Alternative Film Guide

It Happened One Night (1934)

Director: Frank Capra. Screenplay: Robert Riskin, from Samuel Hopkins Adams’ short story "Night Bus." Cast: Claudette Colbert, Clark Gable

By Dan Schneider of Cosmoetica:

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 It Happened One Night (1934) 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 It Happened One Night was his first stab at what most critics would label greatness. This is all the more interesting because the early 1930s, with their still newly developed sound technology, were a transitional period of sorts, with the over-the-top, hammy expressionistic acting of the silent films still dominating in some quarters.

Since It Happened One Night is a comedy, that is all the more striking for the film lacks the manifest symbolism of some of the great silent comedians, the social satire of the 1960s madcap comedies, or 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 Academy Awards — best picture, best director, best adapted screenplay, best actor, and best actress — it is credited with being one of the first ’screwball comedy,’ a sub-genre of the romantic comedy that flourished during the mid-to-late 1930s.

The main focus of such 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 It Happened One Night is the brisk pace at which it was filmed, acted, and even edited.

The film clocks in at a fairly hefty 105 minutes, whereas most comedies, especially romantic comedies, cannot sustain themselves for even shorter lengths. Yet, It Happened One Night is one of those films that, even if it lasted an hour longer, it would still ‘feel’ right. It was filmed in less than four weeks, to suit the the demanding schedule of star Claudette Colbert, on loan from Paramount. This fact also meant that few sets were built, so that more than other contemporary films, this one was filmed in the real world, with Capra using moving cameras and crane shots to an extent seldom used before. Additionally, Capra had the actors speak slightly faster than normal, so that their dialogue would match the pace of the picture.

All these tidbits are gleaned from the DVD audio commentary by Frank Capra, Jr., and some of the other extras on The Premiere Frank Capra Collection from Sony films, a six-DVD set that also includes American Madness (1932), Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can’t Take It with You (1938), and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), along with the bonus disk featuring the documentary Frank Capra’s American Dream, hosted by Ron Howard.

It Happened One Night was directed by Capra, the crown jewel of Columbia Pictures, and was adapted by Capra’s longtime collaborator Robert Riskin from Samuel Hopkins Adams’s short story "Night Bus." Its two stars, Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable, show why they were stars, even though neither initially wanted to make the film.

Colbert is another in a long line of determined heroines of the 1930s. Her slow attraction to Gable’s character is fully believable, as her small, cute, winsome mien transmogrifies from icy to inviting over the course of the film. This is to be expected, though. After all, he is Clark Gable, and unlike Gone with the Wind, It Happened One Night allows Gable to display his great range as an actor — as well as his masculine physique. In the witty banter between his character and Colbert’s, he shows that he was as adept at comedy as he was at drama — something latter-day hunks, from Marlon Brando to Paul Newman to Clint Eastwood to Robert Redford to Tom Cruise to Brad Pitt, could never do.

The film’s plot is rather simple, and has been so influential that it serves as a template for almost all other comedies, in one way or another — from its stringing together of wacky vignettes, to many of the individual moments within the scenes.

It Happened One Night opens with heiress Ellie Andrews (Colbert) leaping off her father’s (Walter Connolly) yacht, after he vows to undo her elopement to a gold-digging aviator, King Westley (Jameson Thomas). In a nice use of ellipses — a technique that seems to have disappeared from today’s bloated Hollywood films, Capra then shows her sneaking on to a bus, under the noses of detectives her father has hired. There she meets Peter Warne (Gable), a roué and newspaper reporter who recognizes her and plans to cash in on the reward offered by her father.

But after some initial discomfort, the two become a pair, and he helps her fend off a leering little salesman named Oscar Shapeley (Roscoe Karns, in a great humorous supporting role), who wants to also turn Ellie in. Peter fends him off, first pretending to be her husband, then a mobster who’s kidnapped her, but for safely taking her to New York City he wants an exclusive on the heiress’ tale. She agrees to it, but soon is drawn to him, as her marriage was just a sham to get her out from under her father’s thumb.

