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It Happened One Night (1934)
It Happened One Night (1934) is one of the greatest romantic
comedies in film history, and a film that has endured in
popularity. It is considered one of the pioneering "screwball"
romantic comedies of its time, setting the pattern for many
years afterwards along with another contemporary film, The Thin
Man (1934).
The escapist theme of the film, appropriate during the
Depression Era, is the story of the unlikely romantic pairing of
a mis-matched couple - a gruff and indifferent, recently-fired
newspaper man (Gable) and a snobbish, superior-acting heiress
(Colbert) - a runaway on the lam. It is a reversal of the
Cinderella story (the heroine rejects her wealthy lifestyle), a
modern tale with light-hearted sex appeal in which courtship and
love triumph over class conflicts, socio-economic differences,
and verbal battles of wit.
The madcap film from Columbia Studios (one of the lesser
studios) was an unexpected runaway box office sleeper hit
(especially after it began to play in small-town theaters), and
it garnered the top five Academy Awards (unrivaled until 1975,
forty-one years later by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
- and then again by The Silence of the Lambs (1991).) It won all
five of its nominated categories: Best Picture, Best Actor
(Clark Gable), Best Actress (Claudette Colbert), Best Director
(Frank Capra), and Best Adaptation (Robert Riskin).
The film, composed mostly of a road trip (by bus, car, foot, and
by thumb in locales such as bus depots or interiors of buses,
and the open road) by the social-class-unmatched couple,
contains some of the most classic scenes ever made: the "Walls
of Jericho" scene in an auto-camp bungalow so that they can
sleep in the same room out of wedlock, the doughnuts-dunking
lesson, the hitchhiking scene, the night-time scene on a
haystack in a deserted barn, and the dramatic wedding scene.
With his good-natured, street-smart, and breezy performance,
Gable influenced the un-sale of undershirts by taking off his
shirt and exposing his bare chest, and bus travel by women
substantially increased as a result of the film.
Capra had originally wanted MGM stars Robert Montgomery and
Myrna Loy to play the lead roles, but ended up, surprisingly,
with top MGM star Gable 'on-loan' (as punishment) from the
studio. Others who turned down the female lead role, before
Colbert accepted the four weeks of work for $50,000, included
Miriam Hopkins, Margaret Sullavan, and Constance Bennett.
The screenplay, co-written by director Frank Capra (uncredited)
and Robert Riskin, was based on an August 1933 Cosmopolitan
magazine story titled "Night Bus" by Samuel Hopkins Adams.
[Another of Adams' short stories about a woman traveling on a
bus, "Last Trip" in the March edition of Collier's Magazine, may
also be considered a source for the film.] In both 1945 and
1956, it was remade as musicals: Eve Knew Her Apples (1945)
starring Ann Miller, and You Can't Run Away From It (1956) with
Jack Lemmon and June Allyson.
Animation expert Friz Freleng, in his unpublished memoirs,
claimed that the film helped to inspire the creation of various
cartoon characters:
Bugs Bunny's fast-talking personality was partially based on
Oscar Shapeley (Roscoe Karns), and also related to the one
mention by Gable of an imaginary hitman named 'Bugs' in the
film; (Bugs Bunny's debut film was "Porky's Hare Hunt" (1938));
Bugs Bunny's carrot-eating technique was based on Peter Warne
(Clark Gable) and the way he talked while chewing on a carrot
Yosemite Sam was inspired by Alexander Andrews (Walter Connolly)
Pepe LePew was inspired by King Westley (Jameson Thomas)
The film's opening line is the question that the portly,
millionaire tycoon father Alexander Andrews (Walter Connolly)
asks about his angry daughter's behavior and refusal to eat:
Hunger strike, eh? How long has this been going on?
On his yacht moored in the sunny waters off Florida with him is
his spoiled, stubborn, devil-may-care headstrong heiress
daughter Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert). In an impulsive
moment and possibly to spite her father, she has just married
(in name only) a worthless playboy, King Westley (Jameson
Thomas), a fortune-hunting, ne'er-do-well celebrity aviator.
Objecting to the wedding, although Westley is in her own upper
social class, Mr. Andrews has kidnapped his daughter and brought
her aboard his yacht, holding her as a prisoner against her
will. He plans to annul the unconsummated marriage to the
mercenary, worthless, stuffed-shirt playboy he despises.
Ellie is first seen backed up against a stateroom wall by her
father - both are engaged in a vicious argument. In a temper
tantrum, Ellie defiantly shouts at her father for controlling
her life ("I'm over twenty-one and so is he") and not letting
her assert her freedom:
Ellie You've been telling me what not to do ever since I can
remember.
Mr. Andrews: That's because you've always been a stubborn idiot.
Ellie: I come from a long line of stubborn idiots.
She knocks away her father's fork (with a piece of steak on it),
overturns his tray of food all over the floor, and he reacts by
slapping her - she is surprised. Fully clothed, she rushes up on
deck, up onto the railing and effortlessly dives overboard, and
then swims ashore to freedom and independence - as if it were
that simple to 'jump ship'. Her father helplessly watches as she
swims away, and calls for his staff to "lower the boats."
Detectives are dispatched to find her - "Watch all roads,
airports and railway stations in Miami."
