My Take on an Old Movie

The other night I watched for maybe the fourth time, Mr. Deeds Goes to Town.  I went to imdb to see what other people wrote about it.  And I was surprised to find that none of them dealt with what seemed to me to be an important part of the movie. 

Longfellow Deeds is clearly mentally ill in this movie.  Yes, he is well-meaning, wise in a naïve way, but he breaks out into violence and is extremely sensitive.  His behavior is erratic, and he can go into periods of frenzied activity.  In the courtroom scene the psychiatrist goes into detail explaining that he is manic-depressive, and he is at the end of a long period of being unable to speak due to deep depression and institutionalization.

When I saw the movie the first time, I thought, “Yes, that’s exactly right.”  But the movie seems to disregard this information even though it is carefully and thoughtfully presented.  In fact, it is discounted by Mr. Deeds’ pointing out that the psychiatrist doodles and seemingly neutralized by Jean Arthur’s character professing her love.  So while it is highly probable that Mr. Deeds is more than pixilated and that he has bipolar disorder, the whole matter is sidestepped so we can have a happy ending.

This resolution is almost unforgivable.  He’s not going to stop being bipolar because he can turn attention to the “messenger” or because someone loves him.  Hollywood is responsible for making people believe so much nonsense, and mental illness is no exception. 

But I should know better than to expect realism in old movies, or new ones.  Is Fred Astaire actually dancing in blackface in Swingtime? I don’t believe in censorship, but I’m not sure why movies with that kind of thing are shown.