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Back to Basics - It Happened One Night
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Back to Basics is my effort to remedy the numerous film classics from through out the world that for whatever reason I have always managed to skip, miss or just have escaped my radar.
Another week and another beloved comedy. It Happened One Night was released in 1934 to vast acclaim, taking home numerous Oscars, including Best Picture. The movie stars Claudette Colbert and one of early American cinema’s most legendary actors Clark Gable.
Well, I am sorry, sad and scared to say for the second week in a row, I don’t love another classic. I wanted to, oh believe me. I wanted to fully embrace It Happened One Night. Early on in the picture, the connection bloomed. Colbert’s Ellie Andrews' desire to run off with the ridiculous King Westley (Jameson Thomas) started things off with a spark. Ellie quickly defends her intention to wed the King with the pronouncement that, “I come from a long line of stubborn idiots.” She soon runs away, when she encounters down on his luck reporter Peter Warne (Gable).
The film’s plot fits snugly into many of today’s current romantic comedy tropes, especially the bickering and bantering segueing into something more. None of that matters, however, since director Frank Capra and screenwriters Samuel Hopkins Adams and Robert Riskin skip the cliches that have befallen the genre for decades. If One Night arrived in theaters today, it would be an unwatchable mess starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaughey, who would hide their true identities until the last minute, causing a big argument with 20 minutes left to go in the film.
Yet, and this is my key problem, I still found One Night’s love story uninteresting. In the final act, the drama unfolds over whether the love birds will finally admit their feelings and break down the Walls of Jericho. The burning need to see them do so does not ignite. That love is told but not felt.
That first hour is a ripper though. The zingers are sharp and memorable. Colbert holds her own here but it is clearly Gable’s show. Whether discussing the intricacies of men removing their clothes (“I once knew a man who kept his hat on until he was completely undressed”) to the variety of topics he’d like to write a book on (hitchhiking, the art of donut dipping) Gable is mesmerizing. His ability to get a laugh with a mere eyebrow raise is unparalleled. That smile is utterly infectious.
Gable’s aided by Hopkins and Riskin’s script. Whether it is a debate over the proper definition of a piggy back ride or the couple’s fake argument to throw off their pursuers (“Quit ballin’!) when the screenplay goes for the laughs its aim is flawless. Capra, of course, shoots it all with a breezy style. One moment in particular is vintage Capra, a sight of true human honesty and joy on screen. As Gable and Colbert ride a bus to New York, a band on board is asked to perform “The Man on the Flying Trapeze.” Starting faintly, the song builds, passengers one by one joining in on the fun. Each chorus is boisterous, with the bus driver himself getting overly enthusiastic, veering off the road into a muddy ditch. It is a simply elegant few minutes.
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