Main Street Classic
Movie Club is an independent club that has been formed for the purpose of
showing and reviewing classic films in order to discuss and compare world
view, content, intention, character development, videography, graphic
technique, etc. Movies will be
screened in The Loft at The Hard Bean in Grandview. MSCMC screenings are
open to the general public, age 10 and up, and will be shown free of charge. HardBean.net is
posting information about these events as a courtesy to MSCMC.
The following are
guidelines for movie goers which The Hard Bean has requested be in place to
help insure an enjoyable movie experience for all:
Seating is limited
to 20; on a first come/first serve basis.
On Friday nights,
unless otherwise noted, movies will begin at 7:30 p.m. with a short
intermission.
Movie-goers may
arrive up to 20 minutes early and save their own seat plus up to one more
seat, provided they remain inside The Hard Bean, its hallway, or its rest
room until final seating time.
Final seating will
be 5 minutes prior to start of film.
No outside chairs or
seating can be permitted.
Any food or drink
purchased at The Hard Bean will be permitted in The Loft. No outside food
or drink is permitted on the premises.
If you would like to buy dinner at The Hard
Bean to eat during the show, please arrive by 7 p.m. to be certain you and
your food can be situated in time for the start of the movie. Or, you may
call ahead with your dinner order by 6:45 and it will be ready for you by
7:15.
It Happened One Night is an 1934 American comedy with elements of
screwball comedy directed by Frank Capra, in which a pampered socialite
(Claudette Colbert) tries to get out from under her father's thumb, and
falls in love with a roguish reporter (Clark Gable). The plot was based on
the story Night Bus by Samuel Hopkins Adams, which provided the shooting
title. It Happened One Night was one of the last film romantic comedies
created before the MPAA began enforcing the 1930 production code in 1934. In
spite of its title the movie takes place over several nights and none is
particularly key to the plot.
The film was the first to win all five
major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and
Screenplay), a feat that would not be matched until One Flew Over the
Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and later by The Silence of the Lambs (1991). In 1993,
It Happened One Night was selected for preservation in the United States
National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally,
historically, or aesthetically significant." It was remade as a 1956 musical
comedy, You Can't Run Away from It, starring Jack Lemmon and June Allyson.
Spoiled heiress Ellen "Ellie" Andrews (Claudette Colbert) marries
fortune-hunter "King" Westley (Jameson Thomas) against the wishes of her
extremely wealthy father (Walter Connolly). He retrieves his daughter before
the marriage can be consummated, but then she runs away, literally leaping
off the side of the family yacht. Boarding a bus to New York City, she meets
fellow passenger Peter Warne (Clark Gable), an out-of-work newspaper
reporter. He recognizes her and gives her a choice: if she will give him an
exclusive on her story, he will help her reunite with Westley, otherwise he
will tell her father where she is and collect the reward. She agrees.
Gable and Colbert in It Happened One Night (from the trailer)Various
adventures follow. When they have to hitchhike, Peter claims to be an expert
on the subject. When nothing he tries works, eventually, out of frustration,
he ends up thumbing his nose at passing cars. The sheltered Ellie then shows
him how it's done. She stops the next car dead in its tracks by lifting up
her skirt and showing off a shapely leg (see image below).
One night,
when they are nearing the end of their journey, Peter leaves to make some
arrangements. The owners of the auto court in which they are staying see
that his car is gone and assume he has left without paying. They roust Ellie
out of bed and kick her out. Believing Peter has deserted her, Ellie calls
her father, who is so relieved to get her back that he agrees to let her
have her way. Ellie has fallen in love with Peter, but she thinks he
betrayed her for the reward money, so she agrees to have a second, formal
wedding with Westley. Meanwhile, Peter believes he's the one who's been
double-crossed.
Peter gets in touch with Ellie's father to settle up.
Mr. Andrews offers him the large reward promised, but Peter will have none
of it. He just wants to be paid $39.60 for the expenses incurred on the
trip. Intrigued, the father badgers the reporter until he gets the truth:
Peter loves Ellie (though he thinks he's out of his mind to do so). Peter
leaves with the check he asked for.
While walking his daughter down
the aisle, Andrews tells her what he has found out and encourages her to run
off again, telling her there is a car waiting for her out back; at the very
last moment, when asked whether she takes this man, she escapes again. Her
father pays off Westley, who agrees to have the marriage annulled, enabling
Ellie to marry Peter.
