This is the classic tale of a lawman who stands alone to defend a town of cowardly citizens against a gang of revenge-seeking criminals. In the greatest showdown in the history of cinema, the lawman stands to lose not only the town but his new wife.

Longfellow Deeds (Cooper), a small-town poet, inherits $20 million from his uncle and wants to give it away to needy people. Petty moochers, greedy relatives, conniving lawyers and big executives, who all want a piece of the pie, attempt to have Deeds declared incompetent.

A genial homeless unemployed baseball pitcher is hoaxed into protesting against existing social evils as a newspaper circulation stunt. He pleas to the "little man" for brotherly love and democratic good will, and John Doe clubs are formed. Because of his simple sincerity, he becomes a national hero, but he is shocked when he discovers that it's all a plot by the owner of the paper, who plans to use the voting strength of the clubs to bludgeon his...