Episode 95: "Meet John Doe," Fascism, Politics, and the MSM

Frank Capra's 1941 film Meet John Doe involves fake news, a so-called "grassroots" political movement that's actually run by power brokers and the MSM, and closet fascists who feel the American public should be led around by their noses and controlled.

Sound familiar?

⚠️ Spoilers lie ahead!

Links:

https://tubitv.com/movies/11520/meet-john-doe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Untold_History_of_the_United_States

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meet_John_Doe

https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/MovieDetails/27680

https://daily.jstor.org/meet-john-doe-darkness-american-democracy/

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2289560/14721570

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Plot

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2289560/15011976

https://www.buzzsprout.com/1125110/12975283

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2289560/14756079

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Transcript

 Transcription by Otter.ai.  Please forgive any typos!

EPISODE SUMMARY

Sara Causey discusses Frank Capra's 1941 film "Meet John Doe," highlighting its relevance to contemporary issues. The film, starring Gary Cooper and Barbara Stanwyck, centers on a newspaper columnist's creation of a fictional character, John Doe, to boost readership. John Doe's popularity leads to exploitation by the newspaper's owner, D.B. Norton, who aims to use him for political gain. The film explores themes of media manipulation, corporate greed, and the dangers of fake grassroots movements. Sara notes the film's prescient portrayal of American democracy and the dark side of power dynamics, emphasizing the collusion between politicians and the media.

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

Meet John Doe, Frank Capra, 1941 film, Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold, public domain, political campaign, newspaper columnist, fake letter, John Doe clubs, D.B. Norton, grassroots movement, American democracy, media manipulation.

Welcome to con-sara-cy theories. Are you ready to ask questions you shouldn't and find information you're not supposed to know? Well, you're in the right place. Here is your host, Sara Causey.

