It Happened One
Night-Indeed-Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night” (1934)- A Film Review
DVD Review
By Sam Lowell
[As most readers of this
blog (and the American Film Gazette) know
former chief film reviewer Sam Lowell has given up the day to day chores of the
job to do occasional pieces. This review was one that he had left in a drawer
when he retired and only recently found it when he was cleaning out his desk.
Pete Markin]
It Happened One Night,
starring Claudette Colbert, Clark Gable, directed by Frank Capra, 1934
There is no question in
my mind that the 1930s and 1940s were the Golden Age of screwball comedies with
the likes of the director of the film under review the Oscar-heavy It Happened One Night Frank Capra, Preston Sturgis, hell, even
Howard Hawks taking a run at it, leading the way. Maybe it was the Great
Depression and people needed a little welcome relief from their pressing daily
troubles putting one foot in front of the other, and putting food on the table
(one later screwball comedy Sullivan’s
Travels made basically that same point). Maybe it was just the shear acting
talent, direction, and script-writing coming together to form a perfect storm
during the period. Whatever it was It
Happened One Night was the benchmark for later efforts.
Here’s Oscar why. Ellen,
played by Claudette Colbert, is a spoiled socialite who for kicks, or just to
tweak her father elopes with a gold-digger from her circle and runs away, or
tries to, when her stern father wants the whole affair annulled. The “run away”
part is to reunite with that gold-digging husband in New York while she is
stuck in Miami. Since her father, once Ellen flew the coop, had put an
all-points bulletin for her return with a reward attached she surreptitiously
sneaked passage on a plebian travel bus (figuring rightly that somebody born
with a silver spoon in their mouth would rather die than have to rub shoulders
with heavy people or heavy snorers in the next sear-smart girl). That bus trip
with accompanying antics is where Ellen meets the wandering ex-newsman Peter,
played by Clark Gable, who will provide plenty of action in trying to have her
come off her high horse and get down in the mud with regular folk.
Of course the hi-jinx
also include plenty of tensions between the pair as they do their dance around
each other for a while getting in and out of scrapes which showed Ellen at
least that he was a real man, a man to challenge her in plenty of ways
including her virtue. I wonder what really went on that night they spent in the
cabin with the skimpy clothesline and a ratty blanket the only thing separately
them. Might that be the “it happened one night?” See this film and make your
judgment.
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