It Happened One Night (1934)

Starring: Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert
Grade: C-

At one point, Clark Gable’s Peter Warne lays down in bed with a housecoat on and decides to have a smoke.

Man, those were the days, weren’t they?

Summary

On his boat, the wealthy Alex Andrews (Walter Connolly) is told by one of his workers that his daughter Ellie (Colbert) is on a hunger strike, despite them constantly sending food to her. Alex goes to Ellie to talk some sense into her. Again, she refuses to eat unless she’s let off the boat because she has married aviator King Westley (Jameson Thomas), someone her powerful father doesn’t like because he’s sure Westley only wants her for her father’s money. Because of this, Alex has been actively trying to make arrangements to have her marriage annulled, though she’s not worried. Despite this, he insists he’s only doing this for her own good. Additionally, he thinks Ellie is marrying Westley out of spite. During this argument, Alex has food sent to Ellie’s room, but she refuses. However, it’s not for her, it’s for him. He uses it as a way to goad her into eating, but it doesn’t work. Eventually, she flips the table the food is on, and he slaps her. An infuriated Ellie leaves the room, jumps off the boat and into the water, and escapes. Alex tells a worker to get a message to the Lovington Detective Agency: “Daughter escaped again”.

Miami is now officially on high alert.

At the bus station, Ellie has an old lady buy a ticket to New York for her, so she can evade the detectives who are out looking for her. At this same station, drunk reporter Peter Warne (Gable) calls in to his boss Mr. Gordon (Charles C. Wilson), and Gordon loses it on him for a variety of reasons that have cost the newspaper money. He fires him over the phone, but Peter saves face in front of all the guys watching him by acting like Gordon is apologizing to him and he’s refusing said “apology”. Following this, he gets onto his Greyhound bus and sees stacks of newspapers on the seat he planned on sitting on. Seeing this and the fact that the driver doesn’t bother to do anything about it when Peter asks, Peter responds by tossing the newspapers out on the sidewalk. The driver gets in his face when Peter puts his bag in storage, but Peter embarrasses him by daring him to do something about it and the guy walking away. When Peter goes back to his seat, Ellie is sitting there and refuses to get up, so Peter forces his way to sit right next to her. Eventually, the bus stops at a rest station for fifteen minutes. Peter and Ellie smoke with a decent amount of distance between them, and they glance at each other. Just then, Peter sees some guy steal Ellie’s bag from behind her without her noticing. Peter tries to chase down the guy but to no avail. When he tries to tell Ellie about it, she assumes he’s hitting on her and says she’s not interested. Peter laughs it off and tells her about her bag. Unfortunately, all of Ellie’s money was in there. Now, all she has is her bus ticket and $4. Peter suggests she wire home for some money when they get to Jacksonville. She agrees with him, though we know she can’t because of her situation with her father. When Peter tells her he’s going to tell the conductor about the theft, she refuses, saying she doesn’t want it to be reported and for him to stay out of her business.

When they get back on the bus, she sits elsewhere. However, after the large person she sits next to falls asleep and practically topples her, she goes back to sit with Peter. The next morning, they get to Jacksonville and only have thirty minutes for breakfast. Ellie fell asleep on Peter while clutching his lapel. When she wakes up, things are a lot less contentious between the two, with Peter saying she looked pretty when she was asleep and her thanking him for letting her fall asleep on him. He offers to take her to breakfast, but Ellie insists she has to make it to the Windsor Hotel. Peter mentions the time limit of thirty minutes, but Ellie is sure they will wait for her. Eventually, Ellie gets back and is shocked to see the bus did not wait for her and left. The next bus to New York is leaving at 8PM, 12 hours from then. Peter decided to wait back for her and makes fun of her right away. Giving Ellie back her ticket that she left on the bus, Peter now knows she is the famous Ellie Andrews after seeing her name on it. He tells her that her father will stop her before she even gets halfway to New York. She tries to deny it, but he shows Ellie that her disappearance is on the front page of the newspaper. Peter calls Westley a phony and gives her the advice of just going back to Miami. A scared Ellie offers to pay Peter as much money as it would take for him to not phone her father about her location, even though he wasn’t intending on doing it anyway. He refuses her money. Then, he goes on a monologue about her being a rich brat with no manners who just wants to solve every problem she has by throwing money at it.

