It Happened One Night

It Happened One Night (in Spain and Mexico, It happened one night; in Argentina, What Happened That Night) is a 1934 American screwball comedy film directed and produced by Frank Capra, in collaboration with Harry Cohn, and starring Claudette Colbert and Clark gable. Based on Night Bus, a story written by Samuel Hopkins Adams, it tells the story of a worldly and capricious girl (Colbert) who runs away from her father and meets a mischievous journalist (Gable)., with whom he will develop a love story. It was one of the last romantic comedy films created before the Motion Picture Association of America began enforcing the Hays Code in 1934.

The film was the first to win all five major Academy Awards: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay. In 1993, It Happened One Night was deemed "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 2013, the film was released. underwent extensive restoration.

First of the AFI's 10 Top 10 as the third best "romantic comedy".

Plot

Ellen "Ellie" Andrews (Claudette Colbert), heiress to a large fortune, has decided to elope with the pilot and fortune hunter King Westley (Jameson Thomas), against the wishes of her millionaire father, Alexander Andrews (Walter Connolly), who wants her to leave. cancel the ceremony because you know Westley really only cares about your money. Jumping on a boat in Florida, she flees and boards a Greyhound bus headed to New York City to meet her fiancee. As a traveling companion she has Peter Warne (Clark Gable), a journalist. Warne soon recognizes her and gives her a choice: if she gives him an exclusive on her story, he will help her meet Westley; otherwise, she will tell her father where she is. Ellie accepts the first option and they leave town.

As they go through various adventures together, Ellie loses her initial disdain for him and begins to develop an attraction to him. When they have to hitchhike, they fail to secure a ride until Ellie shows her leg well to one of the passing drivers. When they stop on the road, the driver tries to rob them, but Peter chases after him and steals his Ford T. Near the end of their trip, Ellie confesses her love to Peter. When the owners of the motel they are staying in notice that Peter's car is gone, they throw Ellie out. Believing that Peter has abandoned her, Ellie phones her father, who agrees to let her marry Westley. Meanwhile, Peter gets money from his publisher to marry Ellie, later realizing she's gone. Although Ellie does not want to be with Westley, she believes that Peter has betrayed her for her reward money and agrees to a second formal wedding.

On the wedding day, she finally reveals the whole story to her father. When Peter arrives at Ellie's house, Andrews offers him the reward money, but Peter insists that he be paid only for her expenses: a paltry US$39.60 for items she had to sell to buy gas. When Ellie's father presses him to explain her strange behavior and demands to know if he loves her, Peter first tries to dodge the questions, but then admits that he loves Ellie and leaves the house. Westley arrives at his wedding in a gyroplane but, at the ceremony, Andrews reveals to his daughter the rejection of the reward money, telling her that his car is waiting by the back door in case she changes her mind about the wedding. wedding celebration. Ellie leaves Westley at the altar and drives away in her car, driving away from her as the news cameras roll.

A few days later, Andrews is working at his desk when King Westley calls to tell him that he is accepting the financial settlement offered to him and is not contesting the annulment. His executive assistant brings him a telegram from Peter, which says: "What's stopping the annulment, are you slow talking?" The walls of Jericho are collapsing!", referring to a makeshift wall made of a blanket on a wire tied in the rooms where they slept among themselves to give each other privacy. With the override in hand, Andrews sends back the reply: "Drop 'em down."

In the last scene, Peter's battered Ford T is parked in Glen Falls, Michigan. The motel owners talk, wondering why on such a warm night the newlyweds wanted a clothesline, an extra blanket, and a small tin trumpet he had procured for them. As they look at the cabin, the toy trumpet blows a fanfare, the blanket falls to the floor, and the cabin lights go out.

Cast

Clark Gable like Peter Warne and Claudette Colbert as Ellie Andrews.
Trailer frame.

Main

Uncredited

Production

Neither Gable nor Colbert were the first choice to play the lead roles. Miriam Hopkins was the first to turn down the role of Ellie. Robert Montgomery and Myrna Loy were then offered the roles, but both turned down the script, though Loy later noted that the final story, as filmed, had very little to do with the script she and Montgomery had been offered. for reading. Margaret Sullavan also turned down the role. Constance Bennett was willing to play the role if she was allowed to produce the film herself; however, Columbia Pictures did not allow it. Later, Bette Davis wanted the role, but Warner Brothers, and specifically Jack L. Warner, refused to lend her on loan. Carole Lombard was unable to accept the role, due to the filming schedule coinciding with 's. Bolero. Loretta Young also turned down the role.

Harry Cohn suggested Colbert, and she initially turned the role down. Colbert's first film, 1927's For the Love of Mike, had been directed by Capra, and was a disaster, swearing never make another film with him. Later, she agreed to appear in It Happened One Night only if her salary was doubled to US$50,000, and also on the condition that her part would be filmed entirely in four weeks, to be able to take your vacation.

Probably the most famous scene in the film is the star of Claudette Colbert, who stops a driver showing part of his leg.
Trailer frame.

