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WHILE Long John and the Colonel return to their vagabond life of riding the rails and camping under the open sky, a strange thing has happened. John’s speech exhorting his audience to reach out to their neighbours in Christian charity has sparked a movement. John Doe Clubs have sprouted around the country, their members devoted to living out the principles articulated in his speech. Having breakfast with the Colonel at a greasy spoon diner, John is amazed to discover that a so-called John Doe Club has begun in town. Once recognised, he is besieged by admirers and curiosity seekers who corral him into the Mayor’s office. Soon arrive Ann and D B Norton, who have been desperately searching for John ever since his epic speech. They try to persuade him to travel the country with them, giving lectures to John Doe Clubs sponsored by Norton. Long John wants none of it. All he craves is his independence. He is a baseball player, not a lecturer. And he rightly suspects the motives of Mr Norton and, despite his obvious attraction to her, Ann.
Despite his growing anger and resentment, John wavers for a second time. Once again his soft-heartedness gets the better of him. Members of the local John Doe Club have made their way into the Mayor’s office to thank John personally. The leader of the retinue, a soda jerker named Bert, tells John how he inspired him and his neighbours to reach out to each other in kindness. Instead of scorning and mistrusting each other, they have begun to approach one another in a spirit of charity and forgiveness. Together they formed a John Doe Club, which has brought assistance to people in need. Recognising the widespread desire of each man to work with dignity, the club has found jobs for seven people out of work, allowing them to go off government relief. The club is explicitly apolitical, even disallowing politicians from joining. Bert speaks for all in the club when he begs John not to jump off any building.
Long John is clearly moved by the goodness of the crowd and Gary Cooper represents his mixed emotions in a touching way. John is truly an ordinary guy, not one to start a movement. When the delegation is gone, he pleads that it was Ann who wrote those speeches; the love and gratitude shown him are directed to her ideas, not his. Nevertheless, the fiction has taken on a life of its own. The people forming John Doe Clubs, whose lives have so clearly been improved by his message of love and hope, are inspired not by ideas but by a man. John didn’t choose to be that man, but thrust into the situation he grudgingly accepts the role. The Colonel, who sees everybody as moved by the love of money, castigates Long John for falling into their grasping hands.
At this point in the film, it is hard to judge the soundness of John’s actions. From a certain perspective, he is acting basely, perpetuating a lie of great consequence, one that could harm many people. Additionally, he is handing himself over to the power of strangers of whose plans and motives he is ignorant. He is smart enough to suspect the intentions of Norton and Ann, though he naively chooses to believe that they want to improve the world, that it is a ‘great cause for the common man’ as Norton says. Yet there is also nobility in his action. John is making a sacrifice: giving up his dream of returning to baseball for a role he is ill-suited to play. John is no orator and he certainly has no intention of jumping off any building. Though not as feral as the Colonel, he enjoyed the life of a transient, playing the harmonica, his feet dangling out a boxcar door. Complicating the matter is the fact that John appears quite smitten with Ann, who is clearly charmed with John. When Ann rediscovers John in the small town mayor’s office, she looks at him adoringly. Barbara Stanwyck is masterful in portraying a woman not sure if she has fallen in love with her creation or her discovery.
This blossoming love between John and Ann makes Meet John Doe even more compelling. The whole reason that Ann chose Long John Willoughby to be her John Doe is because he provided an appealing if blank canvas on which to paint her picture. When this picture becomes adored by the public, John is right to wonder if she has any affection for him. He has become a vehicle for her success, which sells the New Bulletin more newspapers and gets her a higher salary. John’s love for Ann, on the other hand, is more transparent, though he is indebted to her for his newfound fame. The movie’s stroke of genius consists in the fact that both individuals are, at bottom, thoroughly decent people who warrant the affection of each other. As we will see, John Willoughby really isa good man, a man capable of inspiring others. Ann, too, is more than a cynical newspaper gal. Thoughtful and caring, she struggles to provide for her widowed mother and two little sisters. The words she creates for John come from a wise heart and a sincere desire to carry on her late father’s charitable works.
With John’s full co-operation, the John Doe movement sweeps the country. Thousands of John Doe Clubs open in every state on the map. These clubs eschew explicit political activity, focusing their energy on serving the needy and strengthening the fraternal bonds between neighbours. It seems as if John has made the right decision and that the cost of his white lie is worth the hope given to people soured by the empty promises of politicians.
To be continued
