Plot Intro
Sassy, strong-headed heiress Ellie (Claudette Colbert) has married a rich bloke that her domineering millionaire father disapproves of- so he pretty much imprisons her in Miami whilst her beloved is in New York City. Like any angry white girl, Ellie escapes and flees, with her father and various police officers in hot pursuit. On her road trip to NYC, Ellie finds herself struggling with life on a shoestring outside of her pampered bubble, so along comes temperamental unemployed journalist, Peter (Clark Gable) who works out who Ellie is, and therefore accompanies her to NYC to gain the story that will save his career. As the road trip progresses, the two leads discover where their real priorities and affections lie.
Doug says...
We’ve reached the mid ‘30s and the first Oscar-winner not to be split over two years, but awarded for 1934 alone. History-wise, the world is in a bit of a state. The Wall Street Crash of 1929 is still affecting the lives of Americans everywhere, while over in Germany a certain Adolf Hitler is firmly in power as Chancellor and only five years away from initiating the Second World War.
So it is a great surprise that the winner of ‘Best Picture’ 1934 is not a dark and depressing film with a heavy moral attached (see last week’s Cavalcade), but instead the first example of a Screwball Comedy. Screwball is a very particular genre, being a bit daft and with a romance central in a plot full of farcical happenings. This one features Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable (his first appearance in this list, but certainly not his last) as a rich heiress on the run from her father and a newspaper writer trying to scrape two pennies together being thrown together in fateful circumstances, hating each other, and then slowly falling in love through their various adventures.
Sound familiar? It’s only the plot of 90% of all decent romcoms. This is the precursor of great romantic - slapstick filled - light entertainment. And It Happened One Night is not attempting at anything more than being greatly entertaining. For me one of the best things about it is the two leads who have crackling chemistry and Colbert in particular has a deadpan delivery that had me and Paul in stitches. Famously both leads disliked this film intensely and Colbert (who died in the 1990s) never understood its popularity - which to me makes the fact they seem to be having hilarious fun on set only more impressive. These actors are thoroughly professional.
And while I’m going on about how funny it is (and it is still so funny), the film alludes quietly to the darker things without ever letting them overshadow the comedy. A woman nearly dies of starvation on the bus to New York - her weeping son says they haven’t been able to afford food for days - and the Great Depression looms briefly before Colbert’s character gives the woman the last of her own money.
The heroes are intensely likable and both very funny. The humour is still fresh despite being 83 years old, and there isn’t a single boring moment in it. But more than that - the acting is extraordinarily natural and full of gestures and reactions that you are sure are pure improvisation by the actors. This is a truly flawless example of screwball comedy at its finest.
Highlight
The scene where Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert improvise being in a fight to get two police detectives to leave them alone is pure brilliance.
Lowlight
I feel like Claudette Colbert’s engagement party dress at the end wouldn’t have been so shiny.
Mark
A fully deserved - and my first - 10/10 (cue confetti cannon)
It Happened One Night had all the makings of a flop. Columbia Pictures would often have to “rent” unwanted stars from other production companies, so Gable was allegedly handed over due to an affair with Joan Crawford (according to IMDB anyway). Neither Gable nor Colbert wanted to be in the film, and both apparently made it quite obvious, prompting various re-writes to meet their demands. The film had a low-key release in theatres and was made quickly on a relatively low budget, and Colbert was so convinced that she would not win the Best Actress Oscar that she very nearly didn’t attend the ceremony (when the winner was announced, she was fetched from a train station, and accepted the award in her travelling clothes).
However, It Happened One Night was one of the biggest and most influential smash hits of the ’30s. It was the first film to garner the five most coveted Oscars - Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and Screenplay (sweeties will go to anyone who can name the other 2 films to achieve this feat without IMDB-ing it). All of these awards are well deserved. Doug has already lauded the razor-sharp script, endearingly natural bitchiness between the bickering hero and heroine, and general feelings of liberating happiness that the film conjures up. So I will just say that I agree with him entirely and move on to my other point….
….which is about Screwball Comedy! Yay! This film pretty much kicked it all off. It has all the tropes: fast-paced catty dialogue; farcical situations; leads that hate-but-love each other; unsentimental romance; sexual references that may seem tame to us but were outrageous at the time; and, interestingly, a battle against concepts of class boundaries. These films (other examples are Bringing Up Baby, His Girl Friday and Arsenic and Old Lace) were huge in the ’30’s because it took the horrors of the Great Depression (rich and poor struggling together, unemployment, a scramble for a better life) and made them fun. True, some of these plot points have been seen in entertainment since Shakespeare’s time, but It Happened One Night smushed them all together to make a whole new genre. Just like Bridesmaids re-vamped the chick flick to make something more provocative and cutting edge, It Happened One Night did a similar feat in the mid-30’s.
Screwballs were also a clever way of getting around something called the Hays Code, which was rigorously enforced in 1934. Until now, our films have been part of what is known as the “pre-code” era, when sex and nudity were more freely displayed (ok, it wasn’t as if MGM was releasing hardcore porn, but female legs and male chests could be depicted without reproach). When the Code was enforced, such practices became illicit, so screwball comedies worked around this by heavily suggesting (rather than displaying) sexual urges and chemistry - to greater comic effect. In this film, Gable and Colbert hang a blanket between their beds in motel rooms for privacy. When they finally consummate their relationship, all we see is the blanket being torn down. Clever, eh?
But enough historical drivel. Yes, I liked It Happened One Night too. After several hard-hitting and reverential Oscar winners, it’s a fun-filled breath of fresh air. I didn’t give it a shiny 10 out of 10 because I personally think the humour is not as uproarious and “Goodness gracious!” as it once was, but it’s funny, fast-paced and touching, and proof that even the most chaotic of productions can create works of art.
Highlight
The famous hitch-hiking scene in which Gable attempts to hitch a ride with his thumb and fails miserably, prompting Colbert to display her leg with tremendous success. Colbert apparently refused to do such an unladylike act at first, but when she saw the body double they’d employed, she changed her mind, saying “That’s not my leg!”
Lowlight
I wanted Colbert’s initial husband to be more villainous so I could support the central romance more. But, in all honesty, this is a minor niggle.
Mark
8/10
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