9. It Happened One Night; movie review

 

IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT

Cert U

100 mins

BBFC advice: Contains no material likely to harm or offend

My favourite film is It's A Wonderful Life by the hugely successful director Frank Capra.

However, the movie was not initially well-received at the box office and marked the beginning of the decline of his stellar career.

Capra's most critically acclaimed picture was It Happened One Night - one of only three to win Oscars in all five major Academy Award categories.

And yet, neither Clark Gable nor Claudette Colbert was the first pick to play Peter Warne and Ellen Andrews.

This seems inconceivable now - the parts appear to be made for them.

Gable plays a freelance newspaper reporter who is notorious for giving a city editor (Charles C. Wilson) the runaround.

But he stumbles upon the story of his career when he bumps into an heiress (Colbert) who has fled from her father (Walter Connolly) to join up with the husband (Jameson Thomas) she has married in secret.

She is on her way to New York from Miami with barely more than her bus fare, and Warne decides to chaperone her while putting together his story.

The hard-nosed hack and the spoilt rich girl make unlikely travel companions and bristle against one another.

But the trip is far from easy, with many a diversion, and gradually, they find common ground and grow on each other.

It should be remembered that talkies were still in their infancy, making Gable's zestful delivery of dialogue all the more remarkable.

Colbert is a great foil, as Ellen's entitled bluster is soon replaced by naive vulnerability.

It Happened One Night is also a wonderful reminder of how hugely influential newspapers and their editors were then.

It may be twee by today's standards but is a classic.

Reasons to watch: A Clark Gable classic

Reasons to avoid: Very twee

Laughs: None

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 8/10

Did you know? When director Frank Capra asked Claudette Colbert to expose her leg for the hitchhiking scene, she initially refused. Later, after having seen the leg of her body double, she changed her mind.

The final word.  Frank Capra: "He fell in love with the picture right off the bat. Really, that's the only picture in which Gable ever played himself. He was that character. He loved doing those scenes. I think that he was actor enough and smart enough to realize that he was having a hell of a lot of fun." American Film

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