When the Bulletin is taken over, reporter Ann
Mitchell (Barbara
Stanwyck) is fired by managing editor Henry Connell (James Gleason)
so as a parting shot, she prints a fake letter from unemployed “John Doe,” who
threatens suicide on Christmas Eve in protest of social ills.
Because
the story causes such a stir the paper is forced to rehire Ann and recruit a penniless
drifter Long John Willoughby (Gary Cooper) to impersonate “Doe.”
After
making a radio broadcast a social movement grows up behind him so a rival newspaper attempts to expose him and eventually the Bulletin publisher
D.B. Norton (Edward Arnold) turns on John himself.
In
his despondency Willoughby attempts suicide by jumping from the roof of the
City Hall on Christmas Eve, as indicated in the original John Doe letter, by
which time Ann has fallen in love with John and desperately tries to talk him
out of jumping, but she faints sway.
Eventually
members of the John Doe Club convince him not to kill himself, and John leaves,
carrying a fainted Ann in his arms.
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