Meet John Doe

A newspaper columnist about to lose her job invents a letter from a "John Doe" who says he will jump off a building on Christmas Eve to protest the state of the country. The letter goes viral, the paper hires a former ballplayer turned hobo to play John Doe, and his radio speeches about neighbors helping neighbors start a real movement. Then the publisher who owns the paper tries to turn that movement into a political machine for himself. Frank Capra's film sits between his optimistic comedies and his darker wartime work, and it argues that ordinary decency is the only thing standing between people and demagogues. Gary Cooper plays the reluctant symbol and Barbara Stanwyck the writer who created him and comes to regret what she built. The film entered the public domain due to non-renewal of its copyright.