Furious at being laid off, newspaper reporter Ann Mitchell prints a letter by a fictional "John Doe" threatening suicide in protest against social injustice. When the letter becomes a public sensation, Mitchell's editor Henry Connell plans to capitalise on the interest in John Doe to boost newspaper sales. They hire John Willoughby, a former baseball player and cash-strapped hobo, to play the fictitious character.
John Doe preaches charity, plain-speaking and good neighbourliness and becomes a national figure. His philosophy catches on and inspires a popular grassroots movement with "John Doe Clubs" springing up across the country. D. B. Norton, the newspaper's unscrupulous publisher with fascist tendencies, plots to use John Doe's popularity to further his political ambitions. When Willoughby discovers Norton's intentions, he denounces Norton publicly and exposes his deception in the process.
Meet John Doe was director Frank Capra's first independent production and the third in a trilogy of Capra films about American individualism, the other two being Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939).
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