It Happened One Night

What’s your favorite road movie? Is it Midnight Run? Planes, Trains and Automobiles perhaps? Possibly The Sure Thing? Whatever it is, you have the number 46 movie on the AFI 100 list, It Happened One Night to thank because it practically invented the genre and its influence can be seen in all of these films. Directed in 1934 by Frank Capra and starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert,  this film holds the distinction of being one of only 3 movies (along with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Silence of the Lambs) to hit the Academy Award’s Grand Slam (Best Picture, Director, Actor and Actress).

Colbert plays spoiled rich girl Ellie who is on the lam from her father and trying to reach New York to be reunited with King Westley. They had just eloped when her father (who for reasons we are never quite made sure of, disapproves of the match) basically kidnapped her and whisked her off to his yacht in Miami. She jumps overboard to escape and makes her way to the bus station where she crosses paths with Gable’s Peter Warne, a down on his luck, worldly-wise newspaperman. Of course when they first meet she sees him as a cad and he refers to her as a brat. It doesn’t take long though for them to realize that they both can do something for the other. He can help her get back to King and she can provide him with the big news story he needs. Having formed this somewhat tenuous partnership they begin their journey north encountering all sorts of obstacles, close shaves and shady characters along the way.

Just as in the many films that would follow in its footsteps, this odd couple discovers that they actually make a pretty good team and their animosity begins to thaw as they start to see each other in a different light. Being that this is a male/female team, romance begins to develop as well. But again, there are many hurdles to climb  and mix-ups to untangle. The theme of love triumphing over all is clearly displayed in this movie but the way it actually happens is far different from how the characters in the picture thought that it would.

Capra does a good job of storytelling through the majority of this movie but I thought that once it left the road in the final act it got bogged down. Also, as mentioned before, the motivations behind why her father is so opposed to her marriage and why King is such a bad choice for Ellie are never really explained. It’s pretty clear we are not supposed to like him either but I was never really sure why. There are some genuinely funny moments but I didn’t find myself rolling on the floor.

I have no complaints about the performances but in all honesty I felt like neither of the leads completely owned their roles. I could see easily see Cary Grant and Myrna Loy playing these parts without losing a thing in the translation.

What is interesting to see in this movie is its depiction of the mores and conventions of society at that time. The way it handles the couple’s sleeping arrangements and the ongoing joke about the “Walls of Jericho” are quite the contrast to what we see on the screen today. But I was also surprised by how straight forwardly this kind of topic was dealt with considering when the movie was made. For instance, in The Sure Thing (basically an 80’s remake of this movie) while the protagonists don’t sleep together in the movie nobody has any qualms about a young unmarried couple sharing a room even with one bed. In It Happened One Night the couple goes to great pains to appear to be married and then to make sure that propriety is preserved.  But it still didn’t shy away from clearly implying what could have possibly happened one night.(SPOILER ALERT!)  Also it is very clear what happens in the last scene when we see the walls come tumbling down.

While this is not a movie I feel the need to run out and add to my DVD collection it was well worth seeing again. Its place in movie history and influence cannot be denied. Keeping with the road trip theme it might not be a breathtaking vista point, but it beats seeing the World’s Largest Ball of Twine.