7. It Happened One Night (1934)

It Happened One Night
Movie Poster

Ahhh - Romantic Comedy. How I love you. This is the Grandaddy of them all. It Happened One Night was so enjoyable. For one thing, I'd had six days of drama and tears and real life. I needed a lighthearted comedy. Here was a great example that stands up to today's standards.

I had only experienced Clark Gable in Gone With the Wind. While I loved his rakish attitude in that movie, I honestly didn't get what all the furor was over him - why Judy Garland sang lovingly to his picture, "You made me love you." However, after this movie I think I get it. His comic timing was great. He and Claudette Colbert had chemistry and worked so well together to make this movie really work. 

SPOILERS AHEAD

Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in It Happened One Night

The movie starts with a wealthy girl named Ellie runs away from her father. She had married someone who he disapproved of, and he had her locked up on a yacht while he got an annulment through. She escapes by jumping off the yacht and swimming away. 

Penniless, she hocks her watch to get new clothes. She then gets on a bus to head to her husband in New York City. Her father sends detectives and more after her. Peter Warne, played by Gable, is a down-on-his-luck newspaper reporter who soon discovers who she really is. He agrees to help her if he can get an exclusive on her trip to New York. Hijinks ensue. They pretend to be married and spend a night in a hotel room divided by a bedspread. I absolutely loved the part where Gable started singing "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" - classic!

The next day, they get on the bus. One of the men on the bus sees a newspaper article offering a reward of $10,000 for anyone who finds Ellie. He realizes that she is on the bus and decides to approach Peter about splitting the profits. Peter pretends he's part of a kidnapping ring and scares the man into keeping the story quiet.

They decide to leave the bus behind in case others get the idea to turn her in. They end up hitchhiking in one of the funniest scenes of the movie. Ellen proves that 'the limb is mightier than the thumb'.

They end up at another hotel. After a conversation about marriage, Ellen tells Peter she loves him. He's not sure at first how to respond. Once she's asleep he runs off to sell his exclusive story to the newspaper about Ellen and him for $1000. In the meantime, Ellen thinks he's left her and goes ahead and calls her father. Peter drives past her, her father, and her husband on the way back to propose to her.

On the day of the 'official' wedding, Peter has requested to meet with Ellen's father to settle up financial matters. Ellen thinks he's come for the reward. However, he only asks for the money to pay for the actual expenses of the trip. Before he leaves, he tells her father that he does love her. Later, as her father walks her down the aisle, he reveals that Peter didn't want the reward. She leaves her husband at the altar and runs to Peter. The movie ends with the pair married and on their honeymoon.

What's amazing is the number of scenes repeated in romantic comedies throughout the years. The movie Leap Year has so many similarities, it's amazing. There's the road trip, the bedroom scene, the 'wealthy' sheltered girl and the working class guy. The more movies I watch, the more I realize that they have all been done before, it's just find the new edge that makes them great.