86. It Happened One Night (1934)

Directed By Frank Capra

Synopsis

Girl escapes her rich and controlling father. She takes a bus from Miami to New York and is helped along the way by a journalist trying to get a scoop. They eventually fall in love with each other, but not without complications before the end.

Review

It Happened One Night is a delightful film, with a plot that has been used time and again,
- or at least elements of it - but it still manages to look fresh and be a pleasure to watch. It was the first film to get all 5 of the main Oscars, and with good reason.

Capra's direction is more than adequate although it never imposes itself on the film, it does make it look very natural and actually quite modern, making it a film which has dated pretty well, a hard thing particularly for comedies. Clark Gable's characters as the delightful cad is extremely well constructed and acted, in fact a great thing about the film are its characters, they are all interesting, and Colbert is the perfect female lead to balance Gable. The writing is also pretty great here, the dialogues don't sound scripted, it sounds natural with the use of swearing, witty puns etc.

All in all it is a great romantic comedy, one which has survived in pretty good shape up until today. I should also note that the DVD I got for this is great, the film has been restored to a very fine level of sharpness and contrast in the old B&W, helping it feel fresh. Get it at Amazon UK or US.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

* The unpublished memoirs of animator Friz Freleng's mention that this was one of his favorite films, and it has been claimed that it helped inspire the cartoon character Bugs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 with his mouth full, as Bugs would do.

* 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. After her acceptance speech at the Oscar ceremony, she went back on stage and thanked Frank Capra for making the film.

* 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.

* The shooting title was Night Bus.

The scenes that led to the creation of Bugs Bunny and the hitchhiking scene: