It Happened One Night
Frank Capra
USA – 1934
Screenplay: Robert Riskin
Cinematography: Joseph Walker
Production: Columbia Pictures Corporation, Frank Capra Productions
Language: English
Duration: 105 min
Color: Black and White
Synopsis: Rich heiress Ellie Andrews has married against her father’s wishes and manages to get away from him by jumping off the family yacht in Florida. While her father annuls the marriage and hires a detective agency to track her down, she tries to make her way back to her lover, socialite aviator “King” Westley in New York City. Travelling by bus, she meets unemployed journalist Peter Warne—cynical, but charismatic. He’s quickly onto her real identity and it’s pretty obvious that she’s a spoiled brat. She has no money and he decides to help her get to New York thinking he’ll get a good story out of it. Nearing their destination, as their brief adventure comes to a close, they find that they are reluctantly in love with each-other and are afraid to admit it.
Notes:
It Happened One Night revolutionized romantic comedy and men’s underwear. America was captivated by its feisty heroine and the film killed the sales of men’s undershirts when Gable took off his shirt to reveal an appealingly bare chest. It is full of classic scenes that have been imitated in subsequent films and television shows. Probably the most famous scene in the movie is the one in which, on their travels, Elly and Peter are forced to share a one-room motel cabin overnight and Peter, ever resourceful, hangs a blanket on a rope to provide the debutante the privacy and respectability she demands. The by-play of Elly and Peter’s reactions on the separate sides of the blanket are brilliant evocations of what lies behind the facade men and women show one another in romantic situations. The old Hollywood, black and white film stock is particularly gorgeous in this scene, as Capra uses minimal light bounced off shining eyeballs and haloed hair.
The film won the Academy Award for best picture of 1934 and was immensely successful in its time, as it continues to be. The film consolidated Gable’s screen image as a tough/tender independent cuss with sex appeal to spare. It rescued Colbert from typecasting as a big-eyed, half-naked vamp and led to many roles for her as a vivacious romantic comedy heroine. But the road to fame and fortune was full of twists and turns. The casting of Elly was particularly problematic. Colbert was not Capra’s first choice. Many actresses had turned the role down by the time Columbia pictures turned to her. Myrna Loy, one of the stars who rejected the part, claimed when she saw the script it was not the witty, spirited romp that eventually found its way to the screen, but a badly written, forced, and unpleasant hodge podge that contained not one character that rang true to life. It is not clear who was responsible for the resuscitation of the project, but the final cut of the film is a clever and insightful example of old Hollywood’s ability to speak meaningfully about the battle of the sexes, the constraints of the Production Code notwithstanding.
Excerpt adapted from Nochimson, Martha P. “It Happened One Night.” Senses Of Cinema: An Online Film Journal Devoted To The Serious And Eclectic Discussion Of Cinema 12, (February 2001)