Hello, hello, and thanks for tuning in. In tonight's episode, I will be talking about Frank Capra's 1941 film, Meet John Doe. This was not a movie that I was familiar with. I heard about it in Oliver Stone's Docu series The Untold History of the United States, which that Docu series could really be its own separate episode at some point in time. It's pretty good, but he shows this clip of Gary Cooper confronting a group of fascists and media fat cats about how they've hijacked a political movement. And I'm like, wait a minute. This sounds interesting, and it also sounds awfully prescient for a 1941 film, the more things change, the more they stay the same. So pick out your frosty beverage of choice, and we will saddle up and take this ride. I'm going to hop over for a second to the Meet John Doe Wikipedia page, just so we can get a quick and easy summary. 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. It became a box office hit and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story. It was ranked number 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. End quote, I did not have any difficulty finding it on Tubi. I think you can also find people who have uploaded it to YouTube since it has entered the public domain, things do come and go off to be we've had that discussion many times before. I don't control what they keep and what they let go. But since it's in the in the public domain, you should not have any difficulty finding someone who has it. Spoilers lie ahead. There's no way that I can talk about the movie, review it, discuss the themes that we see here without getting into spoilers. If you have not seen it and you want to please watch it ahead of time, download this episode, bookmark it, come back to it. Watch the film for yourself and come to your own conclusions. If you're still with me, I will assume that spoilers are fine with you. In one of the opening scenes, we see a newspaper placard talking about Free Press being chiseled off to make way for the new bulletin, a streamlined newspaper for a streamlined era. Doesn't that say it all, a young man comes in and conducts layoffs. Barbara stanwyck's character begs to stay, even to the point of taking a severe pay cut, but the managing editor says the paper needs fireworks. This inspires her to type a fake letter lambasting unemployment and claiming this man, John Doe will commit public suicide. The governor and his advisors are concerned about this letter as they view it as a political attack. They realize the supposed John Doe letter is fake, but they feel that it's been done deliberately as a political attack. The mayor runs an ad asking John Doe not to commit suicide, they will try to find a job for him. They also wish to locate the real John Doe, Barbara stanwyck's character, Anne, admits to the newspaper editor that there is no John Doe. She made the whole thing up for fireworks. The editor says there are women who want to marry John Doe and men who want to hire him, and convinces the editor to milk the story, make up a fake life story for John Doe and keep the public interested, then they can hire someone to play the role of John Doe. A mass of men show up at the newspaper office claiming to be John Doe for notoriety and blackmails her way back into her job, and the newspaper sets about casting their John Doe, insisting he must look like an American. Every man who is capable of keeping his mouth shut in walks Gary Cooper, and naturally, he gets the job. Kells surprise, he used to be a baseball player until he was sidelined by an injury. He's also quite hungry and is willing to say anything for a meal. Anne sees a tall, good looking guy and can't wait to exploit him. The newspaper puts John and his hobo friend up in a hotel and buy both of them new clothes. It. He's also given a crew of bodyguards. John's buddy is worried that money will change him and he'll be trapped. He also gives a speech about owning stuff and paying taxes and having a bank account and all of the trappings that steal a person's freedom. Meanwhile, John orders a massive amount of food from room service simply because he can. He becomes the face of the column I protest by John Doe. Readership increases as do profits. The governor insists that John is fake and wants to question him. He believes D B Norton is behind the stunt. Norton owns the paper and a radio station, and tells Norton to put John on the radio. He'll be a big hit, and you'll be pulling the strings, Mr. Norton. Norton asks Anne what she wants, and she says she really wants money. He tells her that if she will do his bidding, she will never lack money again. He tells her to stop reporting to the editor and report directly to him. Anne is tasked with writing the script for John's radio appearance. Anne's mother produces the diary of Anne's deceased father and believes she can use some of his words. Of course, she doesn't know the whole story of what Anne is up to. John and his bodyguards pass time playing fake baseball games in the hotel room, people line up outside to get a glimpse of him and to ask for autographs. John is participating in this fraud because he needs a surgery that he can't afford. One of his bodyguards has been paid off and offers John a $5,000 bribe from a rival newspaper to admit the whole situation is a fraud. On the night of the radio broadcast, John has two speeches in his pocket, one from the rival newspaper and one from Ann. The media forces John to pose with two little people as part of a tacky campaign. His hobo friend tells him they should just leave and forget all of it. But John feels trapped. The suspense builds as we don't know which speech John will read on the air. He's sweaty and nervous and grabs the microphone stand awkwardly. He reads the speech that Anne prepared, and the honcho from the rival newspaper stands up and yells until he's removed by security. The speech Anne created is designed to speak to John and Jane Q Public. John loses some of his nervousness and gets into his character. People all over are huddled around their radios. Norton is listening and sees all the financial possibilities. He's basically listening to a cash register. The speech ends with, wake up, John Doe, you're the hope of the world. Immediately after, John runs off with his hobo friend, he figures out he's being used and feels disgusted. Norton, meanwhile, freaks out because he sees John as a big money maker. At the first Cafe they stop at, John is recognized and mobbed. He cannot escape his own fame. Now, Anne and Norton intervene to talk John back into their project. People are forming John Doe clubs to promote the ideas from the speech. Norton wants to send John on a lecture tour. John is turned off and wants to leave. Members of the local John Doe club show up and tell him how inspiring he is, and it becomes a guilt trip. The people tell sweet stories, and John's hobo friend rolls his eyes, not believing what he's hearing. He leaves John behind. Norton launches the John Doe speaking tour across the US and organizes people who will stay behind to organize John Doe clubs. John winds up on the cover of Time Magazine, the politicians are going bonkers trying to find a way to get John's endorsement. The newspaper editor tells Norton that he knows Norton is spending a lot of money, probably more than he's making, and he's trying to figure out Norton's angle. Norton tells him not to worry about it. He's just enjoying investing in a worthy cause.

