It Happened One Night
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| It Happened One Night | |
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 Original movie poster |
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| Directed by | Frank Capra |
| Produced by | Frank Capra Harry Cohn |
| Written by | Samuel Hopkins Adams (story) Robert Riskin (screenplay) |
| Starring | Clark Gable Claudette Colbert Walter Connolly |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | February 22, 1934 |
| Running time | 105 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English language\english |
| Budget | $325,000 (est.) |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
It Happened One Night is a 1934 romantic comedy directed by Frank Capra, in which a pampered socialite (Claudette Colbert) tries to get out from under her father's thumb, and falls in love with a roguish reporter (Clark Gable). The plot was based on the story Night Bus by Samuel Hopkins Adams, which provided the shooting title.
One oddity is the title: the movie takes place over several nights and none is particularly key to the plot.
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[edit] Plot
Spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews (Colbert) marries fortune-hunter 'King' Westley (Jameson Thomas) against the wishes of her extremely wealthy father (Walter Connolly). He retrieves his daughter before the marriage can be consummated, but then she runs away, leaping off the side of the family yacht.
She boards a bus, where she meets Peter Warne (Gable), an out-of-work newspaper reporter. He recognizes her and gives her a choice: if she will give him an exclusive on her story, he will help her reunite with King, otherwise he will tell her father where she is and collect the reward. She agrees.
Various adventures follow. One of the most famous happens when they have to hitchhike. Peter claims to be an expert on the subject, but nothing works and eventually, out of frustration, he ends up thumbing his nose at passing cars. The sheltered Ellie then shows him how it's done. She stops the next car dead in its tracks by lifting up her skirt and showing off a shapely leg.
One night, when they are nearing the end of their journey, Peter leaves to make some arrangements. The owners of the auto court in which they are staying see that his car is gone and assume he has left without paying. They roust Ellie out of bed and kick her out. Believing Peter has deserted her, Ellie calls her father, who is so relieved to get her back that he agrees to let her have her way. Ellie has fallen in love with Peter, but she thinks he betrayed her for the reward money, so she agrees to have a second, formal wedding with King. Meanwhile, Peter believes he's the one who's been double-crossed.
Peter gets in touch with Ellie's father to settle up. Mr Andrews offers him the large reward promised, but Peter will have none of it. He just wants to be paid $39.60 for the expenses incurred on the trip. Intrigued, the father badgers the reporter until he gets the truth: Peter loves Ellie (though he thinks he's out of his mind to do so). Peter leaves with the check he asked for.
While walking his daughter down the aisle, Andrews tells her what he has found out and encourages her to run off again; at the last moment, she does. Her father pays off Westley, who agrees to have the marriage annulled, enabling Ellie to marry Peter.
[edit] Awards
The film was the first to win all five major Academy Awards:
- Best Picture - Columbia Pictures (Harry Cohn, producer)
- Best Actor in a Leading Role - Clark Gable
- Best Actress in a Leading Role - Claudette Colbert
- Best Director - Frank Capra
- Best Writing, Adaptation - Robert Riskin
This feat would not be matched until One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and later by The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
After filming was completed, Colbert complained to her friend, "I just finished the worst picture in the world."[1][2]. In 1935, after her Academy Award nomination, Colbert decided not to attend the presentation and instead, planned to take a cross-country train trip. After she was named the winner, studio chief Harry Cohn sent someone to drag her off the train, which had not left the station, and take her to the ceremony. Colbert arrived wearing a two-piece traveling suit that she had Paramount Pictures costume designer Travis Banton make for her trip.[3] After her acceptance speech at the Oscars ceremony, she went back on stage and thanked Capra for making it.
Colbert's Oscar was offered for auction by Christie's on June 9, 1997. No bids were made for it, and it was passed in. Gable's Oscar drew a top bid last year of $607, 500 from Steven Spielberg, who promptly donated the statuette to the Motion Picture Academy.
The movie has also been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.