A number of great scenes follow, such as the busload of passengers singing "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze," Gable’s neutering of the bus driver who can only say, ‘Oh yeah,’ and then, when the two hit the road, the most famous scene in the film, where they hitchhike. Peter claims expertise as he chews on a carrot — a scene said to have inspired the character of Bugs Bunny, but cars roar by his outstretched thumb. Ellie takes over, then lifts up her skirt and shows off her left leg. A car screeches to a halt. The Driver (Alan Hale, Sr.) turns out to be a song-happy thief, and the two sink even lower and lower as they get closer to New York City, where Ellie hopes to reunite with her husband and Peter hopes to sell his account of her tale.

On their last night together, Peter drives to New York, after Ellie confesses her love. He hits up his editor for a thousand dollars for his story, so he can propose to her in style. But before he can get back, she’s kicked out of the bed, believes he’s left her, and has her father come and get her. He has now accepted her marriage, but agrees to his wanting a real wedding ceremony. Peter feels Ellie’s bailed out on her, and played him for a fool.

Before Ellie re-marries King, Peter goes to her father to be repaid for the $39.he spent on her. He does not want the reward. Her father gets him to admit that he loves Ellie — although Peter feels that fact’s a sign of his nuttiness, too, then tells her of Peter’s love as he walks Ellie down the aisle, at an outdoor ceremony where King has dropped in on an old-fashioned helicopter.

She runs out of the ceremony, and the film ends with her father paying off King, and getting a telegram from the happy couple on honeymoon, wanting to know if it’s alright to consummate the marriage. It is, and The Walls of Jericho tumble down.

The Walls of Jericho reference refers to the scene where Peter placed a blanket across a rope to divide the room they are staying in, has been used many times, in film and television, but was used here as a way to heighten the sexual provocations of the characters. In the Luke & Laura General Hospital daytime soap opera wave of the early 1980s, those two characters redid many of the exact same scenes from It Happened One Night; one of dozens of outright steals and homages, though none had neither the wit nor the repartee Gable unleashed, to Colbert: ‘Well, I like privacy when I retire. Yes, I’m very delicate in that respect. Prying eyes annoy me. Behold The Walls of Jericho! Maybe not as thick as the ones that Joshua blew down with his trumpet, but a lot safer. You see, I have no trumpet.’ This may not be as risqué as it was in the 1930s, but it’s still damned great dialogue.

It Happened One Night is quite lighthearted when compared to many of Capra’s social commentary classics, where the American Dream is realized. Even in its depiction of Depression era hoboes, or freeloaders, there is a genial sense that things could be worse, so be happy they’re not. And, along with the famed hitchhiking scene, there are other great scenes, such as where Peter informs Ellie on dunking donut etiquette, or where they argue over what constitutes a piggyback ride when a barefooted Peter carries Ellie across a stream.

The film itself looks sterling. One would hardly believe that It Happened One Night is nearly 75 years old. Sony gets major kudos for the restoration done for this set. The commentary, by Capra’s son, is hit and miss, with many dull spots, as well times where nothing is said for a good three to four minutes, and most of what he says is already said in the disk’s featurettes. What was really needed was the sort of film historian or critical commentary that many older foreign films come with, such as in The Criterion Collection, for Sony truly does equal the best Criterion has done in every other respect. The disk also offers advertising materials, a radio broadcast of an adaptation of the film, the original theatrical trailer, and an eleven-minute documentary called "Frank Capra Jr. Remembers…It Happened One Night."

But, even with no features or computer restoration, It Happened One Night would be worth watching for its great screenplay, which was leagues above other 1930s films in sophistication and realism, and still better than almost all romantic comedies since. Yes, 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 out of it is the type of bonus feature DVDs alone cannot provide.

© Dan Schneider

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of Mr. Schneider, and they may not reflect the views of the Alternative Film Guide.

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