Films like Meet John Doe (World, 12.45am), screened disgracefully late this evening, demonstrate that current agonising about cynicism in public life is far from new.
Made in 1941, while the United States was still dithering about whether or not to aid its allies in Europe with the war effort, this was director Frank Capra's most direct attempt to rattle some cages. He'd had his battles in the past with studio heads, so for this movie he decided to go it alone, and managed to get stars like Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper to come on board before he had a script to show them.
The plot spins on the shenanigans of a young female journalist called Ann Mitchell (Stanwyck) who has just been fired by an obnoxious new editor.
She gets her revenge by writing a final column based on what she pretends is a real letter from an anonymous hero called 'John Doe'.
John Doe has all kinds of interesting opinions about big bosses who trample on the little person.
He is so passionate about this he threatens to jump off City Hall on Christmas Eve if something doesn't change. When the paper hits the stand, the reading public go wild wanting to know who this poor man is, and how he can be saved, and Mitchell's editor, rather late in the day, demands to know just where this letter is.
Mitchell admits she made it up and says the only way to avoid admitting it publicly is to find someone to pretend to be JD.