The next scene is introduced by a sign reading: Night Bus to New
York. In the Miami bus station, detectives can't believe she
would take a lower-class night bus. "We're wasting our time. Can
you imagine Ellie Andrews riding on a bus?" To evade her
father's search by traveling incognito, she has another elderly
lady buy a ticket for her on a Greyhound bus - a rickety,
proletarian means of transportation which would be unlikely for
a rich heiress. She is determined to escape detection and join
her husband (to spite her father) after a night bus ride from
Miami, Florida to New York.
The other major character in the film is tall, outspoken
newspaper reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable), who is first seen
surrounded by a mob of onlookers listening to "history in the
making" as he is arguing with his fatherly editor-boss Joe
Gordon (Charles C. Wilson) in a telephone booth in another part
of the bus station. He has recently been fired for drinking on
the job - and turning in a story in "free verse." He drunkenly
tells off his boss on the other end of the line:
In a pig's eye, you will!...Hey listen monkey face, when you
fired me, you fired the best newshound your filthy scandal sheet
ever had...That was free verse, you gashouse palooka!
The crowd outside the phone booth has overheard his side of the
conversation and believes he has won the argument, but he has
been play-acting - his boss is no longer on the line. With a
headstrong display of an assertive will and dramatic
theatricality, he shouts into the receiver and declares his
independence from the newspaper (as Ellie did against familial
control) long after he has been fired and disconnected: "Oh, so
you're changing your tune, eh? You're a little late with your
apologies. I wouldn't go back to work for you if you begged me
on your hands and knees. And I hope this will be a lesson to
you!" [Onlookers refer to Peter Warne as "the King" -- Gable's
nickname in real life.]
Peter, like another 'father-less' passenger, has also purchased
a ticket for the crowded night bus ride to New York, traveling
on the bus because he is down-and-out and broke, and that is the
only fare he can afford. These circumstances will soon bring the
two main characters together and contrast their status in the
social hierarchy. The only bus seat left is in the back of the
bus, and it is covered with a bundle of newspapers - Warne hurls
through the window to the platform. After the bus driver (Ward
Bond) objects to his brash action, he replies:
I never did like the idea of sitting on newspaper. I did it
once, and all the headlines came off on my white pants. On the
level! It actually happened. Nobody bought a paper that day.
They just followed me around over town and read the news on the
seat of my pants.
While he is engaged in an altercation with the driver, Ellie
quickly takes the seat that he has cleared off. In their first
encounter together, he orders her out of his seat: "Now listen,
I put up a stiff fight for that seat. So if it's just the same
to you - scram." But since it is the last seat on the bus, and
the seats are "first come, first serve," they must share it. The
front of the bus fills the screen, with its several state
licenses, lit headlights, and its destination over the front
window: NEW YORK. As the bus lurches forward while she is
obstinately putting her own bag up in the rack, she is thrown
into his lap. He tells her: "Next time you drop in, bring your
folks."
At a night-time rest stop, where 5 cent cones and hot dogs and
hamburgers for 10 cents are advertised, Ellie listlessly leans
up against the side of the bus, smoking a cigarette. Her small
briefcase is stolen with all her money in it (except four
dollars). Peter acts gentlemanly, but is unable to catch and
apprehend the thief for her. To his surprise, she refuses to
have it reported, so that she won't be found out: "I don't want
it reported!...Can you understand English? Would you please keep
out of my affairs. I want to be left alone." He recognizes that
she is a spoiled brat: "Why, you ungrateful brat!"
At the next stop, a thirty-minute breakfast stop in
Jacksonville, Ellie has finally fallen asleep next to the
newspaperman. She wakes up clutching his lapel, with her head
nestled on his shoulder. She asks the driver to wait for her,
expecting the bus to wait while she has a leisurely breakfast.
The bus takes off without her when she returns twenty minutes
late. Peter deliberately misses the bus too, reacquainting
himself:
Remember me? I'm the fellow you slept on last night.
The next bus leaves twelve hours later, but she reminds him of
her independence: "You needn't concern yourself about me. I can
take care of myself."
Then he reveals to her that he knows her true identity: "You'll
never get away with it, Miss Andrews." During the stop, he had
discovered who she is - a runaway heiress - through a front-page
headline in the Florida Journal newspaper - ELLEN ANDREWS
ESCAPES FATHER. Acting in character, knowing that money can get
her anything she wants, Ellie bribes him into not informing her
father about her whereabouts - while touching his chest:
"Listen, if you promise not to do it, I'll pay you. I'll pay you
as much as he will. You won't gain anything by giving me away,
as long I'm willing to make it worth your while. I've got to get
to New York without being stopped. It's terribly important to
me." Again, Peter berates her as a spoiled brat:
You know, I had you pegged right from the jump. Just a spoiled
brat of a rich father. The only way you get anything is to buy
it, isn't it? You're in a jam and all you can think of is your
money. It never failed, did it? Ever hear of the word humility?
No, you wouldn't. I guess it would never occur to you to just
say, 'Please mister, I'm in trouble, will you help me?' No, that
would bring you down off your high horse for a minute. Well, let
me tell you something, maybe it will take a load off your mind.
You don't have to worry about me. I'm not interested in your
money or your problem. You, King Westley, your father. You're
all a lot of hooey to me!
At the Western Union office, he telegrams his New York Mail
boss, Joe Gordon, about a possible scoop - sending it collect:
Am I laughing? The biggest scoop of the year just dropped in my
lap. I know where Ellen Andrews is...How would you like to have
the story, you big tub of mush...Will try and get it. What I
said about never writing another line for you still goes. Are
you burning? PETER WARNE
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