IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert.

W/O: A Timeless Classic. This movie was awarded 1934 Best Picture Academy award.


(Directed by Frank Capra, who also directed "It's a Wonderful Life)

Granniemose challenged me to watch this movie for our write-off. I thought it would be a delight to “have” to watch this movie as my next “assignment” and it was! Thank you, Granniemose!


This movie is almost 70 years old (it was released in 1934) and yet it has stood the test of time. It is one of those timeless classics. The humor is still funny and the chemistry between the actors in the movie still works. It also makes some of the movies of today look very lacking in substance, trying to cover it up with special effects.

I rented a copy of this down at my local video store. The copy was not that great, the quality of the video having suffered over the years, I suppose from repeated viewing and age. Figures were blurry, but the story was intact.

The story is fairly simple and somewhat predictable, but that is just because it has been told many times since, and it works! Clark Gable played Peter Warne, fast-talking, tough newspaper reporter Claudette Colbert played Ellen (Ellie) Andrews, spoiled rich girl AKA “brat”.

Opening scenes are of Ellen Andrews refusing to eat. We quickly learned that she has eloped and had a quickie wedding to "King Westley", an aviator “gold-digging” playboy, played by Jameson Thomas, of whom her rich daddy strongly disapproves. Ellen's father, Alexander Andrews (Walter Connolly), is outraged by Ellen's sudden secret marriage, knowing that his new son-in-law is just after his family's money.

Ellen is hell bent on staying with King while her father wants her to annul this marriage. Ellen is so defiant, she rants, she raves, she screams, she refuses to eat, and she even jumps overboard, off the yacht her father has taken her away on in the hopes of talking sense into her. Although the crew tries to rescue Ellen, she doesn’t want to be found; she disappears and thus begins our story…

Ellen gets a ticket for the bus. Her father and his associates do not even check the bus lines, because they know poor little rich girl, Ellen would never be caught dead riding on the bus! This is where she first encounters Clark Gable’s hard-drinking character, Peter Warne.

Their first meeting is awkward, and they exchange mild insults and barbs. They can’t seem to stand each other, but are traveling in close quarters, so have to make due and tolerate one another.

There is a touching scene on the bus where a boy and his ill mother are traveling and very hungry. Clark Gable’s character starts to give the weeping lad, a “ten spot” as he calls it. The boy is very reluctant to take it, but ends up doing so gratefully after more coaxing by Miss Andrews.

On one of the brief bus stops, as luck would have it, the naive Miss Andrews briefcase is stolen, along with most of her money. All that she has left is $4.00 and her bus ticket.
While riding, the bus passengers all start singing together. I found this utterly charming! All of the passengers start to sing, “The Man on the Flying Trapeze.” It would be a rare occurrence these days for passengers on the Greyhound to sing together! Unfortunately, the bus driver joins in the singing and in his zest, accidentally swerves sending the bus into a muddy swamp. They’re stuck. What can Ellen do? Ellen and Peter, still toughing it out together, decide to walk several miles to the nearest Auto Camp (like a present day RV park) to spend the night. Since they have very little money between them, they must rent only one room and spend the night together and they are unmarried! Luckily, Mr. Warne has the idea of signing the hotel guest register as Mr. & Mrs. Warne! What a stroke of luck! He also has a blanket that he strings up in the middle of the room, using a rope to insure privacy for both of them. Although the idea of an unmarried couple spending the night together wouldn’t even make today’s audiences blink, this was a very risqué idea back in 1934! It is also part of the movie’s charm!

Peter takes it upon himself to help Ellie Andrews. She wants to get back to her new husband, King and Peter says he’ll help her in return for the “exclusive” big story on the whole event. Miss Andrews knows she needs help in ducking the police and detectives her father has sent to look for her, so she agrees to let Peter Warne help her. Besides, she is starting to like him just a little bit (although she would never admit it!).

Peter comes to the rescue of Miss Andrews time after time. There is a “boorish cad” who bothers her on the bus. I was surprised that this character said some things that I would have thought to be “racy” for the time. He said that he liked ladies who talked back to him because they were “hot.” The more they talked back, “the hotter they are.” Peter ends up sending this cad on his way by pretending they are going to get machine guns to turn in Miss Andrews and blackmail her father for more reward money.

