Film Review: It Happened One Night (1934)

Film Review: It Happened One Night (1934) | Ecency

(source: tmdb.org)

Frank Capra is a legendary director of Classic Hollywood whose best known and most beloved film It’s a Wonderful Life, by an ironic twist fate, was initially viewed as flop. Capra actually had string of undisputed successes in 1930s with his populist comedies. The most successful among them was 1934 film It Happened One Night.

Film is based on “Night Bus”, short story by Samuel Hopkins Adams. Plot begins when Ellen “Ellie” Andrews (played by Claudette Colbert), spoiled daughter of wealthy Wall Street banker Alexander Andrews (played by Walter Conolly) escapes from her father’s yacht and finds her way to Miami. Her aim is to travel to New York and join “King” Westley (played by Jameson Thomas), aviator with whom she eloped. Her father wants to have the marriage annulled and correctly assumes that his son-in-law actually doesn’t love Ellie and only wants her money. Ellie tries to evade father’s private detectives and boards the bus. One of the passengers happens to be Peter Warne (played by Clark Gable), newspaper reporter who was recently fired from his job. He recognises Ellie, as well her apparent inability to function in normal world without assistance of father’s servants or money. He offers Ellie a pact – he would help her escape while she would give him exclusive story and thus resurrect his career. Two of them continue the trip and go through all kinds of adventures, slowly realising that, despite all their differences, they are becoming attracted to each other.

It Happened One Night had very good results at the box office, but it is better known for winning Oscar for Best Pictures. It was not only the first and one of very rare comedies to do so, but also the first film to win five top awards – Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Adapted Screenplay - which was feat repeated only by One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest and The Silence of the Lambs. While this can be explained by Capra’s popularity among his peers, it is also a product of undisputed talent. Capra was also fortunate to have good collaborators, most notably screenwriter Robert Riskin, who used short story to build script that would later serve as template for many romantic comedies, as well as road films. Success of It Happened One Night also had to do with Great Depression, which was still raging in USA and which was actually mentioned by one of the characters. When the spoiled heiress is forced to hide among common people, she for the first time encounters situations in which some very basic things like food on the table or roof over the head become an actually luxury and sometimes even unattainable. Capra shows what the actual stakes are in short but poignant scene during which a woman passenger on the bus (played by Claire McDowell) collapses because she haven’t eaten for the days in order to save money for bus ticket for her and her young son. Contrast between Ellie’s manners built on life of luxury and challenges of common people is, however, more commonly and effectively used for comical effect.

It Happened One Night was also fortunate to be made at the right time. Only few months after the premiere Hollywood began to enforce infamous MPAA Production Code, system of draconian censorship that could have prevented Capra from having some of the most memorable scenes – like Warne disrobing in front of Ellie (which would create urban legend of sales of men’s undershirts decreasing as a result of film’s popularity) or Ellie successfully hitch hiking by pulling up her skirt. This content was actually quite tame even for Pre-Code standards, but it is questionable whether it would survive scrutiny of prudes in Hays Office. Capra, wisely anticipating new standards of censorship, decreased sexual allusions to minimum and ingeniously found the way to allow unmarried characters spend a night in room together by having them build makeshift wall of blanket hung on rope and dividing the room with so-called “wall of Jericho”.

It Happened One Night also benefits from excellent cast. Two Oscar-winning performers are at the top of their game. Claudette Colbert is great as spoiled heiress that nevertheless manages to win not only heart of her partner, but sympathies of audiences. By another ironic twist, Colbert actually despised the film and thought it would be disaster, following previous experience with Capra, but at the end of the day Ellie Andrews ended as the most successful role of her entire career. Clark Gable, on the other hand, still had to wait five years for his grandest performance as Rhet Butler in Gone with the Wind, but here his roguish charm works extremely well, creating well-rounded and believable character of streetsmart reporter who is suddenly getting torn between career and his own feelings.

It Happened One Night might look a little dated or unoriginal, mostly due to endless romantic comedies that in subsequent time, in one way or the other, copied its formula. But those who appreciate old school entertainment would be probably enjoy it as very good example of everything that made Classic Hollywood glorious.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)