This upcoming weekend at E Street Cinema in D.C., the Capital Classics showcase will feature one of Frank Capra’s best films, It Happened One Night (1934). The first film in history (and one of only three so far) to win all top five prizes at the Oscars, the film is one of the most accessible films from the 1930s. For those that where intrigued by the black and white photography in The Artist (2011), It Happened One Night is a great place for them to start revisiting old films. And this one has sound!
Not many films from the 1930s made references that are still widely parodied in pop culture today. But, It Happened One Night’s “hitchhiking scene,” in where Colbert flashes a little leg to stop an oncoming driver, is still as iconic as it ever was. The film was a light-hearted romance that struck a chord with the American public when it was released. It’s strange to think of that, because although the “hitchhiking scene” might have been as blue as they were able to go in those days, this is really the story of a woman who, let’s just say, falls in and out of love very fast.
Claudette Colbert plays Ellie, an uppity, brat socialite; a Paris Hilton of her day. She tries to run off and marry her boyfriend, which her father quickly has annulled. Distraught and tired of her father’s oppression, she snags a ticket on a Greyhound bus and runs away to be with her beau in New York. On the bus, an unemployed journalist named Peter (Clark Gable) spots her, and blackmails her with an ultimatum. If she’ll give him an exclusive on her story, she can go to New York, if not, he’ll turn her in for the reward money her father has offered.
After Ellie begrudgingly agrees to Peter’s deal, the two begin on a road trip together, which, of course, brings them to fall for each other. It may be typical rom-com, but back in the 1930s, I doubt many films where as effective. Gable and Colbert have great chemistry, and it makes a film about two people who fall in love after only spending about a week together, seem plausible. Modern films can’t get away with this, of course. Sure, many try. Some even have less time and less going on between the two leads, but it rarely translates. Perhaps the real crux of what makes or breaks a romantic comedy is the chemistry between the two leads. If it’s believable, if we like them, and if we can truly believe we’re watching them come together on screen, then we can forgive any shortcomings the script may possess.
Black and white films like this have a slight learning curve. Several adjustments and a destruction of preconceived notions about cinema have to be made in order to enjoy them. After all, the language of film was still being developed. Those that aren’t interested in classic cinema will stay away from watching films like this in the first place. But for those of us who have an interest in the history of the medium, and others who are a little bit brave to take the plunge, It Happened One Night is an indisputable classic; the origin of the traditional romantic comedy.
It Happened One Night will play E Street Cinema’s Capital Classics showcase on January 27 and 28 at midnight, with an additional screening on the 29th at 10:30 a.m. The theater, whose website can be found here, will also be screening The Room (2003) in its Midnight Madness showcase on the 27th and 28th at the same times. Capra’s film is also available on DVD. Shockingly, a Blu-Ray release of the film is nonexistent.
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