It Happened One Night (1934)
Grade: 65
"It Happened One Night" was a great commercial and critical success for Director Frank Capra. The romantic comedy was a box office hit, and took the four most important Oscars: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (Clark Gable), and Best Actress (Claudette Colbert), as well as for adapted screenplay (Robert Riskin). The film continues to be very highly regarded today.
The story has Colbert just married to famed aviator King Westley (Jameson Thomas) whom her father (Walter Connolly) despises. Connolly interferes with their marriage, abducting her and seeking an annullment. Colbert escapes, and flees to New York and Westley on a bus, where she meets smug reporter Gable. Gable, in need of a big story in order to reconcile with his editor, makes a pact with Colbert to help her reach New York. Predictably, romantic sparks fly between Gable and Colbert.
"It Happened One Night" is a good film, certainly better than the average comedy. The dialogue between Gable and Colbert is often entertaining, especially when he teaches her how to hitchhike. Colbert is engaging and sympathetic, while Gable is a capable comic actor. But the film has its share of problems, which keep it from being the outstanding film that it is generally considered to be.
The film begins with Colbert's father holding her captive against her will on his boat. I have always considered this to be kidnapping. Ellie escapes, and her father sends a fleet of detectives after her. What if they caught up with her? Would she be dragged kicking and screaming into a waiting limousine? Despite his tyranny, Connolly is presented as a sympathetic character. It is understandable why he dislikes Westley, but why is he so anxious that Colbert marry Gable instead, whom he has met just once, and when he knows that the two have already quarrelled?
Why is Colbert's trip to New York such a huge story? The film features a half-dozen different front page headlines, each in screaming type. The highs and lows of the Colbert-Gable romance coincide with the hate/love relationship between Gable and his newspaper boss (Charles Wilson).
There is a song performed on the bus, "The Daring Young in his Flying Trapeze." Everybody on the bus loves the song, when assumedly half of the passengers would be trying to get some sleep. Various passengers, strangers to each other, take turns standing up and singing different verses, which they do flawlessly and with matching hand gestures. The bus driver gets so excited by the song that he drives off the road.
There were overall qualities about the film that I also disagreed with. The film is essentially a depression-era fantasy for women, with heroine Colbert achieving independence from her fabulously wealthy father while exchanging uptight husband Westley for dashing Gable. While similar themes has been put to good use, for example, in "A Room with a View", here the characters are more shallow and the audience manipulations are more blatant. "It Happened One Night" also falls prey to the Hollywood canard that people fall in love with each other through a series of arguments.
Of course, it is possible that I am overly critical, and carry a grudge against crowd-pleasing romantic comedies. Certainly most viewers have found this to be a better film than I have given it credit for.
kollers@mpsi.net http://members.tripod.com/~Brian_Koller/movies.html
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