According to a Hollywood legend, Gable was loaned out to Columbia Pictures, then considered a minor studio, as a kind of "punishment" for refusing to perform a role in his own studio. This story has been partially refuted by more recent biographies. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer did not have a project ready for Gable, and the studio was paying him the contracted salary of US$2,000 per week whether he worked or not. Louis B. Mayer lent it to Columbia for $2,500 a week, therefore M.G.M. he was earning $500 a week while he was gone. Capra, however, insisted that Gable was reluctant to participate.

Filming began in a tense atmosphere, as Gable and Colbert were dissatisfied with the quality of the script. However, Capra understood his dissatisfaction and let screenwriter Robert Riskin rewrite the script.Colbert, however, continued to dislike him on set. At first he also resisted lifting her skirt to tempt a driver at the hitchhiking scene, complaining that it was unladylike. Seeing the showgirl who was brought in as her body double, an outraged Colbert told the director, "Get her out of here." I will do that. That's not my leg!'' Throughout the filming, Capra claimed, Colbert 'had a lot of little tantrums, motivated by his antipathy towards me'; however, "she was wonderful in the role."

It was partially filmed on Thousand Oaks Boulevard in Thousand Oaks, California.

Reception

After filming was completed, Colbert complained to a friend, "I just finished the worst movie in the world." Columbia seemed to have low expectations for the film and did not mount a major campaign. advertising to promote it. Initial reviews, however, were generally positive. Mordaunt Hall of The New York Times called it "a good piece of fiction that, for all its feverish stunts, is blessed with brilliant dialogue and its fair share of relatively restrained scenes". He also described Colbert's performance as "engaging and lively"; and Gable's as "excellent". Variety stated that it did not possess "a particularly strong plot," big, because of the acting, dialogue, situations, and direction'. Film Daily praised it as "an animated thread, fast-paced, full of humor, daring enough enough to be tempting, but perfectly decorous. The New York Herald Tribune called it "lively and funny. i>, however, found it "quite absurd and quite dismal'. The latter was probably the criticism Capra had in mind when he recalled in his autobiography that "sophisticated" they had dismissed the film.

Despite positive reviews, the film only held its own in its early theatrical run. However, after it was released to secondary theaters, ticket sales became brisk, especially in smaller cities where the film's characters and simple romance touched the hearts of moviegoers not surrounded by luxury. It turned out to be a huge box office success, easily Columbia's biggest hit to date.

Awards and nominations

Oscar Awards

At the 7th Academy Awards, It Happened One Night was nominated for and won all five major Academy Awards, a feat that has only been repeated twice: in 1975 with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and in 1991 with The Silence of the Lambs. Also, It Happened One Night was the last film to win both major acting awards until One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

After his nomination, Colbert decided not to attend the ceremony, believing he would not win the award, and instead planned to take a cross-country rail trip. After she was named the winner, studio head Harry Cohn sent someone to "take her down"; of the train, which had not yet left the station, and take her to the ceremony. Colbert arrived wearing a two-piece travel suit that she had Paramount Pictures costume designer Travis Banton design for her trip.

On December 15, 1996, Gable's Oscar was auctioned to Steven Spielberg for $607,500, who then donated it to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. On June 9 of the following year, Colbert's Oscar was offered for auction by Christie's but no bids were placed on it.

National Board of Review

Other acknowledgments

The American Film Institute has recognized It Happened One Night in several of its listings:

• 1998: 100 years... 100 films: #35
• 2000: 100 years... 100 smiles: #8
• 2002: 100 years... 100 passions: #38
• 2007: 100 years... 100 films (tenth anniversary edition): #46
• 2008: AFI's 10 Top 10 - Romantic comedy: #3

Legacy

It Happened One Night had an immediate impact on audiences. In one scene, Gable strips to bed, removing his shirt to reveal that he is topless. One urban legend claims that sales of tank tops dropped markedly as a result. The film also prominently features a Greyhound bus in the story, sparking interest in bus travel nationwide.

The film was adapted into a radio version on the Lux Radio Theatre broadcast on March 20, 1939, with Colbert and Gable reprising their roles. On January 28, 1940, it was repeated again, this time for the transmission of The Campbell Playhouse.

Animator Friz Freleng's previously unpublished memoir mentions that this was one of his favorite films. It Happened One Night has some interesting parallels to the cartoon character Bugs Bunny, who made his first appearance six years later, and which Freleng helped develop. In the film, a minor character, Oscar Shapely, continually calls Gable's character "Doc," an imaginary character named "Bugs Dooley" it's mentioned once to scare Shapely, and there's also a scene where Gable eats carrots while he talks rapidly with his mouth full, like Bugs does.

Joseph Stalin was a fan of the film, as was Adolf Hitler.

The film inspired a number of remakes: the 1945 musicals Eve Knew Her Apples, starring Ann Miller; and 1956's You Can't Run Away from It, starring June Allyson and Jack Lemmon, and directed and produced by Dick Powell. The Sure Thing from 1985, starring John Cusack, also has some similarities. Parodies of the film include Way Out West from 1937 and Spaceballs from 1987.

Restoration

In 2013, the film was digitally restored by Sony Colorworks, from the original negative and scanned in 4K resolution. The images were digitally restored frame by frame at Prasad Corporation to remove dirt, tears, scratches and other blemishes, thus returning the film to its original appearance.