As a parting shot, fired reporter Ann Mitchell prints a fake letter from unemployed "John Doe," who threatens suicide in protest of social ills. The paper is forced to rehire Ann and hires John Willoughby to impersonate "Doe." Ann and her bosses cynically milk the story for all it's worth, until the made-up "John Doe" philosophy starts a whole political movement.
Acting
Stanwyck's heel-turn from cynic to believer is delicious.
Direction
Capra stages mob hysteria like a horror director.
Writing
That ending speech? Still debated 80+ years later.
Director
Frank Capra
Gary Cooper
Long John Willoughby
Barbara Stanwyck
Ann Mitchell
Edward Arnold
D.B. Norton
Walter Brennan
The Colonel
Spring Byington
Mme Mitchell
James Gleason
Henry Connell
Gene Lockhart
Mayor Lovett
Rod La Rocque
Ted Sheldon
Irving Bacon
Beany
Regis Toomey
Bert Hansen
J. Farrell MacDonald
'Sourpuss'
Warren Hymer
Angelface
Harry Holman
Mayor Hawkins
Andrew Tombes
Spencer
Pierre Watkin
Hammett
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Capra shot five different endings because he couldn't decide if hope or cynicism should win. Test audiences got whiplash.
The 'John Doe Clubs' briefly became a real political movement in 1941—life imitating propaganda imitating life.
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