Meet John Doe

Meet John Doe
Theatrical release poster
Directed byFrank Capra
Screenplay byRobert Riskin
Story byRobert Presnell Sr.
Based onA Reputation
1922 story in Century Magazine
by Richard Connell
Produced byFrank Capra
StarringGary Cooper
Barbara Stanwyck
Edward Arnold
CinematographyGeorge Barnes
Edited byDaniel Mandell
Music byDimitri Tiomkin
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release date
  • May 3, 1941 (1941-05-03)
Running time
122 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$1.8 million (initial U.S. release)[1]
Meet John Doe

Meet John Doe is a 1941 American comedy drama film directed and produced by Frank Capra, written by Robert Riskin, and starring Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck and Edward Arnold. The film is about a "grassroots" political campaign created unwittingly by a newspaper columnist with the involvement of a hired homeless man and pursued by the paper's wealthy owner.[2] It became a box-office hit and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story. It was ranked No. 49 in AFI's 100 Years ... 100 Cheers. In 1969, the film entered the public domain in the United States because the claimants did not renew its copyright registration in the 28th year after publication.[3] It was the first of two features Capra made for Warner Brothers, after he left Columbia Pictures, the other being Arsenic and Old Lace (1944).

  1. ^ Fragias, Leonidas (2017). Annual US Top Film Rentals 1912 - 1979 (Kindle ed.). Leonidas Fragias.
  2. ^ Dirks, Tim. "Filmsite Movie Review: Meet John Doe (1941)." Filmsite.org (AMC Networks). Retrieved: March 13, 2015.
  3. ^ Pierce, David. "Forgotten faces: Why some of our cinema heritage is part of the public domain." Film History, Vol. 19, No. 2, 2007, pp. 125–143.