Norton presents Anne with a fur coat and jewelry. He tells her that John Doe will announce the formation of a third political party. He will also announce his support of the party's presidential candidate. Norton himself in my personal notes, I've written who didn't see this coming. Lol, we knew Norton had an agenda. John shows up hoping to propose marriage to Anne, but she's not at home. He worries that he is in love with Anne, but Anne is in love with the character John Doe that she has invented for the public. The newspaper editor ambushes John and asks if he knows what's about to happen at the convention. Of course, he doesn't in a drunken state, the editor starts talking about the fifth column and how John has gotten himself mixed up in a treacherous mess. He warns John that Norton wants to worm his way into the White House. John is initially skeptical and gets very upset when the editor tells him that Anne is taking bribes from Norton. It. John reads a copy of the speech ahead of time and shows up at Norton's house where he is giving a dinner party. Norton is already making his political plans and promises of who will get what he says, America needs an iron hand. John confronts Norton about his plan. He calls himself a prize stooge. John threatens to blow the whistle. Norton tells John he can throw him right back in the gutter, and accuses him of being a Judas. It becomes a blackmail scheme. If John steps out of line, he'll be ruined. Maybe worse, Norton will kill the John Doe movement if he cannot use it. John shows up at the convention to a huge crowd and radio simulcasts, a crowd of people rush in with newspapers proclaiming that John Doe is a fake. The police show up. Shortly thereafter, John is about to get a dose of Norton's power and influence. John is pulled aside, so Norton takes the stage and accuses John of defrauding him. Since John is an actor, he doesn't have much to stand on. Norton says he bankrolled John because he thought John was sincere and real. The microphones are cut off, and John is booed by hecklers. And wants to help him, but she's held back by Norton's men. John's hobo friend shows up and tries to help him escape. The newspaper editor says you can chalk another one up to the Pontius pilots. John and his friend escape to the woods. He is smeared throughout the press as a phony it's now Christmas. Norton's house is beautifully decorated, of course, and tries to find John, but can't. She calls everyone she can think of, over and over again. Some of the John Doe club members don't believe that John was a fake. They worry he will commit suicide. After all, sure enough, John shows up to make a public suicide. He leaves a note dedicated to all John Doe's everywhere before he can go through with it, Norton's henchmen tell him any identifying qualities will be taken from him. He'll die for no reason. He says he has mailed a letter to the editor to be published upon his death The truth will be out, and begs him not to do it. Some of the club members also come forward to ask John not to kill himself. Being a Frank Capra film from 1941 we get a happy ending. John lives, and it appears that he will press on this time from a place of honesty. Even though Hollywood gives us a happy ending, we know that many times in life, that's not how it truly shakes out. I'm going to hop for a minute to the AFI catalog because they have an interesting comment about the ending. Although the national release date for this film was May 3, 1941 the film played at selected theaters around the country following its March 12 premieres. According to his autobiography, Capra acknowledged that five different versions of the ending of Meet John Doe were filmed and audience tested before he arrived at the decision to release the fifth one for the May 3 National release, Capra also admitted that he was not satisfied with any of the endings that he shot, and that at one point during the film's first run, following its March 12 premieres, three different versions of the film were playing in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Washington. One of the five versions ended in John jumping from the City Hall roof, while another had Anne and D B Norton talking him out of the suicide. The fifth and final version of the end was suggested to the director by the way of an anonymous letter signed John Doe, which read, I have seen your film with many different endings, all bad. I thought the only thing that can keep John Doe from jumping are the John Doe's themselves, if they ask him in an interview, Capra admitted that for seven