84: It Happened One Night

USA  105m  Dir: Frank Capra  Key Cast: Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable

Disappointingly, this film is mistitled as the events happen over several nights. There are at least three night stops and there's also an implied time-jump before the final scenes- it's more like "It Happened One Week". 

That's pretty much my only criticism of the film though because it's delightful. It was a rom-com before rom-coms existed and set the formula that rom-coms have been following ever since. It's legacy is enormous; it's even thought that Bugs Bunny was based on Clark Gable's character in this film.

Heiress Ellen Andrews (Claudette Colbert) eloped with fortune-hunter King Westley but is then detained by her father (Walter Connolly) who is furious about the marriage. She dives off her father's yacht and attempts to race to New York on a long bus journey. On the bus she meets roguish journalist Peter Warne (Clark Gable) and initially they can't stand each other but he begins to help her when her bag is stolen and Ellen's father hires detectives and advertises in the press to find her. 

The formula of this film feels very familiar and I had to keep reminding myself that it's familiar because most rom-coms have followed the formula that this film created. A man and a woman from very different backgrounds meet and initially can't stand each other but they end up having a series of misadventures and falling in love. Inevitably the woman has to decide between her new love and previous lover, who is awful, and there's a dramatic conclusion at a wedding ceremony. 

As we well know from the many terrible rom-coms out there, the formula alone doesn't necessarily make for a good film. A huge part of the success of this film is the characters. Ellen is initially very obstinate as she has faced a childhood of never being in control of her life but gradually she is able to have fun in a way she has never had before. Peter is so much fun, roguish without being problematic, and it's really difficult not to like him. Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable are perfectly cast in the roles and convince both as people who can't stand each other and as people who are very much in love with each other. 

I'm not sure any of the subsequent rom-coms inspired by this one have portrayed the actual falling in love process as effectively as this one does. The central couple gradually gain more respect for each other as they do things which surprise them and you see them genuinely having fun together from singing on the bus to role-playing as an argumentative married couple to hide Ellen's identity. By the time Ellen announces her love it doesn't feel like a sudden revelation, it feels obvious because we've seen it develop in front of our very eyes. 

It Happened One Night was one of the last pre-code romantic comedies. The fact it was not stifled by the production code means it feels quite like a modern PG rom-com, where sex is implied and not exactly hidden from the audience but without being in any way risqué. The film doesn't do anything that was particularly shocking for the time and feels natural in a way the more conservative post-code films generally don't.

A really lovely, well-made film. Plus the singing on the bus is surely one of cinema's most joyous scenes!