It Happened One Night | Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert | "Don't hold that against me. I'm a...

It Happened One Night | Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert | Classic

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It Happened One Night

	It Happened One Night Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert Sony Pictures, 1999 average customer review:based on 103 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Director Frank Capra (Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) took home every Oscar in the book (well, okay, all the major ones) for this seminal 1934 comedy starring Clark Gable as a hard-bitten reporter who stays close to a runaway heiress (Claudette Colbert) rather than lose a good story. Funny and sexy, the film is full of memorable scenes often referred to in other films, such as the "walls of Jericho" (a mere bedcover hung on a line down the middle of a room so opposite-sex roommates can get undressed), and Colbert's famous flash of thigh to stop a speeding car in its tracks. Capra's brisk, urbane brand of wit was a perfect complement to his populist faith in the common man (in this case, Gable's character), and that inspired combination makes this film both a spirited entertainment and an uplifting experience. --Tom Keogh

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"Don't hold that against me. I'm a little screwy myself." -- Gable

"I just had the unpleasant sensation of hearing you referred to as my husband." -- Colbert

So many wonderful film classics over the decades have imitated this one that some of the bloom has worn off this groundbreaking Capra masterwork. It remains a wildly charming and entertaining film, however, and one of the best romantic comedies in the history of film. Robert Riskin's screenplay offers a blend of humor and romance buoyed by the performances of Clark Gable and the incomparable Claudette Colbert.

Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) is a rich socialite who runs away from her father (Walter Connolly) when he tries to have her recent marriage to an unworthy suitor annulled. She hops onboard a bus to evade the press and detectives her father has hired and heads for her husband. She has no experience in the real world, however, and her ill conceived plan did not include Peter Warren (Clark Gable).

Gable's Warren has just been fired from a major paper and his brash ways set none too well with Ellie at first either. But once he figures out who she really is, he has her over a barrel, and uses his leverage to travel with her and get a story that will put him right back on top. What follows has become sort of a formula for films in this genre, but as with most things, the original holds the most charm.

As they pretend to be a married couple, nature begins to take its course. Gable is hilarious giving a play by play lecture on how he undresses, and another on how to dunk a donut. His one on hitching a ride backfires, however, when it's Colbert's shapely legs which stops traffic. The ongoing Walls of Jericho is justly famous but, for my money, the piggy-backer arguement that climaxes with Gable giving Colbert a spank as her carries her across the water is the best moment between them.

As they get closer to their destination, Ellie crosses the walls and confesses her love for Peter. Leaving her during the night to sell a story about taking her to an island and marrying her himself, she thinks he has abandoned her and likewise. A bill for 39.60 and a father who knows what's best for his daughter culminates in an audience pleasing ending.

Few films have been as influential as Frank Capra's It Happened One Night. This is a marvelous piece of celluloid whose luster has only changed from glossy to satin with the passage of time. A must see film for anyone who loves the movies.

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Classic

Great classic movie the way they used to be made. Youngsters probably will not "get" this movie, but those of us over 50 can relate. Ignore the remakes, they stink.

Just keep your eye on that thumb.

Ellie Andrews(Claudette Colbert) is running away(like she is so good at) from her rich father and on the way meets roughed-up newsman Peter Warne(Clark Gable).

Similar to many films at the time, but this one stands the test of time better then most, the witty dialogue is still cunning and smart. Not to mention Claudette and Clark have brilliant chemistry, especially in the scene where they are forced to sleep in the middle of nowhere, both learning the other is not so disagreeable.

Also, watching Peter's three different thumbs for hitchhiking is sheer screwball genius!

It's a tale that all ages can admire as we watch the 'wall of jericho' fall from in-between them.

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Wonderful

This is one of those classics that everyone should see. There was a movie a few years ago that as I watched I saw a lot of the storyline from "It Happened One Night." Needless to say remakes are never as good as the originals. If you are a Gable fan you can't miss this one. It just never gets old.

Classic

It is a very rare thing when a light-hearted comedy, something that is quintessentially the stuff of a `good movie,' breaches into that territory where the term `good film' can also be applied, but Frank Capra's 1934 film It Happened One Night may be an exception. Today, most people know Capra solely for his rediscovered classic It's A Wonderful Life, made a dozen years later, but this film was his first stab at what most critics would label greatness. This is all the more interesting because the 1930s, with their still newly developed sound technology, were still a transition period, of sorts, with the over the top hammy expressionistic acting of the silent films still dominating more than the more subtle naturalism of later film eras.
As a comedy, this is all the more striking, since there was not the manifest symbolism of some of the great silent film comedians, nor was there the social satire of the 1960s madcap comedies, nor those of Woody Allen's intellectualized Golden Era. Yet, Capra's film, aside from its fame as having lifted Columbia Pictures from the bottom of the film studio heap, and being the first film to win the Big Five Oscars in a single year- Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Lead Actor, and Best Lead Actress, is credited with being the first `screwball comedy,' a subgenre of the romantic comedy, that flourished during the Great Depression and World War Two years. The films that this film kicked off all were romantic comedies, but the main focus of the films was on the frustrations the protagonists went through before inevitably ending up together in the end, rather than the stuff of pulp novels. Another aspect of this film, which makes it relevant today, is the brisk pace at which it was filmed, acted, and even edited. It is not as noticeable today, in Hollywood's caffeinated era, but compare it to any of a few dozen other films from that era and the difference is startling.... there are a few cringe-inducing moments when the era is shown at its worst- with a portrayal of a Stepin Fetchit like black railroad character, but that's a minor cavil in an otherwise great comedy, and possibly great film. After all, greatness includes- it does not preclude, humanity, and Capra was as infected by the worst of his times as anyone. But what makes a man great, especially an artist, is the degree to which those times claw at him, and the percentage of times a man of his time becomes a man for all times. The same is true for his art, and this artist and his film pass both of those bars. It Happened One Night is still as funny as it ever was, and the fact that you will get a bit more is the type of bonus feature DVDs alone cannot provide.

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