eighths of the picture, we had a fine, fine thing going for us there, then the very end collapsed like a brick sock. End Quote with a film like this, you're probably damned if you don't, and damned if you do, because if John loses all hope, or he's consumed with guilt about what he's done, how he has inadvertently participated in this great fraud, and he kills himself, you're going to have people that are mad. If we don't get a happy ending, you're going to have people that are mad. If we do get a happy ending, you're going to have people that are mad. So I think one way or the other, you would have had critics who said that Capra did the wrong thing, whether John Doe lived or died, you would have had people either way that would have been upset with the ending. I'm going to go now to J store daily. Meet John Doe shows the darkness of American democracy. The byline reads, Meet John Doe Frank Capra's 1941 drama carries forward the populist themes of his other movies, only with a much darker premise. The scene is a black tie dinner party where crystal chandeliers hang from the ceiling and flames flicker from a great stone fireplace. In walks Long John Willoughby, a failed baseball player employed by the man seated at the head of the table newspaper publisher D B Norton. John is supposed to be out. A political convention endorsing Norton for President in a rousing speech, but instead he's arrived to deliver a different message. You sit there back with your big cigars and think of deliberately killing an idea that's made millions of people a little bit happier. He snarls at the men in tuxedos. This may be the one thing capable of saving this cock eyed world, yet you sit back there on your fat hulks and tell me you'll kill it if you can't use it. Well, you go ahead and try. You couldn't do it in a million years with all your radio stations and all your power, because it's bigger than, whether I'm a fake, it's bigger than your ambitions, and it's bigger than all the bracelets and fur coats in the world. And that's exactly what I'm going down there to tell those people John's words are supposed to be a repudiation of greed and cynicism. It's the first honest speech he delivers in the 1941 drama Meet John Doe and the only one he writes himself. It's also the kind of dialog viewers had come to expect from the film's director, Frank Capra, who specialized in stirring every man movies like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. End quote. Let's think about what's going on in the premise of this movie. At the very beginning, the old newspaper information is being chiseled off about a free press. Now we're told that the new newspaper is going to be streamlined, a streamlined newspaper for a streamlined era. Immediately, a young man comes in and starts conducting layoffs, and even though Barbara stanwyck's character, Anne says, I will take a pay cut, she begs for her job, really. She says that her mother is an elderly widow woman. She has two kids, sisters. She's the only breadwinner in the household. She can stay and take a pay cut. She just can't afford to be completely unemployed. Will you please consider keeping me on and they tell her, No, this is how the corporate world works. It's not just news media. Corporate America does not care. They don't give a damn if you're the only breadwinner in your household. They don't care if you're willing to take a pay cut. If the decision makers have decided that you're getting a pink slip, you're getting shoved out the door, and they tell her, the paper wants fireworks. We don't have enough readers, we don't have enough sensational stories. This sounds like something that could happen today, though, the film was made in 1941 it sounds like it's every bit as relevant today as it was then, if not more. So Anne decides to make fake news. Okay, you want fireworks? I'll show you fireworks. So she invents a story of a man, John Doe, wink, wink, who's going to commit public suicide. And then the public response is so similar, I think, to what it would be now, except with the Internet. You know, you would have people setting up Go Fund Me pages, it would be like we're willing to give John Doe a pot of money to keep him from killing himself. And there would be all kinds of virtue signaling. And people on social media I support John Doe, banners would go up. You already know how it would play out. Even though this is a phony baloney campaign, it is totally a campaign they pluck Gary Cooper's character, who is named John in the story, and use him because he has an attractive every man face.

