This Oscar-winning Frank Capra film presents Longfellow Deeds (Cooper), a rural everyman who inherits his uncle’s fortune and decides to give it all away. While the media heralds Deeds as a champion of the people, one cynical editor (Bancroft) asks his most hard-boiled city reporter (Jean Arthur) to dig up some scandal. The photogenic Jean Arthur delivers an astringent performance as she mixes up a good deal of chemistry with her leading man. The all-American optimism and idealism of the Deeds character is an enduring emblem of the immigrant director’s own view of American society.