Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in Frank Capra’s “It Happened One Night”

It Happened One Night (1934) is an American romantic comedy directed by Frank Capra and starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. The supporting cast includes Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, and Alan Hale. The film was produced by Capra and Columbia Pictures studio head Harry Cohn. The script was written by Robert Riskin. The cinematography was by Joseph Walker (The Awful Truth, It’s a Wonderful Life, Born Yesterday).

Heiress Ellen “Ellie” Andrews (Colbert) has eloped with King Westley (Jameson Thomas), a fortune-hunting pilot, against her rich industrialist father Alexander Andrews’s (Walter Connolly) wishes. Ellie’s father wants to have the wedding annulled but Ellie has other plans. Ellie runs away from her father and takes a bus to New York City to reunite with Wesley. On the bus, Ellie meets Peter Warne (Gable), a newspaper reporter who just lost his job. When he realizes that he’s traveling with the runaway heiress, Warne makes a deal with Ellie that he will keep quiet and not expose her identity if she gives him an exclusive on her love story with Wesley. If she doesn’t, Peter will tell her father where she is.

As the two traveling companions evade her father and his detectives, they fall in love.

Will Peter and Ellie be able to sustain their love, or will Ellie’s father and King Wesley have something to say about it?

 

Frank Capra (1897 - 1991) was an American film director, producer, and writer. During the 1930s and 1940s, Capra’s films were among the most popular and awarded films. By 1938, Capra has won three Best Director Academy Awards. Born in Italy, Capra immigrated to the United States with his family when he was five years old. By sheer determination and his self-described cockiness, Capra talked his way into the movie business. He found a great home at “Poverty Row” studio, Columbia Pictures. At Columbia he had a major success with It Happened One Night (1934), which swept all the major categories at the Academy Awards that year. This helped turn Columbia Pictures from a Poverty Row studio into a major one. Other Capra successes include You Can’t Take It with You (1938), Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), and It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).

Clark Gable (1901 – 1960) was an American film actor. Gable was one of the most consistent box office stars in the history of movies. He won an Academy Award for Best Actor for his role in the landmark romantic comedy It Happened One Night (1934) directed by Frank Capra. As “The King” of Hollywood, Gable starred alongside some of the biggest female stars of their day including Joan Crawford, Myrna Loy, Jean Harlow, Lana Turner, Norma Shearer, and Ava Gardner. Gable received two additional Best Actor nominations for Mutiny on the Bounty (1935) and Gone With the Wind (1939), one of the biggest money-makers of all time. Gables third wife was the legendary Carole Lombard. Gable married Lombard in 1939 and ended with her tragic death in a plane crash in 1942. Other Gable films include San Francisco (1937), Test Pilot (1938), Boom Town (1940), Honky Tonk (1941), Command Decision (1948), Teacher’s Pet (1958), It Started in Naples (1960), and The Misfits (1961), his last film before his death at 59.

Claudette Colbert (1903 -1996) was an American stage, film, and television actress. She is perhaps best known for her role as Ellie Andrews in Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night (1934). For her role in that film, she won the Academy Award for Best Actress. She was nominated two other times in that category. Colbert got her start in the theater where she played a variety of ingenue roles. In 1928, she signed a contract with Paramount Pictures where she quickly made a succession of movies. Her breakout role came in 1932 in The Sign of the Cross (1932) starring Fredric March and Charles Laughton. In 1934, she made three films that were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture: Imitation of Life, Cleopatra, and the eventual winner, It Happened One Night. No one had been able to match that record. Other popular films include I Met Him in Paris (1937), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), Midnight (1939), The Palm Beach Story (1942), Since You Went Away (1944), and The Egg and I (1947).

