Meet John Doe is how much of a Capra pastiche it feels like, with the only problem being that it was actually made by the man himself. It feels more like one of those bonus tracks included on a best-selling artist’s greatest hits album, sounding like all of the other tracks you know and love, without ever hitting quite as deep. As a piece of entertainment it’s perfectly competent, but most people go into a Capra film expecting more than that. If you showed Frank Capra’s other, better films to an A.I. and asked it to make a film in the style of Capra, Meet John Doe is exactly what you’d get.
I love the films of Frank Capra, and I’ll take a mediocre Capra film over the best works of most other filmmakers, but if I’m being honest with myself, this simply isn’t at the level he was operating at in this stage of his career.
Video: 3.5/5
3D Rating: NA
“Meet John Doe” is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.37:1 on this new edition from ClassicFlix.
First, the good: this is easily the best presentation of “Meet John Doe” ever released on a commercial home video format, easily surpassing decades’ worth of poor quality efforts (mostly from fly-by-night operations) comprised of nearly unwatchable standard definition transfers from terrible quality materials. Though ClassicFlix’s release is also a public domain one (the film itself is in the public domain, but Sony has chain-of-custody on the original elements, with the camera negative and other pre-print material held at UCLA), they have accessed the Library of Congress’ holdings, and per the title card appearing onscreen before the start of the film proper, spent over 400 hours performing digital cleanup and stabilization on the LOC material. The image is rock-steady, and they’ve done good work at matching up the different sources drawn upon to create what is mostly a consistent viewing experience.
But as the old saying goes, it’s impossible to make a silk purse out of sow’s ear, and the material that the Library of Congress had in their archives was not in the best state to begin with. Derived from prints and dupes, ClassicFlix has mostly been successful at bringing some life back to the image, and fortunately, they’ve retained a film-like look rather than overusing digital tools. But despite these efforts, there’s still a general lack of fine detail throughout, and attempts to correct inconsistent and poor contrast on the LOC holdings result in an image that at time brushes up against crushed blacks. There are also thin, unobtrusive vertical scratches running down the edges of the frame through most of the film; they don’t really detract from the presentation but are more noticeable on larger displays or in projection.
This is probably the very best a transfer based on the specific elements ClassicFlix had access to could ever look, and to reiterate an earlier point, is easily the best the film has ever looked on home video. But given that better elements exist, there’s potential for a better release if Sony were to ever tackle the project. Until then, this is the best the film has looked in decades.
Audio: 4/5
The film’s monaural audio track, presented via the lossless DTS-HD MA codec, generally fares better than the image quality, with the dialogue easily discernible and Tiomkin’s score blending in well to the sound design. While there is the occasional slight sonic imperfection, there’s nothing to detract from the overall experience, and I always prefer the choice to allow a film to retain those imperfections when the alternative is overusing digital tools to obliterate the characteristics of the original audio.
Optional English subtitles are also included.
Special Features: 1/5
Restoration Comparison (3:52) – This brief clip bounces back and forth between the raw scans of the Library of Congress material and the final product and the difference between the two is, more often than not, night and day. There’s not much context provided with the clips; an on-camera or voice-over explanation of what is being presented is sorely missed. It would have been interesting to hear firsthand what processes ClassicFlix employed to improve the image quality.
Overall: 3.5/5
Meet John Doe is more of a disposable, greatest hits reel version of a Frank Capra film, with the great director seeming more on autopilot. Capra doesn’t have much new to say with this film, but like the best artists, he still manages to say it pretty well. While this release from ClassicFlix isn’t quite pristine, due to the limitations of the materials they had to work with, it is still the best the film has ever looked and sounded on any home video format.
Josh’s fate as a physical media enthusiast was probably sealed the moment he figured out how to operate a top-loading VCR before he even knew how to walk. Since graduating with a degree in film production, he has enjoyed a career focused on the archival and distribution side of film and television. These days, Josh thinks of himself as a proud father of twins first. He would like to thank his wife for her unwavering support, and for every typo she’s ever caught.
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