Following a hasty exit, Peter sends out a telegram to Mr. Gordon gloating about how he knows where Ellie is and how Gordon doesn’t have a shot in hell at getting the story. That night, Peter and Ellie both get onto the Greyhound to New York, though they sit in separate seats as they’re still mad at each other. Ellie sits next to Shapeley (Roscoe Karns), an annoying bus patron who’s a talker. After hitting on Ellie nonstop, Peter comes over, claiming that Ellie is his wife, and forces Shapeley to switch seats with him. She tries thanking him, but Peter insists it was because he hates the guy’s voice. Next, he notices Ellie’s clothes being wet from the rain, so he gives her a scarf to wrap herself in. Feeling much better, she tries to buy some chocolate from a bus worker selling it, but Peter refuses it on her behalf. He looks in her purse and sees she only has a $1.60 left to get to New York, so buying chocolate is the last fucking thing she needs. He puts her on a much-needed budget, and she just accepts it since she’s pretty helpless.

Sometime after, the bus is stopped by some police offers who tell them that the bridge is “washed out”, and they won’t be able to get through until the morning. They tell everyone that Dyke’s Auto Camp is nearby for any of the passengers needing a place to sleep overnight. Having nowhere else to go, Peter and Ellie stay there together. After finding out that Peter registered them as husband and wife with the auto camp, Ellie is annoyed and accuses Peter of hitting on her again, though he only got the room like this because they can’t afford two rooms between the two of them. This prompts Peter to make things very clear to her. She is just a story to him, revealing his status as an out-of-work reporter. He promises to take her to King Westley in New York, as long as she agrees to let him do an exclusive story on her, a day-to-day account on her journey. This way he can parlay it into a job offer. She considers leaving, but Peter warns her that he will continue to follow her and will turn her in to her father if she does. She relents but is still weary of Peter’s sarcastic demeanor, despite him still bending over backwards to make accommodations for her.

Even so, they will now embark on this journey to New York together. As you would probably expect, everything goes wrong on the way there.

My Thoughts:

It Happened One Night is widely considered to be one of the best films ever made. Being the first movie to sweep the “Big Five” at the Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay), Frank Capra’s classic film encompassed exactly what “Old Hollywood” was all about and is a great representative of what cinema was in the 1930s.

With all of this being said, I thought it was okay at best.

This is crazy right? Usually, it pains me to go this far on a take with older films, but Cinema Loco is about being as honest as possible. As I said with my review of Little Caesar, it’s clear that the framework for future films in the genre can be rooted right back to what this movie did. What It Happened One Night did for romantic comedies is what Little Caesar and The Public Enemy did for gangster movies. Yes, Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert are screen legends and Frank Capra is one of the best directors of his time period, but you’re kidding yourself if you think this holds up in the romantic or comedic aspects. Let’s not pretend otherwise because it’s exhausting. In the movie’s defense, anyone who is remotely paying attention to how the story plays out can see how it influenced any romantic comedy following it. This much is clear and is worthy of recognition. It starts with the love interest thinking they are better than the other person, the two co-stars initially hating each other but having to work together or see each other a lot because of certain circumstances, eventually they bond and like each other, there is a misunderstanding or falling out of some sort, and the movie concludes with the two ending up together. This is the romantic comedy cheat sheet, and It Happened One Night wrote the thing in pen for everyone to follow. When you add in two attractive stars, the formula is complete. For 1934, I could see why this was considered to be untouchable.

However, this is where the praise should end.