 

It Happened One Night trivia

• Both Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert didn’t want to make the film. Gable was on loan to Columbia Pictures, which was considered a punishment by the star. Columbia was a minor studio, part of  “poverty row.” Colbert had worked with Frank Capra on a silent film, which wasn’t a pleasant or successful experience.
• At first, Colbert refused to show her leg in the hitchhiking scene. When she saw the body double’s leg, she changed her mind saying, “That’s not my leg!”
• It was the first film to win the top five Academy Award categories: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. The other films to win the Oscar “grand slam” are One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
• Constance Bennett and Myrna Loy turned down the script. Colbert only agreed to do the picture because Capra agreed to double her salary and not be required to work for more than four weeks. Bette Davis wanted the role of Ellie, but Warner Bros. wouldn’t loan her to Columbia. Miriam Hopkins, Margaret Sullivan, and Carole Lombard also turned down the role.
• Robert Montgomery and Fredric March both turned down the role of Peter Warne.                             

Click here to watch the film on YouTube.

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Discussion questions

1. Some critics consider the film a screwball comedy. Would you put it in that category?
2. This film basically wrote the template for all romantic comedy films that came after it. Do you know any modern romantic comedies that owe a debt to It Happened One Night?
3. What did you think of the chemistry between Gable and Colbert? Was it believable?
4. Did you have a favorite scene or line of dialogue?
5. Considered one of the best films ever made, do you think its reputation is well deserved?

Edward G. Robinson and Jean Arthur wonder why "The Whole Town’s Talking"

The Whole Town’s Talking (1935) is an American comedy film directed by John Ford and starring Edward G. Robinson and Jean Arthur. The screenplay was written by Jo Swerling and Robert Riskin and based on a story by W. R. Burnett (Little Caesar, High Sierra).

Arthur Ferguson Jones (Robinson) is a mild-mannered advertising clerk who has a crush on Wilhemina Clark (Arthur) who barely knows he’s alive.

Jones looks precisely like the notorious bank robber “Killer Mannion” and is arrested by the police. When his true identity is confirmed, they let him go with a “passport,” a letter that says he’s not Mannion.

Mannion devises a plan to use his lookalike, making Jones the fall guy for a crime he has planned.

Will Mannion get away with his crime with Jones holding the bag?

Jean Arthur and Edward G. Robinson

John Ford (1894 - 1973) was an American film director who won a record four Academy Awards, more than any other director in history. He is perhaps best known for his western films, but ironically the Academy Awards he won weren’t for classic westerns like Stagecoach (1939) and The Searchers (1956). Ford got his start in silent film, first as an actor, then as a writer-director. He directed many silent films including the epic The Iron Horse (1924). Once the sound era arrived, Ford was one of its first pioneers. He hit his stride in the 1930s with films like The Lost Patrol (1934), The Whole Town’s Talking (1935), and The Informer (1935), which brought Ford his first Academy Award for Best Director. Other popular Ford films include The Hurricane (1937), Wee Willie Winkie (1937), Young Mr. Lincoln (1939), Drums Along the Mohawk (1939), and The Grapes of Wrath (1940) the last three all starring Henry Fonda. He also had a long collaborative relationship with John Wayne. Wayne starred in many classic Ford films including She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949), The Quiet Man (1952), The Searchers, and The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962).

Edward G. Robinson (1893 – 1973) was an American actor on the stage and screen. Robinson is a true star from Hollywood’s Golden Age where he starred in the gangster classic Little Caesar (1931), Kid Galahad (1937), Confessions of a Nazi Spy (1939), The Sea Wolf (1941), Double Indemnity (1944), and Key Largo (1948). Robinson was awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 1973 but was never nominated for a competitive Oscar.

Jean Arthur (1900 – 1991) was an American stage and film actress whose career spanned three decades. Arthur got her start in silent films but became a major star with the advent of sound. Her unique speaking voice made her a natural for comedy. She came to prominence by having major roles in a series of films directed by Frank Capra: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936), You Can’t Take it With You (1938), and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939). Other popular films Arthur starred in included Only Angels Have Wings (1939), The Talk of the Town (1942), and The More the Merrier (1943). For her work in The More the Merrier, she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actress; it was her only Academy Award nomination. Arthur’s last film role was in the classic western Shane (1953). After retiring from acting, she taught drama at Vassar College where one of her students was Meryl Streep.

