Infuriated at being told to write one final column after being laid off from her newspaper job, Ann Mitchell prints a letter from a fictional unemployed "John Doe" threatening suicide on Christmas Eve in protest of society's ills. When the letter causes a sensation among readers, and the paper's competition suspects a fraud and starts to investigate, editor Henry Connell is persuaded to rehire Ann, who schemes to boost the newspaper's sales by exploiting the fictional John Doe. From a number of derelicts who show up at the paper claiming to have written the original letter, Ann and Henry hire John Willoughby, a former baseball player and tramp in need of money to repair his injured arm, to play the role of John Doe. Ann starts to pen a series of articles in Doe's name, elaborating on the original letter's ideas of society's disregard for people in need.
Willoughby gets $50, a new suit of clothes, and a plush hotel suite with his tramp friend "The Colonel", who launches into an extended diatribe against "the heelots", lots of heels who incessantly focus on getting money from others.

Directed by Frank Capra
Starring Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck

Infuriated at being told to write one final column after being laid off from her newspaper job, Ann Mitchell prints a letter from a fictional unemployed "John Doe" threatening suicide on Christmas Eve in protest of society's ills. When the letter causes a sensation among readers, and the paper's competition suspects a fraud and starts to investigate, editor Henry Connell is persuaded to rehire Ann, who schemes to boost the newspaper's sales by exploiting the fictional John Doe. From a number of derelicts who show up at the paper claiming to have written the original letter, Ann and Henry hire John Willoughby, a former baseball player and tramp in need of money to repair his injured arm, to play the role of John Doe. Ann starts to pen a series of articles in Doe's name, elaborating on the original letter's ideas of society's disregard for people in need.
Willoughby gets $50, a new suit of clothes, and a plush hotel suite with his tramp friend "The Colonel", who launches into an extended diatribe against "the heelots", lots of heels who incessantly focus on getting money from others.

Directed by Frank Capra
Starring Gary Cooper, Barbara Stanwyck