For starters, I have no idea how these characters end up falling for each other. Clark Gable’s Peter Warne is a total douchebag to Claudette Colbert’s Ellie Andrews throughout the entirety of the movie. His mood swings towards her are incessant. For him to be the “likable” guy who brings the haughty Ellie down to Earth, he needs to be way less of a dick. The sarcasm works for him, especially when accompanied with Gable’s signature grin, but Peter gets worked up over the smallest of things to the point where you want him to eat shit more often than not regarding the situations that they find themselves in. Even when Ellie just asks if she’ll ever see him again, he flips out on her and is somehow offended at the reasonable question. Constantly in the second act, you’ll find yourself asking, “What the fuck is this guy’s problem?”. Additionally, you’ll ask, “What does she see in him?”. Peter is bothered by EVERYTHING. He even argues with her over how she dunks a donut in her coffee. Does this even matter? Can he let her breathe for a single solitary moment? We know he hates rich people, as he makes this abundantly clear in his earlier monologue that is all kinds of unnecessary, but his constant badgering of Ellie only makes you switch to her side and not really care if he gets his redemption. This may lead you to the realization that yes, Ellie is marrying the wrong man. However, we’re not exactly sure if Peter is the man for her either.

At one point, he carries her across a pond, and they get into an argument over the legitimacy of piggybacking in her lifetime. Is this supposed to be love? Is this funny? Also, what in the fuck are these two idiots even talking about?

Speaking of mood swings, I have no idea why Ellie starts loosening up around Peter. It just happens legitimately overnight. She goes to bed furious with Peter at Dyke’s Auto Camp because he basically forces her into this partnership by threatening to snitch on Ellie to her father, but the next day she is all happy and grateful for Peter making her breakfast and seems like a delight to be around. At the same time, Peter is even more of an asshole to her, and she just takes it with a smile on her face. Later in this scene, he forces her to act like a married couple with him when the detectives walk in looking for her. Though it’s a humorous scene to show their growing chemistry together, and Peter gives her props after the detectives leave, but the transition from Ellie being this annoyed snobby woman to being appreciative of anything Peter does for her isn’t natural at all. At this point of the film, Peter’s characterization flip flops from helpful sarcastic douche to a helpful, but argumentative and aggressive asshole. Even when they start to like each other a bit more, Peter always has a moment where he gets overly aggressive again, even when the situation doesn’t call for such behavior. When the guy picks them up when they’re hitchhiking, Ellie thinks about asking him for food, but Peter flips out and tells her he’ll break her neck if she does. Am I missing something here? Is this a necessary or appropriate response? They aren’t even together, but he’s acting like her asking messes with his pride or something when it doesn’t affect him at all. What the hell is his problem? Even Peter realizes he went too far here but before they can truly talk things out, he sees the guy drive away with their stuff, so he chases after him.

Does this potential relationship really work for either of them? Why do the sparks start to fly between them? It’s been a few days since I watched this, and I still don’t have a clue as to why Ellie wants to throw it all away for him. Sure, I can buy that Ellie somehow started to appreciate Peter for the accommodations he’s making for her when he doesn’t have to, but it has to be gradual. The overnight switch (for both characters really) at the auto camp started things, but it made no sense based off the previous interactions between both characters and the circumstances they established beforehand.

The third act just jumps off the rails. Since this is considered to be a partial screwball comedy, I guess it gets a pass for most, but it’s not really played like a screwball comedy. For instance, tell me why it makes sense for Peter to turn down Ellie’s love for him, with him subsequently yelling at her, but he changes his mind in the middle of the night when she’s sleeping. He asks her to reaffirm things, but he sees she’s asleep. Instead of waking her up, apologizing, and telling her how he really feels, Peter decides it’s an even better idea to drive three hours straight to New York to tell his editor he’s going to marry Ellie and she’s going to stop her marriage to King Westley. Again, let me remind you that not only did he turn her down three hours before, but he flipped out on her. On top of that, he hasn’t even asked her to marry him yet because she was sleeping. Apparently, this doesn’t matter in Peter’s world. This jackass thought it was a good idea to tell everyone he was going to marry Ellie after he basically blew his chances because of his refusal to look vulnerable in front of her. Then, when she leaves in the middle of the night after seeing he left, she rejoins King Westley and her father, and Peter has the audacity to put it all on her as to why it failed between them.

