It Happened One Night: 1934

After six movies I'd never seen before, I finally ventured back into familiar territory when I turned on It Happened One Night, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, and directed by Frank Capra. I first saw this movie right after I graduated college; I had never heard of Claudette Colbert and I thought Clark Gable was only ever in Gone With the Wind. This time around, I have still only seen Claudette Colbert in this movie, but I now know that Clark Gable has in fact been in more than Gone With the Wind. I also know who Frank Capra is now, which I must not have the first time I watched this because I was surprised to see his name in the opening credits.

It Happened One Night opens on a yacht off the coast of Florida; heiress Ellie Andrews (Colbert) is arguing with her father, Alexander, about his disapproval of the man she has chosen to marry, King Westley. When he refuses to give his blessing, Ellie jumps off the ship, swims to shore, and ends up at the bus station. The same bus station, it just so happens, as Peter Warne (Gable), a newspaper reporter who, at the moment, is on the phone with his employer getting fired (but making it sound to the eavesdroppers as though he is quitting. Pride, you know?). What do you get when a famous heiress goes missing, and a recently unemployed newspaper reporter, desperate for a job, is the one to find her? A meet cute. They end up sitting next to each other on the bus, and after about five minutes he can tell that she is out of her depth. When he figures out who she is, he realizes that he can probably get his job back if he can sell his old boss the story of the runaway heiress taking a days-long bus journey to New York to be with her new groom. Reluctant at first, Ellie agrees to stick with Peter, as she very quickly realizes that she won't be able to make it to her destination without his help. After a series of mishaps, lies, and thefts, Ellie and Peter spend one final night in a hotel outside of Philadelphia, with the walls of Jericho still intact, of course (that term plays a big part in the film and is repeated several times), where they admit that they're falling for each other. Peter stays up all night writing the story he's been after all along: Millionaire Heiress Annuls Marriage to Pilot And Runs Off With Newspaper Man, or something to that effect. He speeds to New York (in a stolen car) while Ellie is still asleep (in a hotel room they can't pay for) to sell it to his old boss, for the one thousand dollars he needs as seed money to start his new life with Ellie. Ellie, of course, happens to wake up while he's gone and assumes that he's abandoned her; so she calls her father to finally explain where she is so that he can come fetch her and she and King Westley can have a real wedding (her father tries to lure her out of hiding by selling the story that he and King have come to an understanding and he now approves of the union). Since Ellie has no idea why Peter left, and Peter has no idea why Ellie finally called her father, and they are equally stubborn, they refused to speak to each other until Peter stops by Mr. Andrews's house on Ellie's wedding day to pick up his compensation, which Ellie assumed to be the ten thousand dollar reward for finding her and bringing her home safely. The only compensation Peter is interested in, however, is the money he spent on the trip, which amounted to $39.60. While leaving, Peter sees Ellie across the room, and the pair gets into one last fight before Peter storms out; apparently, though, it's enough to shake Ellie's resolve, and she flees her wedding as soon as she gets to the altar. The last scene is the honeymoon scene; Mr. Andrews gets a telegram from Peter asking if the annulment to King is finalized, because the walls of Jericho-- the blanket partition Peter erected in every hotel room they shared throughout their trip-- are about to crumble. Mr. Andrews replies, saying simply, "Let them fall." Cut to the newlyweds' hotel room, where all we see before the lights fade to black is the blanket partition falling to the floor. The End!

What I liked:

- Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable had great chemistry (when their characters were getting along, anyway)

- Loved that there was a happy ending

- I thought the $39.60 was adorable

- The iconic hitchhiking scene 

- When she finally quietly compromised and ate a carrot

What I disliked:

- I don't remember Clark Gable's character being so crabby all the time. Like, what did she see in him? He snapped at her every five minutes!

- It gave me the weirds that he kept calling her "brat." Something didn't sit right with me about that

- I didn't like the scene where Peter tricked that one passenger into believing that he was in the mob, and that he was turning Ellie in for the reward money, and that if he told anybody that he found Ellie then he would put a hit out on him. Pointless and uncomfortable. And I felt bad for the guy he scared; he ran away from the bus and kept running - what was the point of that? They didn't even get back on the bus themselves!

What surprised me:

- I learned while doing research that it was a pre-Code film, meaning that it was made before any kind of strict censorship practices were established and enforced. (That would explain why in Wings we saw a whole boob - censorship wasn't a thing yet!) Pre-Code allowed elements such as sexual innuendo, mild profanity, promiscuity, intense violence, and infidelity to appear in films. The hitchhiking scene would have probably alerted a few censors after the Motion Picture Production code was enforced, as well as a married woman sharing a hotel room with-- and getting undressed in the same room as-- a man who is NOT her husband. (The Hays code is fascinating - I highly recommend doing some research on it, and the "kings and queens" of the Hays Code Era.)

What won it the Oscar:

I am going to guess that Character won It Happened One Night Best Picture this year. The acting is wonderful and the actors have great chemistry with each other; the bus scenes have a few good ensemble moments as well. There is hardly any Music or underscore; it isn't trying to say anything profound with Thought; there isn't anything special with the Spectacle; and I'm not sure if Diction will really ever be a contender for this, to be honest. The only other semi-strong argument I could make is Plot. When talking with my roommate about our thoughts, she said, "Yeah, I liked it! But I mean, it's pretty much a cookie cutter romantic comedy," but we both realized soon after she said that, that this movie was probably THE cookie cutter. Plot could play a factor here because if we see elements in other romantic comedies that look familiar, they were probably inspired by this film; after all, it was preserved in the Library of Congress for being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Final thoughts:

According to Wikipedia, when Claudette Colbert got home after wrapping on the movie, she said to a friend that she "just finished the worst picture in the world." It Happened One Night was the first of only three films to win the Big Five Academy Awards - Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. Lots of films have been nominated for the Big Five, both before and since, but the first film to WIN the Big Five since It Happened One Night was One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975 - that's 41 years between films. The only other movie that's won the Big Five so far has been The Silence of the Lambs in 1991. To understand why this movie, which was just fine, won Best Picture, or really all of the Big Five, I feel like I'd really have to watch all the nominees that year; that will take quite a bit of time, however, seeing as there were TWELVE BEST PICTURE NOMINEES at this Academy Awards ceremony. (Side note: Claudette Colbert was in TWO of them.) It is on several "Best XYZ Films of All Time" lists, and is referenced in other films and television shows. However, while clearly influential, I don't think It Happened One Night was the best of the seven that I've watched so far. See below.

My current ranking:

1. Grand Hotel

2. All Quiet On The Western Front

3. Wings

4. It Happened One Night (Right in the middle. Not my favorite, not abysmal.)

5. The Broadway Melody

6. Cimarron

7. Cavalcade

Next up is Mutiny on the Bounty.