Meanwhile, he's participating in this ruse, not because he's a liar or a con artist by nature, but because he's in dire straits, he's homeless and he needs money for an expensive arm surgery. He's a baseball player, and he's not going to be able to return to playing baseball until he has the surgery, but he can't afford the surgery, so when someone comes along and says, Well, we'll buy you new suits, we'll put you up in a hotel. We'll give you a paycheck. Your surgery is not going to be a problem now, as long as you stick with us and you do what you're told, you become a sock puppet, and you allow us to stick our hand up your behind, and you say what we tell you to say you're going to be taken care of, even though it seems like, well, he's a liar, because he's the front man for all of this. I feel like he's a victim too, because he's been plucked out of a situation of homelessness, and he needs medical care, and he's being exploited by these newspaper people. But it's not just that they are exploiting John to sell newspapers that, in and of itself, could be the story. Could have a whole movie about people being exploited in order to get more advertisers, to get more readers, to have tabloid style journalism. Remember, I talked about network in a previous episode, this whole idea of fake tabloid over the top, sensational news probably. More prescient than people realized Norton, the owner of the newspaper, intends to worm his way into the White House. This also makes me think of the revolving door relationships that we see between Wall Street, corporate America, the big banks and Capitol Hill, all of these piggies eat slop from the same trough, and there they will be one place and then another. Oh, I'm at Goldman Sachs now, but then I'm going to be in the Treasury Department. I'm in the treasury department now, but I'm going to be a corporate CEO next. Oh, I'm a oil tycoon, but now I'm going to be in the Commerce Department. I mean, on and on it goes. Something else I feel that is important is this idea of fake grassroots movements. I remember hearing an interview. This has been years ago. I wish I could remember who the interview was with and how I found it. If I could, I would drop a link to it, but it's been so long ago. I just don't remember. But this guy was talking about beer, and he said, When you go to the grocery store, you'll find all of these different beers that look like homespun, regional, artisanal type products, but when you really read the fine print, it's all fakery. They're owned by one of the huge conglomerates. But the labeling, the name has been bought out, and the labeling has been changed around to look homespun and small. But when you look at the fine print, you're actually buying something that's made by one of the huge global conglomerates. It's a similar thing happening in Meet John Doe, because it appears that Norton is financing John Doe out of the kindness of his own heart. He just wants to be part of a nice, good, important movement. He wants to do good for the community. Meanwhile, he's sending John Doe out to get all of this publicity, to get more and more people on board and to make him seem increasingly trustworthy, so that Norton can then hijack the message and say, We're going to start a third political party, and John Doe is going to endorse me as the presidential nominee for this party, and I will be a shoe in we'll keep riding the wave. We'll keep the momentum going, and this seeming groundswell of populism of John and Jane Q Public joining the John Doe clubs and working with their neighbors and doing community outreach that will help me reach the White House. And as he says, Americans need an iron hand. His goal is to get into the White House and become a fascist dictator. So now I'm thinking of the business plot where the tycoons and the barons were going to install Smedley Butler as a fascist dictator in the White House. I understand that this may sound implausible, but it's really not. Also think back to the episode that I recorded about GI Joe Retaliation and who really runs the world because in the plot of that film, you have Cobra Commander behind the scenes. They've installed a puppet dummy president that's simply going to do the bidding of Cobra commanders organization and bring about world domination when John Doe is no longer of use to the fat cats. He's discarded, and in fact, he's not only discarded, his name is dragged through the media before John can even get to the convention and try to get hold of a microphone to tell his story, the newspapers have already published a front page story to say that John Doe is a fraud. This reminds me of an episode that I recorded on my daytime podcast quite a while back called you're not going to beat the system after I watched Oliver Stone's JFK for the first time. I'm like, if anything, this should drive it home to people you're not going to beat the system. You can LARP, and you can play pretend, and you can listen to controlled opposition. That tells you that the globalists are really shaking in their boots, and John and j and q public are going to take it back, and we've got all this power. It's fine by me, if you want to listen to that, and if you choose to believe it, that's certainly your choice. But I feel like what Frank Capra is showing us in Meet John Doe is exactly what happens in reality. As Jim Garrison said, a troublesome person will be removed, discredited and or killed. So in the case of John Doe, they have him removed and discredited. They don't want him to turn into a martyr. Do. That's like with his threat to go through with the suicide you're not going to be anything. Nobody's going to believe you. This reminds me of the 1969 film Z after the character based on lamb brackets, passes away, the fat cats feel like they have to do whatever is possible for him to not have a halo over his head. People don't need to feel sad and mourn his death. We cannot allow him to turn into a martyr. We get a happy ish ending in in the sense that John and Anne are reunited. John says that he will not kill himself and that he wants to keep the John Doe movement going, but this time he wants it to come from a place of honesty in the real world. We know that that's not how it would happen. If John Doe actually became too problematic for the fat cats, he would just be offed. It would be a teffry tepstein situation where, oh, John, we lost footage of John. We don't know what happened to him, but the next thing we knew, he had he had offed himself. And isn't that a shame or drug overdose? That's another one. Well, John, after being exposed as a fraud, he really hit the skids. He developed an addiction to heroin. He was doing fentanyl. It was only a matter of time until something tragic like this happened. And gosh, we're real sad about it. But you know, John was a drug head and he was a drunk. He had fallen in with the Hollywood crowd, so this was just bound to happen. We're all smart enough to know that that's what would actually occur in modernity with John Doe, an important takeaway for me is this clear collusion that happens between politicians and the mainstream media. I also think, sadly, it's about the flagrant display that we see from Norton towards fascism and authoritarianism. I've said many times before that, in my opinion, you cannot swing a dead cat within the system and not hit Nazis and fascists. And then you watch something like the BBC Docu series on Operation Gladio, and you're like, Oh my god. Oh god, this is just horrible. You read about things like paper clip, and you understand that we repatriated Nazis and fascists and criminals from unit 731 people that had committed crimes against humanity, people that should have not only stood trial, but In my opinion, been executed for crimes against humanity and acts of genocide and torture, medical torture, but we repatriated them. I think, as much as we might like to pretend and imagine a character like Norton, that's just a fictional publisher, it's just a fictional fat cat and a fictional story?

I don't think so. I think characters like Norton and people like Anne who are totally willing to sell out for money, I don't really care. The only thing I'm motivated by is money. As long as the cash is green, I'm willing to print whatever you want. I'll take your fur coats, I'll take your bracelets, I'll take your fancy vacations. It's all fine with me. Whatever you want me to say, is what I'll say. I think those types of people are way more prevalent in the halls of power than a lot of people would want to admit to themselves. And I also think people like John Doe are prevalent as well, someone who has been squeezed by the system, someone who's being exploited and manipulated, not because that's who they are as a person. It's not that they're a con artist by nature. It's that they're being exploited by the system because they cannot afford to live. In John's case, he needs a surgery and he's also homeless. These characters are as contemporary and meaningful now as they were in 41 stay a little crazy, and I will see you in the next episode.

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