The Whole Town's Talking trivia

• The Production Code didn't allow references to drugs or drug addiction but the reference to a character in the movie being "coked up" seems to have slipped by the censors.
• The $250.00 per week that Jones gets to write the article about Mannion translates to almost $5000.00 today.
• Mannion is never given a first name. He's always referred to as Killer Mannion or just Mannion.
• The movie inspired the Bollywood movie Duplicate (1998).

To watch the film on YouTube, click the link below.

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Discussion questions

1. Did you enjoy Edward G. Robinson in a comedy role?
2. Was Robinson successful in playing two different characters?
3. Were you surprised to know that John Ford directed this comedy?
4. What did you think of Jean Arthur's performance? Did she and Robinson work well together?
5. Did anything surprise you?

Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur star in “Mr. Deeds Goes to Town”

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) is an American comedy directed by Frank Capra and starring Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur. The screenplay was by frequent Capra collaborator, Robert Riskin. The screenplay was based on a short story Opera Hat by Clarence Budington Kelland. The short story was serialized in The American Magazine.

The film features an impressive supporting cast that includes George Bancroft, Lionel Stander, Douglass Dumbrille, Raymond Walburn, Ruth Donnelly, and Charles Lane, a veteran of many Capra films.

The plot concerns one Longfellow Deeds (Cooper), co-owner of a business, greeting card poet, and tuba-playing musician. Deeds lives in the peaceful town of Mandrake Falls, Vermont, during the Great Depression. Due to the accidental death of his uncle Martin Semple, Deeds inherits 20 million dollars. Semple’s shady lawyer John Cedar (Dumbrille) tries to control Deeds’s fortune by scheming to give him power of attorney.

Enter Louise “Babe” Bennett (Arthur), star reporter for a New York City newspaper. She gains Deeds’s confidence by masquerading herself as a poor worker named Mary Dawson. By doing this, Babe writes a series of popular articles on Deeds, portraying him as a simple-minded hick who just happened to inherit 20 million dollars. She gives him the nickname “Cinderella Man” and a legend is born.

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town trivia:

• Gary Cooper was always Frank Capra’s choice to play Longfellow Deeds, but Carole Lombard had originally signed on to play Babe. Lombard dropped out when she was offered the female lead in My Man Godfrey (1936).
• This was one of Capra’s most financially successful films.
• The verb doodle was introduced in the movie. Screenwriter Robert Riskin coined the word for the movie.
• This was the first film in which Frank Capra’s name appears above the title. The Name above the Title was the name of Capra’s autobiography published in 1997.
• Capra won his second Best Director Academy Award; he won a total of three for Best Director.
• To watch the movie on YouTube, click on the link below.

Why watch this film?

• This was the director’s first film with Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur, two of the director’s favorites.
• Arthur’s on-screen persona is perfected in this film. After Deeds, she was one of the biggest female stars in Hollywood.
• Capra’s talent as a director is on full display and illustrates why he is one of the most awarded directors of Hollywood’s Golden Age.
• Graham Greene thought that the film was Capra’s finest to date.

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Gary Cooper and Jean Arthur

Discussion questions:

1. What genre would you categorize this film? Comedy-drama, screwball comedy, romantic comedy? Something else?
2. Where do you think this ranks among Capra’s films? Top-ten, top-five?
3. What did you think of Gary Cooper as Longfellow Deeds? Can you see another actor in the role?
4. This was Jean Arthur’s breakout role. What do you think of her performance? Would it have been a different movie with Carole Lombard in the role?
5. Some critics thought the film was likable but not too important as films go. What do you think about that assessment?