It Happened One Night (film)
"It Happened One Night" is a classic 1934 romantic comedy directed by Frank Capra, featuring Claudette Colbert as Ellie Andrews and Clark Gable as Peter Warne. The film follows Ellie, a young woman escaping from her wealthy father, and Peter, a down-on-his-luck newspaper reporter, as they embark on a bus journey from Florida to New York. Throughout their adventure, the characters experience significant personal growth, transforming from superficial individuals into more relatable and sympathetic figures. The film highlights themes of love, companionship, and the importance of human connections over material wealth.
"It Happened One Night" received critical acclaim, winning five Academy Awards, and is recognized for its engaging chemistry between the leads. The film is considered both an entertaining romantic fantasy and a broader commentary on societal values during the Great Depression, advocating for the importance of friendship, charity, and a lighter spirit in overcoming life's challenges. Its lasting popularity has solidified its place as a significant work in American cinema, reflecting timeless lessons about life and relationships.
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It Happened One Night (film)
Identification Comedy film
Director Frank Capra
Date Released in 1934
Often considered one of the first screwball comedies, It Happened One Night focuses on the growing romance of an unlikely couple set against the background of the Great Depression.
It Happened One Night centers on the story of a young woman escaping from her wealthy, domineering father and a newspaper reporter who has talked himself out of a job. The two meet on a bus trip from Florida to New York. She becomes something more than a spoiled brat, and he becomes something more than an arrogant braggart in the course of their adventures together on the road. The film won five Academy Awards and lasting popularity. In his autobiography, Frank Capra attributed much of the success of the film to the lively off- and on-screen chemistry between the two featured players, Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable, neither of whom wanted to be in the picture. Capra also highlighted the importance of major changes he and his scriptwriter, Robert Riskin, made as they adapted the source story, making the characters more sympathetic and turning the plot into a modern-day version of William Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew (1593-1594, pb. 1623).
Ellie Andrews (Colbert) and Peter Warne (Gable) meet on a bus, as she heads back to a relationship with a foolish suitor and he heads to nowhere in particular. He teaches her to leave behind luxuries and haughty individuality and realize the joys of donuts, coffee in a mug, and, most of all, companionship and sharing. She has a civilizing effect on him, helping him accept her intelligence, liveliness, and deep feelings and learn how to turn his dreams into a real and lasting relationship.
Impact
It Happened One Night is primarily a romantic comedy; on a simple level, it is an entertaining and a diverting fantasy of a prickly relationship that ends in a happy marriage. However, it is also a broader fable of readjustment, reconciliation, and recovery, suggesting that society at large needs to learn what Ellie and Peter do: that material goods count for little, that friendship and charity are the basis of love and bind both the couple and the community, and that a spirit of creative playfulness will not only help people endure but also ultimately help overcome the Depression. Some call this sentimental “Capra-corn,” but it is also a powerful dramatization of utopian dreams and practical advice for citizens of an inevitably interconnected society.
Bibliography
Gottlieb, Sidney. “From Heroine to Brat: Frank Capra’s Adaptation of Night Bus (It Happened One Night).” Literature/Film Quarterly 16, no. 2 (1988): 129-136.
Maltby, Richard. “It Happened One Night (1934): Comedy and the Restoration of Order.” In Film Analysis, edited by Jeffrey Geiger and R. L. Rutsky. New York: W. W. Norton, 2005.