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Mercury Theatre's
"MR DEEDS GOES TO TOWN"
written by
Clarence Budington Kelland
Produced and Scripted by Orson Welles
Starring Orson Welles
PLOT SUMMARY:
In the middle of the Great Depression, Longfellow Deeds , co-owner of a tallow works, part-time greeting card poet and tuba-playing inhabitant of the hamlet of Mandrake Falls, Vermont, inherits the enormous fortune of 20 million dollars from his late uncle, Martin Semple. His uncle's scheming attorney, John Cedar , locates Deeds and takes him to New York City.
Cedar gives his cynical troubleshooter, ex-newspaperman Cornelius Cobb , the task of keeping reporters away from the heir. He is outfoxed, however, by star reporter Louise "Babe" Bennett , who appeals to Deeds' romantic fantasy of rescuing a damsel in distress by masquerading as a poor worker named Mary Dawson. She pretends to faint from hunger in his presence and worms her way into his confidence. She proceeds to write a series of enormously popular articles mocking Longfellow's hick ways and odd behavior, naming him the "Cinderella Man". Meanwhile, Cedar tries to get Deeds' power of attorney in order to hide his financial misdeeds.
Deeds, however, proves to be a shrewd judge of character, easily fending off Cedar and other greedy opportunists. He wins Cobb's wholehearted respect and eventually Babe's love. However, when Cobb finds out Bennett's true identity, Deeds is left heartbroken...
...Alarmed at the prospect of losing control of the fortune, Cedar joins forces with Deeds' only other relative and his grasping, domineering wife in seeking to have Deeds declared mentally incompetent. This, along with Babe's betrayal, finally breaks his spirit and he sinks into a deep depression.
During his sanity hearing, things look bleak for Deeds, especially since he initially refuses to defend himself. Cedar even gets Deeds's Mandrake Falls tenants, eccentric elderly sisters Jane and Amy Faulkner to testify that Deeds is "pixilated."
That charge falls apart when the two spinsters admit that everyone in town, except themselves, suffers the same affliction. When Babe convinces Deeds that she truly loves him, he systematically punches holes in Cedar's case (before punching Cedar in the face) and the judge declares him to be "the sanest man who ever walked into this courtroom".
excerpted form wikipedia
The Mercury Theatre on the Air, a show featuring the acclaimed New York drama company founded by Orson Welles and John Houseman. In its brief run, it featured an impressive array of talents, including Agnes Moorehead, Bernard Herrmann, and George Coulouris. The show is famous for its notorious War of the Worlds broadcast, but the other shows in the series are relatively unknown.
The show first broadcast on CBS and CBC in July 1938. It ran without a sponsor until December of that year, when it was picked up by Campbell's Soup and renamed The Campbell Playhouse.
Approximate play time of 1 hour
THIS AUDIO CD WILL PLAY IN ANY ORDINARY CD PLAYER