ALL-TIME CLASSIC MOVIE FAVOURITES – IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)

 

“It Happened One Night” is a romantic comedy, from before the ghastly term “RomCom” was coined, based on the short story by Samuel Hopkins Adams and directed by Frank Capra.

It’s a sweet comedy about heiress Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert), a spoiled young woman who after having just tied the knot with gold digging society aviator, King Westley (Jameson Thomas), she is whisked away to her father's yacht and out of King's clutches but Ellie jumps ship at the first opportunity and eventually winds up on a bus headed back to her husband.

It’s when she’s on the bus that she meets an attractive worldly newspaper reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable).

The interaction between the two is both romantic and humorous and is the classic portrayal of what may be called “sexual tension.”

Reluctantly she must accept his help after he makes her realize that her wealthy background cannot carry her through as a human being in the real world, so he takes care of her but doesn’t take advantage of her, but her choices are limited so she has to stick with him until he gets her back to her husband, or he'll blow the whistle on Ellie to her father (Walter Connolly), either way, Peter gets what he wants a really great scoop.

This is a must-see for everyone who loves old movies, and entertaining for all, but I suspect that if you have a love of classic films you would already have seen it, so watch it again.

 

There are some interesting items of trivia surrounding the film, but I have three particular favourites,

1, Ellie and Peter are forced to hitchhike, and Gable stands at the edge of the road and his wisecracking posture is said to have been the inspiration for the cartoon character Bugs Bunny.

2, In the Greyhound Bus scene, Frank Capra, the director, makes a cameo appearance as one of the passengers on the bus singing the third couplet of “The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze”

3, In the “Walls of Jericho” scene Gable takes off his shirt and appeared bare-chested and as he wasn’t wearing a vest sales of men’s undershirts declined sharply.