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How others will see it. Classic movie buffs will relish this movie, which contains a number of favorite character actors in addition to two bona fide stars, Cooper and Stanwyck. Capra's worship of the common folk will be ignored by most, who will concentrate on the familiar actors and the story. No one will be surprised by the ending, which exonerates our two stars (and the initially hard-boiled Gleason) without a needless body splattering at the base of a New York city skyscraper.
How I felt about it. I'm glad Gary Cooper didn't jump. What would be the point of that? It would prove he was earnest, but also ineffectual. The only reasonable course is to survive and rebuild, and I'm glad that's how it came out.
But it is on the dramatic side. Stanwyck rises from her sick bed to climb 14 stories of stairs to beg Cooper for his life. I guess that mink coat didn't mean much after all. But I suspect she kept it. Cooper's leap is also contested by a group of the cigar-chomping big boys, who don't want Cooper to jump for the wrong reasons, and by a pack of John Doe loyalists, who actually believe that Love Thy Neighbor is workable, rather than an invitation to be taken advantage of.
The John Doe Club movement is a minor aspect of the story, but it is a critical part of the film's underlying message. John Doe, when his shoes are filled by Stanwyck rather than by her mother, Cooper, or Arnold, is a populist who rails against government policies and corruption. Then Stanwyck's mother takes over, and her philosophy of neighbor assistance completely replaces Doe's former muckraking stance.
There are problems with Love Thy Neighbor. Some neighbors want to be left alone. Not every ugly apple has a healthy core, and some attractive apples have rotten cores. To those truly in need, assistance now means assistance later, and it becomes a private welfare program, with the beneficiaries at first grateful, but soon dependent with an attitude of entitlement.
Doe's new feel-good philosophy is a popular message of hope during the Great Depression, which demonstrates the inevitability of government programs to prevent despair, even starvation. The apolitical nature of the John Doe Clubs speeds their growth, since an element of divisiveness is removed.
Such purity is impractical, however, because the clubs need money, which means backers, who have ulterior motives. Since the political corruption of the clubs is inevitable, and their effectiveness is a function of local leadership, they are best replaced with a Federal program, at the risk of an entrenched welfare underclass.