[edit] Casting
Neither Gable nor Colbert were the first choices to play the lead roles. Robert Montgomery and Myrna Loy were originally offered the roles, but each felt that the script was poor, and Loy described it is one of the worst she had ever read, later noting that the final version bore little resemblance to the script she and Montgomery were offered.[4]After Loy, Miriam Hopkins and Margaret Sullavan also each rejected the part.[5] Constance Bennett wanted to, but only if she could produce it herself. Then Bette Davis wanted the role,[6] but she was under contract with Warner Brothers and Jack Warner refused to loan her to Columbia Studios.[7] Carole Lombard turned Ellie down.[8] Capra was unable to get any of the actresses he wanted for the part of Ellie Andrews, partly because no self-respecting star would make a film with only two costumes.[9] Harry Cohn suggested Colbert, who initially refused the role.[10] She did not enthuse with the idea of the film. Colbert whose first film, For the Love of Mike (1927), had been directed by Frank Capra and was such a disaster that she vowed to never make another agreed to appear in It Happened One Night only when her salary was doubled to $50,000 and on the condition that her part be completed in four weeks so she could take an already planned vacation.[11]
According to legend, both Gable and Colbert were loaned to Columbia Pictures, then considered a third-rate operation, as punishment for refusing roles at their own studios; however, this has been refuted by more recent biographies. MGM did not have a project ready for Gable and was paying him $2000 per week, under his contract, to do nothing. Louis B. Mayer loaned him to Columbia for $2500 per week, making a $500 per week profit.[12]
[edit] Cast
- Clark Gable ... Peter Warne
- Claudette Colbert ... Ellie Andrews
- Walter Connolly ... Alexander Andrews
- Roscoe Karns ... Oscar Shapeley
- Jameson Thomas ... King Westley
- Alan Hale ... Danker
- Arthur Hoyt ... Zeke
- Blanche Friderici ... Zeke's wife
- Charles C. Wilson ... Joe Gordon
[edit] Production
Filming began in a tense atmosphere as Gable and Colbert were dissatisfied with the quality of the script. However, they established a friendly working relationship and found that the script was no worse than those of many of their earlier films. Capra understood that they were unwilling participants and tried to lighten the mood by having Gable play practical jokes on Colbert, who responded with good humor.[13]
Both Gable and Capra enjoyed making the movie. She however continued to show her displeasure on the set. Colbert balked at pulling up her skirt to entice a passing driver to give a ride, complaining that it was unladylike. However, upon seeing the chorus girl who was brought in as her body double, an outraged Colbert told the director, "Get her out of here. I'll do it. That's not my leg!"[14]
Capra recalled Colbert's dissatisfaction with the part, commenting, "Colbert fretted, pouted and argued about her part... she was a tartar, but a cute one."[15]
[edit] Possible influence
The unpublished memoirs of animator Friz Freleng's mention that this was one of his favorite films. It has been claimed that it helped inspire the cartoon character Bugs Bunny. Three things in the film may have coalesced to create Bugs: 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 does.
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.
[edit] Adaptations
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 1941 film The Bride Came C.O.D., starring James Cagney and Bette Davis, has a very similar plot, with an airplane in place of a bus.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ moviediva ItHappenedOneNight
- ^ Pace, Eric. "Claudette Colbert, Unflappable Heroine of Screwball Comedies, is Dead at 92", The New York Times, 07-31-1996, p. D21.
- ^ Sharon Fink, Oscars: The evolution of fashion, St. Petersburg Times, Published February 24, 2007
- ^ Kotsabilas-Davis, James; Myrna Loy (1987). Being and Becoming. Primus, Donald I Fine Inc, p 94. ISBN 1556111010.
- ^ Wiley, Mason; Damien Bona (1987). Inside Oscar: The Unofficial History of the Academy Awards. Ballantine Books, p 54. ISBN 0-345-34453-7.
- ^ It Happened One Night - Frank CapraErik Weems, UPDATED JUNE 22, 2006
- ^ Chandler, Charlotte (2006). The Girl Who Walked Home Alone : Bette Davis, A Personal Biography. Simon and Schuster, p 102. ISBN 978-0-7432-6208-8.
- ^ moviediva ItHappenedOneNight
- ^ moviediva ItHappenedOneNight
- ^ (1995) Chronicle of the Cinema, 100 Years of the Movies. Dorling Kindersley, p 252. ISBN 0 7513 3001 9.
- ^ All about Oscar
- ^ Harris, Warren G. (2002). Clark Gable, A Biography. Aurum Press, pp 112-114. ISBN 1 85410 904 9.
- ^ Harris, Warren G. (2002). Clark Gable, A Biography. Aurum Press, pp 112-114. ISBN 1 85410 904 9.
- ^ Pace, Eric. "Claudette Colbert, Unflappable Heroine of Screwball Comedies, is Dead at 92", The New York Times, 07-31-1996, p. D21.
- ^ Hirschnor, Joel (1983). Rating the Movie Stars for Home Video, TV and Cable. Publications International Limited, p 87. ISBN 0-88176-152-4.
[edit] External links
- It Happened One Night at the Internet Movie Database
- It Happened One Night on Frank Capra & the Film
- It Happened One Night at Filmsite.org
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1927–28: Wings, Sunrise | 1928–29: The Broadway Melody | 1929–30: All Quiet on the Western Front | 1930–31: Cimarron | 1931–32: Grand Hotel | 1932–33: Cavalcade | 1934: It Happened One Night | 1935: Mutiny on the Bounty | 1936: The Great Ziegfeld | 1937: The Life of Emile Zola | 1938: You Can't Take It with You | 1939: Gone with the Wind | 1940: Rebecca |
| Films Directed by Frank Capra |
|---|
| The Strong Man • For the Love of Mike • Long Pants • The Power of the Press • Say It with Sables • So This Is Love • Submarine • The Way of the Strong • That Certain Thing • The Matinee Idol • Flight • The Donovan Affair • The Younger Generation • Rain or Shine • Ladies of Leisure • Dirigible • The Miracle Woman • Platinum Blonde • Forbidden • American Madness • The Bitter Tea of General Yen • Lady for a Day • It Happened One Night • Broadway Bill • Mr. Deeds Goes to Town • Lost Horizon • You Can't Take It with You • Mr. Smith Goes to Washington • Meet John Doe • Arsenic and Old Lace • It's a Wonderful Life • State of the Union • Riding High • Here Comes the Groom • A Hole in the Head • Pocketful of Miracles |
Categories: 1934 films | Best Picture Academy Award winners | Black and white films | Films directed by Frank Capra | Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award winning performance | Films featuring a Best Actress Academy Award winning performance | Films whose director won the Best Director Academy Award | 1930s Romantic comedy films | Screwball comedy films | Road movies | United States National Film Registry | Films based on short fiction | American films | English-language films
