Longfellow Deeds (Gary Cooper) is the co-owner of a tallow works, part-time greeting card poet, and tuba-playing inhabitant of the hamlet of Mandrake Falls, Vermont. During the Great Depression he inherits 20 million dollars from his uncle, Martin Semple (Jameson Thomas). Semple's scheming attorney, John Cedar (Douglass Dumbrille), locates Deeds and brings him to New York City. Cedar gives newspaperman Cornelius Cobb (Lionel Stander), the task of keeping reporters away.
Cobb is outfoxed by star reporter Louise "Babe" Bennett (Jean Arthur), who pretends to faint from exhaustion after "walking all day to find a job" and worms her way into Deed's confidence. Bennett then writes a series of enormously popular newspaper articles on Longfellow, portraying him as a madcap yokel who has suddenly inherited riches, giving him the nickname "Cinderella Man".
Cedar tries to get Deeds' power of attorney, to keep his misdeeds secret. Deeds, however, proves to be a shrewd judge of character, easily fending off Cedar and other greedy opportunists. He wins Cobb's respect and eventually Babe's love, falling for her himself and proposing in a poem. She quits her job in shame, but before she can tell Deeds the truth about herself, Cobb finds out and tells Deeds. Deeds is left heartbroken and decides to return to Mandrake Falls.
After he has packed and is about to leave, a dispossessed farmer stomps into his mansion and threatens him with a gun. He expresses his scorn for the seemingly heartless, ultra-rich man, who feeds doughnuts to horses but won't lift a finger to help the multitudes of desperate poor. Deeds, realizing he can put his troublesome fortune to good use, decides to provide 2,000 fully equipped 10-acre farms free to homeless families if they will work the land for three years.
Cedar joins forces with Deeds' only other relative, Semple, and his shrewish wife, to have Deeds declared mentally incompetent. During a sanity hearing, to determine who should control the fortune, Cedar calls an expert who diagnoses Deeds with manic depression based on Babe's articles. Deeds refuses to speak.
Babe speaks up passionately, blaming herself for what she did. Deeds realizes she truly loves him, and begins speaking, systematically punching holes in Cedar's case and then punching Cedar in the face. The judge declares him, "the sanest man who ever walked into this courtroom". Victorious, Deeds and Babe embrace, kiss, and he sweeps her into his arms, carrying her off.
A 1936 American Black & White comedy-drama romance film (a/k/a "Opera Hat", "A Gentleman Goes to Town" and "Cinderella Man") produced & directed by Frank Capra, screenplay by Robert Riskin, based on the 1935 short story "Opera Hat" by Clarence Budington Kelland, starring Gary Cooper, Jean Arthur, George Bancroft, Lionel Stander, Douglass Dumbrille, Raymond Walburn, H.B. Warner, Ruth Donnelly, Walter Catlett, John Wray. Jean Arthur appears in her first featured role. Released by Columbia Pictures.
The title was the winning entry in a contest held by the Columbia Pictures publicity department.
This was Robert Riskin's fifth collaboration with Frank Capra.
Clarence Budington Kelland's short story, "Opera Hat" (1935), appeared in serial form in The American Magazine, which was a periodical publication founded in June 1906, a continuation of failed publications purchased a few years earlier from publishing mogul Miriam Leslie. It succeeded Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly (1876–1904), Leslie's Monthly Magazine (1904–1905), Leslie's Magazine (1905) and the American Illustrated Magazine (1905–1906). The magazine was published through August 1956.
Originally, Capra intended to make "Lost Horizon" (1937) after "Broadway Bill" (1934), but lead actor Ronald Colman was not available. The two lead actors are Gary Cooper, Capra's "first, last and only choice" for the pivotal role, and Jean Arthur, who was not. Carole Lombard, the original female lead, quit to star in "My Man Godfrey". The opening sequences shot on the Fox Studios' New England street lot had to be reshot when Capra decided against the broad comedy approach originally written.
This received the 1937 Academy Award Nominations for Best Picture, Best Actor Gary Cooper, Best Original Story Robert Riskin, and Best Sound Recording John P. Livadary. Frank Capra won for Best Director.
It was the seventh most popular film at the 1935–36 British box office. A 2004 British Film Institute listing places this at number 88 in their all-time chart based on cinema admissions in the UK, with an estimate attendance of 8.3 million.
The lyrics to the 1977 Rush song "Cinderella Man" on the A Farewell to Kings album are based on the story of this film.
The film was liked by critics and audiences. Novelist Graham Greene, then also a film critic, was effusive in his praise, stating that this was Capra's finest film to date and describing Capra's treatment as "a kinship with his audience, a sense of common life, a morality."