Filming began in a tense atmosphere as Gable
and Colbert were dissatisfied with the quality of the script. However, they
established a friendly working relationship and found that the script was no
worse than those of many of their earlier films. Capra understood that they
were unwilling participants and tried to lighten the mood by having Gable
play practical jokes on Colbert, who responded with good humor.
Both
Gable and Capra enjoyed making the movie. Colbert however continued to show
her displeasure on the set. She also initially balked at pulling up her
skirt to entice a passing driver to provide a ride, complaining that it was
unladylike. However, upon seeing the chorus girl who was brought in as her
body double, an outraged Colbert told the director, "Get her out of here.
I'll do it. That's not my leg!" Through the filming, Capra claimed, Colbert
made "many little tantrums, motivated by her antipathy toward me," however
"she was wonderful in the part." After her acceptance speech at the Oscars
ceremony, she went back on stage and thanked Capra for making the film.
The sensibilities of the time played a role in some of the key scenes.
Riskin specifically wrote scenes where throughout the film, Peter hangs a
blanket over a rope between their beds for Ellie to have some privacy,
calling it "the Walls of Jericho". The end of the film has a telegram from
Peter who has run off with Ellie as they both await news of the annulment
with Westley, in part, it says, "the walls of Jericho are starting to
topple". The final scene depicts an auto court and the couple who manage it
discussing how they wonder if the two people they have just rented a room to
are really married, because the young man asked for a rope, a blanket and a
trumpet. The husband tells his wife he knows they are married because he saw
the license. The scene closes with a trumpet sounding, the "Walls of
Jericho" falling and the lights going off in the room in which Peter and
Ellie are staying. Due to the strictures of the time, the device was the
only plausible one that would be acceptable to a "general" audience.
Neither Gable nor Colbert were the first choices to play the lead roles.
Robert Montgomery and Myrna Loy were originally offered the roles, but each
turned the script down, and Loy later noted that the final version bore
little resemblance to the script she and Montgomery were offered. Miriam
Hopkins and Margaret Sullavan also each rejected the part. Constance Bennett
was willing to play the role if she could produce the film herself, however
Columbia Pictures would not allow this. Then Bette Davis wanted the role,
but was under contract with Warner Brothers and Jack Warner refused to loan
her. Carole Lombard was unable to accept, because the filming schedule
conflicted with that of Bolero. In addition, Loretta Young also turned it
down.
Harry Cohn suggested Colbert, who initially refused the role.
Colbert's first film, For the Love of Mike (1927), had been directed by
Frank Capra and was such a disaster that she vowed to never make another
with him. She subsequently agreed to appear in It Happened One Night only
when her salary was doubled to $50,000, and on the condition that her part
be completed in four weeks so she could take an already planned vacation.
According to legend, Gable was loaned to Columbia Pictures, then considered
a minor studio, as punishment for refusing a role at his own studio;
however, this has been refuted by more recent biographies. MGM did not have
a project ready for Gable and was paying him $2,000 per week, under his
contract, to do nothing. Louis B. Mayer loaned him to Columbia for $2500 per
week, making a $500 per week profit.
After filming was completed,
Colbert complained to her friend, "I just finished the worst picture in the
world." Capra fretted that the film was released to indifferent reviews and
initially only did so-so business. Then, after it was released to the
secondary movie houses, word-of-mouth began to spread and tickets sales
became brisk. It turned out to a major hit, easily Columbia's biggest hit to
date.
In 1935, after her Academy Award nomination, Colbert decided
not to attend the presentation and instead, planned to take a cross-country
train trip. After she was named the winner, studio chief Harry Cohn sent
someone to "drag her off" the train, which had not yet left the station, and
take her to the ceremony. Colbert arrived wearing a two-piece traveling suit
that she had Paramount Pictures costume designer, Travis Banton, make for
her trip.
The film won all five of the Academy Awards for which it
was nominated:
Best Picture - Columbia Pictures (Harry Cohn,
producer) Best Director - Frank Capra Best Actor in a Leading Role -
Clark Gable Best Actress in a Leading Role - Claudette Colbert Best
Writing, Adaptation - Robert Riskin At the 7th Academy Awards for 1934,
It Happened One Night became the first film ever to win the "Big Five"
Academy Awards (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and
Best Writing). To date, only two subsequent films have achieved this feat:
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975 and The Silence of the Lambs in
1991.
On December 15, 1996, Clark Gable's Oscar was auctioned off to
Steven Spielberg for $607,500; Spielberg promptly donated the statuette to
the Motion Picture Academy. On June 9, the following year, Colbert's Oscar
was offered for auction by Christie's. No bids were made for it.
