Film Forum

U.S., 1936
Directed by Frank Capra
Starring Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, George Bancroft
WINNER ACADEMY AWARD ®, BEST DIRECTOR
Approx. 116. 35mm.

Gary Cooper’s “pixilated” tuba-playing, greeting card versifying Vermonter Longfellow Deeds inherits $20 million — and then he’s whisked from Mandrake Falls to Park Avenue, as wisecracking reporter Jean Arthur dubs him the “Cinderella Man.” “The crowning achievement of Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin… if I were to choose one film to be both the best and most representative of the decade, this would be it.” – David Shipman, The Story of Cinema

Presented with support from the Robert Jolin Osborne Fund for American Classic Cinema of the 1930s, ’40s, and ’50s

A SONY PICTURES RELEASE

Reviews

“CAPRA’S FINEST FILM AND THAT MEANS A COMEDY QUITE UNMATCHED ON THE SCREEN.”
– Graham Greene

"The spread-the-wealth schemes and quaint notions of giving away personal fortune so that people can find work may be trickle-down voodoo economics in extremis, but the do-gooder popularism is punched across with fevered conviction in the crescendo of one of the screen’s most sure-footed courtroom finales.”
– Andrew Sarris, The Village Voice

“Everywhere the picture goes, from the endearing to the absurd, the accompanying business is carried through with perfect zip and relish. It is a humdinger and a beauty."
– Otis Ferguson