Jan 14, 2005 05:41 PM
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(Updated Jan 14, 2005 05:41 PM)
It Happened One Night still stands as one of Hollywood's greatest romantic comedies. Released in 1934, it was the first film to win five Academy Awards--Best Picture, Best Actor (Clark Gable), Best Actress (Claudette Colbert), Best Director (Frank Capra) and Best Screenplay (Robert Riskin).
Although a great deal of the plot is predictable, the presentation is still entertaining, even after almost seventy years. The story centers around the antics of characters Ellie Andrews (Colbert) and Peter Warne (Gable). Ellie Andrews is a beautiful yet willful and spoiled rich-kid with a rebellious streak. Desperately wanting to show her independence, she impulsively marries a fortune-hunting playboy, King Westley (Jameson Thomas). The father, Alexander Andrews (Walter Connolly), is incensed by the marriage, knowing that his new son-in-law is simply a shallow ne'er do well.
The father is so enraged that he has his daughter kidnapped and held aboard his yacht until an annulment can be arranged, since the marriage was not consummated. After a heated argument with her father, Ellie jumps from the yacht and swims to shore, planning to somehow join her husband. From this point, the chase is on! Ellie's father hires the best detectives and alerts police and newspapers. He spares no expense and offers a large reward for her return.
While detectives and police search everywhere for Ellie, checking planes, boats and other ways she might have escaped, they discard the idea that she might be traveling by bus. Anticipating that they would do this, she buys a bus ticket and sets out on her journey. It is on this busride that Ellie meets handsome Peter Warne, gruff, hard-drinking reporter, who has just been fired by his editor for a drunken stunt. Warnes sees that Ellie is naive, albeit stubborn and rude, and tries to protect her from various mishaps on the trip. He becomes suspicious when she refuses to allow him to notify police after her money is stolen during a rest stop. After seeing an article her father has placed in a newspaper, Peter's suspicions are confirmed. He tells her that he will make sure she gets to her husband if she allows him to accompany her and have an exclusive story. Reluctantly, she agrees.
During their journey to New York, they are confronted by one sticky situation after another, in which they manage to dodge police and detectives and foil all attempts to find Ellie. Predictably, each problem they face brings them closer together until they finally fall in love.
Later, through a series of coincidences, Ellie is lead to believe that Peter is using her just to get an exclusive story for his newspaper. Heartbroken and lovesick, she calls her father, who immediately comes to rescue her. Once she has returned home, her father makes good on his promise to not contest the marriage to Westley and even arranges a formal wedding for them at his home. He senses, though, that his daughter is not as anxious to be married as she had been.
Meanwhile, Peter, feeling that it is he who has been used, is puzzled and dismayed by Ellie's change of mind. He decides to let Ellie go--but not before confronting her father. He goes to the Andrews mansion and has a long, fruitful talk with Mr. Andrews. All is made clear at this point as Andrews discovers that Warne and his daughter are in love. Not speaking with Peter herself, Ellie mistakenly thinks that Warne has come to her father for a pay-off and prepares to go ahead with the wedding.
As father and daughter walk down the aisle, Andrews tells his daughter Warne's real reason for coming to see him. The ceremony begins and, at the last possible moment, Ellie leaves Westley at the altar, running out to join Peter. However, this is not the end of the story. The last scene is one of the most charming parts of this film. In this scene, the ''Walls of Jericho'', a literal as well as symbolic barrier between Peter and Ellie, falls.
The chemistry between Gable and Colbert is excellent, endearing them as one of classic film's great couples. Their ''on the road'' adventures in this movie have become memorable parts of movie history. The film has everything--romance, comedy, class struggle, battle of the sexes--all presented with such brilliance that it still charms and entertains.
