What's the AFI Project, you ask? For more information, or if you just enjoy my bemused ramblings, read here: http://www.spout.com/blogs/pippin06/archive/2008/3/1/25756.aspx
It Happened One Night is on the following AFI lists:
The Original Top 100 (#35)
100 Funniest Films (#8)
100 Years...100 Passions (#38)
The Revised Top 100 (#46)
10 Top 10's (#3 Romantic Comedy)
I bought It Happened One Night for this project (the test passes) because when I saw it the first time, I absolutely loved it. I still absolutely love it. Branded as the first screwball comedy - and, therefore, a formula creator - this movie really makes me laugh. It's almost 75 years old now, and yet, it holds up very well. That could be owing to the fact that Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, the leads here, were two of those stars that had impeccable comedic timing and an unusual but palpable chemistry. It could be owing to the fact that director Frank Capra (this is his third movie on the original AFI list after It's a Wonderful Life and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington) had a wonderful bead on the silly situations being depicted and milked those two actors and the situations for all they were worth. It is probably both of these things and more - this film is just one of those magical films that play very well and possess a certain timeless quality that make them as good as when they were first released, at least, as I can only guess.
Let me see if I can summarize this plot with any effectiveness: Ellie Andrews (Colbert), a spoiled, selfish, rich girl who pays a price for her spoiled-ness by being under the thumb of her father, marries what he perceives to be a lothario, King Westley, in a whirlwind - though there is really no evidence that he's a womanizer of that proportion, but it was 1934, so what do I know? Mr. Andrews demands an ennulment and means to force Ellie into it - until she decides to run away and meet her beloved in New York City. So, she dives off the deck of her father's yacht in Miami and makes a break for it, which is great fodder for the newspapers. In the meanwhile, Peter Warne (Gable), journalist, gets fired for being drunk on the job and, let's face it, insulting his boss. He buys a ticket on the Greyhound to New York and has to fight the driver for the last seat, which Ellie silently sits in. Thus, the two are forced to share, and our screwball world is born. Peter quickly learns that Ellie is a "brat," prone to high-minded if misguided ideals and a skewed world perspective, but he's not all sunshine and roses himself. Snarky and sarcastic, even if gentlemanly, Peter, who recognizes Ellie, sees her as his "in" to get his job back. Thus, he makes her a promise: he will see her to New York and King Westley provided that she doesn't run away and provides him an exclusive interview. Of course, their journey is more complicated than that, given the fact that Ellie's father posts a reward for her return and, also, the fact that Ellie is perfectly hopeless in the real world, rendering Peter her guardian and guide. And wouldn't you know it - romance blossoms!
This film was the first of only three films in history to win the Big Five Oscars - Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay. I think they were well deserved. This film is kind of ahead of its time, even though it turns out to be a perfect time capsule for the 30s. I get a huge kick out of seeing the various cultural conventions of the day, from the fashion, to the technology, to the expectations. My how the world has changed.
But I digress. This movie is so good because its magical ingredients make it timeless, as I've said. Gable and Colbert are pitch-perfect romantic leads. Especially that Clark Gable - he had that scalawag sense of comedic timing, making him and his characters seem like the real bad boys a girl could fall for - and then he would turn on that smile and sensitive, fierce protectiveness within the character that could make a girl swoon. It was evident as Rhett Butler, too, though that character was more of a cad. The scene in the field, when Peter bends over Ellie after tucking her in under the hay, is a hearts-pitter-patter moment - thus, its high ranking on the AFI's Passions list. It was because Gable was so handsome, had so much romantic charisma, and had one of the best sarcastic deliveries I can think of in the history of film (bested, perhaps, only by Humphrey Bogart), while still willing to lay himself on the line for the slapstick or other physical comedy-moment. He was also very good at playing drunk for laughs - just watch his introductory scene in this film.
Colbert also portrayed that giddy sense of comedy while still remaining ladylike. My favorite scene of hers is when Ellie's father's detectives track her down to the Auto-Camp where Peter and Ellie stay during the torrential rains that flood the road and prevent the Greyhound from driving through the night. They had posed as a married couple to share the cabin, even though Peter had erected the "walls of Jericho" via means of a blanket and a clothesline. In the scene, in order to thwart the detectives' trail, Peter makes a big fuss, and Ellie chimes in as the whiny, shrill, misunderstood wife while steadily combing her hair down over her eyes. I can't describe it to do it justice, but the whole thing is just very funny. And then, of course, there was that leg. Colbert reportedly hated making the picture and sort of loathed Capra based on previous films they'd made together (though she was under contract and negotiated twice her usual salary), but it doesn't show. Both actors, including Gable (on loan from MGM as "punishment," so it says), professionally never showed their distaste for their circumstances in their performances.
I also like the perfectly executed story. Of course, it's all naturally preposterous, as screwballs often are, and it's formulaic, as romantic comedies often are (this is one of the first of each, technically), but that's what gives rise to the laughs. The film earns its place on the AFI Funniest list too because there are times I find myself giggling into stiches while watching this film.
The film isn't quite a masterpiece - some of the scenes and situations come out of left field, even if they find some resolution - and we don't actually get the benefit of seeing Peter and Ellie together in the end, though it's insinuated heavily - but it's hugely entertaining and such a cute film. Technically, it's nothing partiuclarly special, but what can one expect from 1934 and, arguably, a comedy? That's not a complaint from me. I enjoy the movie so much and plan to enjoy it a few times more in the future. I think this film deserves a 9 for being perfectly entertaining because it does what it's supposed to do, at least for me - make me laugh, make me swoon, make me feel touched. My only question - I wonder where the title comes from? The film takes place over more than one night, and Peter and Ellie meet during the day. Anyone have any insight? Maybe I'll try looking it up.