It Happened One Night
It Happened One Night is a
1934 romantic comedy directed by
Frank Capra, in which a pampered
socialite (
Claudette Colbert) tries to get out from under her father's thumb, and falls in with a roguish reporter (
Clark Gable). This is considered to be the first of the great
screwball comedies.
The film was the first to win all five major Oscars. This feat would not be matched until
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and later by
Silence of the Lambs.
*
Best Picture -
Harry Cohn, producer
*
Best Actor in a Leading Role -
Clark Gable*
Best Actress in a Leading Role -
Claudette Colbert*Best Director -
Frank Capra*Best Writing, Adaptation -
Robert RiskinThe movie has also been selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry.
Spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews (Colbert) marries fortune-hunter 'King' Westley (
Jameson Thomas) against the wishes of her extremely wealthy father (
Walter Connolly). He has the marriage annulled and retrieves his daughter before it can be consummated, but then she runs away.
She boards a bus, where she meets Peter Warne (Gable), an out-of-work newspaper reporter. He recognizes her and gives her a choice: if she will give him an exclusive on her story, he will help her reunite with King, otherwise he will tell her father where she is and collect the reward. She agrees.
Various adventures follow. One of the most famous happens when they have to hitchhike. Peter claims to be an expert on the subject, but nothing works and eventually, out of frustration, he ends up thumbing his nose at passing cars. The sheltered Ellie then shows him how it's done. She stops the next car dead in its tracks by lifting up her skirt and showing off a shapely leg.
One night, when they are nearing the end of their journey, Peter leaves to make some arrangements. The owners of the auto court in which they are staying see that his car is gone and assume he has left without paying. They roust Ellie out of bed and kick her out. Believing Peter has deserted her, Ellie calls her father, who is so relieved to get her back that he agrees to let her have her way. Ellie has fallen in love with Peter, but she thinks he betrayed her for the reward money, so she goes on with the wedding with King. Meanwhile, Peter believes he's the one who's been double-crossed.
Peter gets in touch with Ellie's father to settle up. Mr Andrews offers him the large reward promised, but Peter will have none of it. He just wants to be paid for the expenses incurred on the trip. Intrigued, the father badgers the reporter until he gets the truth: Peter loves Ellie (though he thinks he's out of his mind to do so). Peter leaves with the few dollars he asked for.
While walking his daughter down the aisle, Andrews tells her what he has found out. At the last moment, Ellie runs away to marry the right man.
*The unpublished memoirs of animator
Friz Freleng's mention that this was one of his favorite films, and it has been claimed that it helped inspire the cartoon character
Bugs Bunny. Three things in the film may have coalesced to create Bugs Bunny: the personality of a minor character, Oscar Shapely, an imaginary character named "Bugs Dooley" mentioned once to frighten Shapely, and most of all, a scene in which Clark Gable eats carrots while talking quickly.
*An
urban legend has it that Gable had a profound effect on men's fashion, thanks to a scene in this movie. As he is undressing for bed, he takes off his shirt to reveal that he is
bare-chested. Sales of men's undershirts across the country allegedly suffered a noticeable decline for a period following this movie.
*One oddity is the title: the movie takes place over several nights and none is particularly key to the plot.
*Neither Gable nor Colbert were happy being loaned out (reportedly as punishment) to Columbia Pictures, then considered a cheap, third-rate operation. Colbert was not enthused with the idea of the film and demanded $50,000, double her normal salary. Gable came around and both he and Capra enjoyed making the movie. She however continued to show her displeasure on the set. The film had to be completed in four weeks because of Colbert's other commitments. When it was finished, she complained to her friends that it was one of the worst films she had ever made. It took some convincing to get her to show up at the Oscar ceremony. After her acceptance speech, she went back on stage and thanked Frank Capra for making the film a success.
*Two
Hindi movies,
Chori Chori (starring
Raj Kapoor and
Nargis Dutt) and
Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin (starring
Aamir Khan,
Pooja Bhatt and directed by
Mahesh Bhatt) are adaptations of
It Happened One Night.
*
List of United States comedy films*
It Happened One Night on
Frank Capra & the Film