This is only “screwy” because of how fucking stupid this was.

Then, in classic Hollywood leading man fashion, Gable can’t look weak even when admitting he likes someone. Peter has this standoff with Ellie’s father Alex as he asks for the money owed to him. Not only is he as rude as can be to this man he’s never met, but Alex has to practically pull Peter’s teeth to find out if he loves Ellie. Even after admitting it, Peter responds with this attitude like, “Yeah, fine! I love her! Fuck off man!”. It’s just strange behavior. In a comedic sense, it could work if more humor was thrown into the dialogue beforehand, but he was aggressive from start to finish in this scene. If you’re trying to make us root for Peter, they did a pretty piss-poor job here. Somehow, this outrageously disrespectful conversation Peter has with Alex is enough to convince him that Peter is the right man to marry Ellie. Mind you, during Peter’s tirade towards him, he says to Alex’s face that Ellie should be punched in the mouth more often to shut her up. Why is Alex floored by this response and think, “Yup, this is the man that should marry my daughter”? We can see that Alex holds Peter’s principles in high regard since he just wanted the $39 that was owed to him instead of the $10,000 reward he somehow didn’t know about (Weird that Peter doesn’t read the news considering he’s a reporter), but is this really enough to convince Alex? I can’t think of a single real-life scenario where a man gets away with saying all that shit about someone’s daughter in the fashion Peter does, and the father of the bride is convinced that this is the right man to take his daughter away from him.

There’s no way King Westley was that bad.

The only time the audience truly feels the connection to Peter is when he sees Ellie drive by, and he realizes he lost to Westley. When he goes back to his newspaper company in defeat after previously being as excited as a puppy the night before, we do see how much Ellie has changed the rough and confident exterior of Peter Warne. Even Mr. Gordon takes notice and offers him a job once he sobers up, which was a pretty cool moment considering their contentious relationship. This is one positive about It Happened One Night. Despite all the arguing and initial problems that a lot the supporting characters have with each other, most of them have good reasons to be angry towards our main characters. Though we tend to not like them at first, they eventually show their human sides as well and it wins us over. They aren’t one-note characters that exist just to make our stars look good. Both Gordon and Alex start off as unlikable and angry people but are both given a chance to redeem themselves in excellent moments. This small instance of Gordon being real with a saddened Peter was a big moment, as was when Alex had his sit down with Ellie before her wedding. In an older film like this, it was nice to see these fully realized supporting parts when they could have written them off as one-dimensional characters that just serve the basic trajectory of the story.

There are a lot of movies where unforeseen circumstances happen on a road trip, but you have to explain to me how in the blue hell the bus driver crashes into the lake without anyone on the road and him being completely sober. Was this song really that distracting?

All the humor of the film is centered around the “hilarious misadventures” they have on their trip to New York but none of it is really that funny. The only bits that are remotely amusing are the hitchhiking scene because Peter’s know-it-all attitude is finally proven to be wrong and Ellie uses it as a chance to make fun of him for a change, and Peter acting like a gangster to scare off Shapeley from trying to collect on the reward for Ellie and scaring him off as a result. The rest of the movie is essentially Gable being an asshole the whole time and for some reason Colbert, who’s eyebrows are incredibly distracting, starts to like it. If you’re into that, I guess it’s an okay movie.

It saddens me to admit that It Happened One Night is a product of its time. I recognize its contributions and everything it means for the time period, but this is one “classic” from early Hollywood that doesn’t hold up for a litany of reasons.