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Meet John Doe, the classic 1941 Frank Capra political populist romantic newspaper journalism mistaken identity melodrama (about a female reporter who writes a fictional story, which she presents as fact, about a man who is planning to commit suicide in protest of the world's treatment of downtrodden people; when the column is a giant hit, she must find a man to portray the writer and hires ex-baseball player Gary Cooper) starring Gary Cooper (in the title role as John Doe), Barbara Stanwyck, Edward Arnold, Walter Brennan, Spring Byington, James Gleason, Gene Lockhart, Rod La Rocque, Sterling Holloway, Irving Bacon, Regis Toomey, J. Farrell MacDonald, and Ann Doran. Note that in the original story this movie was based on (by Richard Connell and Robert Presnell), it concludes with John Doe standing on the roof, preparing to jump, and the Barbara Stanwyck character, Nan, tries to talk him out of doing it, and he is unshakable, and he says "I'll always love you, Nan" and she replies "I'll always love you, John". He then looks out at the crowd, which is singing the Battle Hymn of the Republic, and when the clock strikes midnight, Nan looks at where he was standing, and it is now empty, and she has "a look of pride and great joy". Frank Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin did not want this ending, because it involved the character committing suicide, and they felt that the Catholic Church would strongly object to that, which might make the movie unable to get distribution. Capra filmed five different endings and previewed at least two of them. In one, they had the suicide take place, and ended with Walter Brennan holding John's dead body. In another, it ends at the John Doe Convention, with John Doe disgraced, and the editor saying "Well, boys, you can chalk another one up to the Pontius Pilates." Another had Nan talking John out of committing suicide. In another, John convinces the corrupt publisher to change his ways and join John in his crusade. But none of those four seemed right. At one of the previews where they showed one of the above endings, a viewer suggested ending it with the John Doe members telling John that they had never stopped believing in him, and Capra then filmed that ending, and this is the ending that is on the movie's final version!
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Important Added Info: Note that this is an extremely rare poster. We have never auctioned one in all our years of auctioning! For unknown reasons, the half-sheet on this movie seems to be by far the most rare poster of any of this standard sizes, one-sheet or smaller. Note that this poster could conceivably be rolled in a tube, because it is not backed, but doing so would virtually certainly damage it, so we will ONLY send this poster in a large flat package. Please bear this in mind before bidding on this poster (incorporate the added shipping cost into the amount you bid).

Note that this item needs to be shipped in an oversized flat package. Most of these items absolutely can only be sent in flat packages, and could not possibly be rolled into a tube. Some of them might SEEM like they could be rolled in a tube, like a half-sheet, but they can't. The reason these items are in this auction is specifically because they CAN'T be rolled (because rolling any of them would damage them, even if they somehow can be rolled). So please bear in mind that this item must be sent in a LARGE flat package (the size of the package will depend on the size of the item when ready for shipping), and bear this added expense in mind before placing a bid on it. IN THE CASE OF EXTREMELY LARGE FLAT ITEMS, THE SHIPPING COST WILL BE VERY HIGH, SO PLEASE DO NOT BID WITHOUT THINKING ABOUT THAT ADDED SHIPPING AMOUNT, AND INCLUDE THAT AMOUNT IN WHAT YOU BID (so if you would pay $150, but the shipping is likely $100, then only bid $50). And those who live outside the U.S. and who do not have a U.S. address to ship to SHOULD NOT BID AT ALL ON EXTREMELY LARGE FLAT ITEMS, BECAUSE THEY COST HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS TO SEND OUTSIDE THE U.S.

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