Movie of the Week: It Happened One Night (1934)

This week, because the Academy Awards are on Sunday, our Movie of the Week is Clark Gable’s Academy Award-winning performance as a wise crackin’ newspaperman in It Happened One Night.

If you’re a Clark Gable fan, then you’ve seen It Happened One Night.  Now an essential classic and considered the first screwball comedy, it is the prime example of a sleeper hit. Produced by the “Siberia” of studios by an un-appreciated director and performed by two stars against their will, it seems an unlikely entry into Academy Award history. But with a snappy screenplay and chemistry that burned through the screen, it indeed earns its place in history. Gable is Peter Warne, a cocky newspaperman who has just been fired. On a bus to New York, he meets Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert), a runaway heiress, on her way to be reunited with her new husband whom her father detests. Peter soon realizes her identity and befriends her so he can get the exclusive story. Along the way, after masquerading as man and wife at an auto camp, sleeping in a field, hitch hiking and stealing a car, they fall in love. When Peter leaves Ellie at a motel in the middle of the night to try and get some money from his old boss to marry her, she mistakenly thinks he has left her for good and calls her father (Walter Connolly) and husband to pick her up. Peter is heartbroken and so is Ellie.

It Happened One Night has been Movie of the Month before, has an extensive write-up on its page, a nutshell review and I did a history of the making of the film for its 80th anniversary. So I won’t repeat myself. Here’s just fifteen things to love about it:

1. The hitchhiking scene is classic. “Why didn’t you take off all your clothes, you could have stopped forty cars.”
2. Not only did Clark Gable win his one and only Oscar for the film (he was nominated for Mutiny on the Bounty and Gone with the Wind), it also holds the distinction of being the first to win the Oscar “grand slam:” Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay.
3. Clark was one of MGM’s most lucrative stars, yet earned his only Oscar on a loan-out to Columbia, which was considered a lower tier studio time.
4. The first glance we get of Clark, telling off his editor (even after he’s hung up), is brilliant. Shown in close-up at first, setting us up for Clark’s shenanigans throughout the film.
5. The “plumber’s daughter” scene is not often mentioned when people discuss the best scenes, but it is hilarious. “QUIT BAWLIN’!”
6. Walter Connolly is hilarious in everything, but he is especially great here. He’s at his best when he’s sputtering and spitting his anger!
7. The scene where Walter asks Clark if he loves his daughter is most certainly the scene that cemented Clark’s Oscar win. “I asked you a simple question: do you love her?” “YES! But don’t hold that against me, I’m a little screwy myself!”
8. This was animator Fritz Freleng’s favorite film. He modeled some of his most famous cartoon characters after characters in the film. Gable was the inspiration for Bugs Bunny, from talking fast and munching on carrots (also the name Bugs came from Gable mentioning Bugs Dooley), Walter Connolly was the inspiration for Yosemite Sam and Jameson Thomas was the inspiration for Pepe LePew.
9. Don’t forget Clark’s rules for dunking a donut in your coffee! “Where’d you learn to dunk, finishing school?Dunking’s an art! Don’t let it soak so long. A dip and pop into your mouth. You let it hang there too long it’ll get soft and fall off. It’s all a matter of timing. I’ll write a book about it.”
10. The film is really simple at its core; nothing glamorous or overdone about it. The two main characters fall in love organically as time passes on, on a bus, hitchhiking on dirt paths and staying at little motels separated by “the walls of Jericho.”
11. “Perhaps you’re interested in how a man undresses. You know, it’s a funny thing about that. Quite a study in psychology, no two men do it alike. You know, I once knew a man who kept his hat on until he was completely undressed. Yeah, now he made a picture. Years later his secret came out—he wore a toupee. Yeah. No, I have a method all my own. If you notice the coat came first then the tie then the shirt. Now, uh, according to hoyle, after that the pants should be next. Here’s where I’m different. I go for the shoes next. First the right then the left. After that it’s every man for himself.” Clark proved in that scene how he could handle a complicated monologue and…that he didn’t wear an undershirt!
12. Don’t forget that rich people can’t piggy back ride. “I bet there isn’t a good piggy back rider in your whole family. I never knew a rich man yet who could piggy back ride!
13. Also don’t forget “You can’t be hungry and scared both at the same time. If you’re scared, it scares the hunger out of you.”
14. Claudette taking off at the altar, satin wedding dress and long veil trailing behind her, is just such a beautiful piece of filmmaking.
15. The ending may seem disappointing because Clark and Claudette aren’t pictured, but really it adds more depth as you can just imagine them celebrating as the walls of Jericho come tumbling down!

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