Another scene I found quite humorous and charming: The front-page headlines of the major newspapers (at least along the Eastern seaboard), each day were of the missing Miss Andrews” and what was being done to find her.

The banter between the characters was endearing. Their characters tried very hard to dislike each other. Miss Andrews was definitely a spoiled brat, but she was grateful when Mr. Warne helped her in little ways, such as pressing her suit and making her breakfast.

There is a hilarious hitchhiking scene in which Peter brags about how easy it is to hitchhike and how he plans to write a book about the various techniques he has used in hitchhiking. He unsuccessfully tries to flag down several cars. Ellen walks out to the roads edge and makes one attempt at hitchhiking by raising her skirt above her knee! Another risqué moment! The first car to come along slams on its brakes and gives them a ride. Peter sadly comments that he will now abandon his plans for his hitchhiking book.

The couple decides to spend one more night in a hotel just 3 hours from New York in Philadelphia. They have no money left, but con the manager by saying they plan to spend the week there. While they talk in their room, Peter says that he loves to be free-spirited and wants to settle down with a wife who will run on the beaches and into the waves with him. Ellen finally breaks down her resistance and begs Peter to take her with him. She would and could be the person to do that with him. Ever the tough guy, Peter brushes her off and she goes back to her bed and cries herself to sleep.

Later, Peter, while smoking in bed, contemplates what Ellen has said. He speaks out loud and asks her if she really meant it about going with him to the islands and the beaches. She is sleeping and doesn’t answer, so Peter takes the opportunity to quickly drive to New York, get the approval from his boss to do the biggest story of the year about Miss Andrews runaway adventure and get an advance for $1,000 to which his boss at first balks, but breaks down and does so.

Peter is trying to get back to Ellen before she wakes, driving as fast as he can in an old jalopy.

In the meantime, the hotel manager sees that Peter and the car are gone, and kicks Ellen out of the hotel in the middle of the night! Ellen finally admits defeat and calls her father, sadly thinking that Peter has abandoned her. Ellen's father comes to rescue her immediately, of course, as with any wealthy family, an entire entourage comes along. Since Ellen's disappearance, her father and new husband, King have decided to accept each other and they have been planning a large, lavish wedding, since the two were only been married civilly (and unconsummated).

Ellie (Ellen) goes along with these plans somewhat dejectedly, because although she loves Peter, she feels that he jilted her just so he could get the newspaper story he wanted. Peter even comes to her mansion to collect the money that is due him from her father. The father assumes Peter wants the $10,000 reward money that was offered for the safe return of his missing daughter. All that Peter wants is reimbursement for his own expenses, a total of $39.60! Ellen assumes that Peter is after the reward money too, so decides to go ahead with the wedding plans to King. Peter too is heartbroken, feeling that Ellen left him in the middle of the night while he was rescuing her. He ends up pouring out his true feelings for her to her father.

Minutes later, while walking down the aisle to be married to King, Ellie's father tells her of Peter's real intentions, not for the reward money, but that he has expressed his love for Ellie. Ellie runs, literally leaving King at the altar, to Peter.

The last scene of the film is also tied in with the theme. The blanket that has been separating the two along their travels is finally taken down as the ”Walls of Jericho", the symbolic wall between Ellen & Peter comes down.

I found this old movie very charming and highly recommend it if you have never seen it, as I had not! There are also several examples of verbiage and verbal exchange that have gone out of style with today’s ways of speaking. Listen for them and you’ll see what I mean.


Participants in this write-off include:

lynus (host) * dedemw * jankp * shadow8 * food_critic * scigamer * mfunk75 * BigJack * KatM * jackai * susidee34 * d_Fienberg * gaelkm * thepremier* dragonfire88 *
MrsNormanMaine * Kristinafh * patiche * Stephen_Murray * cripper * artbyjude * skbreese * shaithis * Vormancian * jstlawrence * psychovant * danifilth * Pffrdfdus7
* granniemose * annecal * JackSommersby * Aruzenchin * cletta1201 * simply_crispy * tigger500 * darkmistress * lifestar * mark_dujsik * tjmackey * aliventiasylum





Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: VHS
Video Occasion: Good for a Rainy Day
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older