See these films: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town + My Man Godfrey + Down By Law @ the Brattle

The heroes of each of the following three films at the Brattle, separated by five decades, are outsiders who are wiser than they appear. Gary Cooper plays the title free spirit in Frank Capra's Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (1936); he inherits a fortune and is besieged by scalawags until he meets an honest woman (Jean Arthur) - or is she? In Gregory La Cava's My Man Godfrey (1936) William Powell plays a Depression-era bum - or is he? - picked up in a scavenger hunt by a wealthy woman played by Carole Lombard. Finally, in Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law (1986) Roberto Benigni is less obnoxious than usual as a kind of idiot-savant Italian guy hanging around with John Lurie and Tom Waits. The Brattle is at 40 Brattle St, Cambridge | Sunday: Deeds @ 12:30 + 5 pm; Godfrey @ 3 + 7:30 pm; Down @ 9:30 pm | $9.75; $7.75 seniors; $6.75 students | 617.876.6837 or brattlefilm.org.