It Happened One Night (B+ or 3.5/4 stars)
'It Happened One Night' (an acclaimed comedy directed by the great Frank Capra; and winner of winner of 5(!) Academy Awards including Best Picture, Director, Actress, Actor & Screenplay), stars film legends Clark Gable & Claudette Colbert. Colbert plays Ellie Andrews a spoiled rich/snobbish society woman & heiress who has run away from her father's (Walter Connolly) security blanket by eloping with her fortune-hunting pilot fiancee, King Westley (Jameson Thomas). Her father keeps her captive in his fancy Miami docked yacht after making it vague if her marriage is actually legal.
But she escapes said yacht to catch a NY-bound Greyhound bus to join her hubby for a more official wedding at a church. Aboard the bus, she is seated next to the smooth-talking, ruthless - and poor, but honest - unemployed news reporter, Peter Warne (Gable). This rather forceful reporter is traveling to NY to get back in the business after recently being fired for getting a little too boozy on the job. When he reads in the newspaper about the heiress' sudden disappearance, he strikes a deal with her that he won't tell the authorities her whereabouts ... if she helps by giving him an exclusive on her story.
At 1st they cannot stand each other; going to great lengths to insult the other in tandem. But soon enough, they lighten up, as he shows her how to dunk donuts and, well, him baring his chest didn't hurt, either. Though they are complete opposites in personality & class, they not-so-shockingly become attracted to each other.
This screwball comedy is probably the FIRST of its kind, which makes it quite a film of distinction. And it contains many classic set pieces - Claudette Colbert baring her legs to hitch a ride, & Clark Gable hanging a blanket across the room so as to separate their sleeping quarters. It is during the climax where Ellie must make her big decision: go through with the church wedding to her hubby ... or have the marriage annulled so she can be with Peter.
Gable makes for a dashing, devilish, wisecracky hero. Colbert blends the 'poor little rich girl' with real comedic chops & emotional vulnerability. The plot can get a bit nonsensical at times, but that simply does not matter because the 2 stars exhibit such great bickering-turned-amorous chemistry that we're down for whatever comes their way, plot-wise. And the dialogues btwn. them crackle with wit & simmering tensions. 'THON' is just a very humorous, breezy, & surprisingly sophisticated comedy that hit the spot with the Depression era audiences and ... it still enchants today.
But she escapes said yacht to catch a NY-bound Greyhound bus to join her hubby for a more official wedding at a church. Aboard the bus, she is seated next to the smooth-talking, ruthless - and poor, but honest - unemployed news reporter, Peter Warne (Gable). This rather forceful reporter is traveling to NY to get back in the business after recently being fired for getting a little too boozy on the job. When he reads in the newspaper about the heiress' sudden disappearance, he strikes a deal with her that he won't tell the authorities her whereabouts ... if she helps by giving him an exclusive on her story.
At 1st they cannot stand each other; going to great lengths to insult the other in tandem. But soon enough, they lighten up, as he shows her how to dunk donuts and, well, him baring his chest didn't hurt, either. Though they are complete opposites in personality & class, they not-so-shockingly become attracted to each other.
This screwball comedy is probably the FIRST of its kind, which makes it quite a film of distinction. And it contains many classic set pieces - Claudette Colbert baring her legs to hitch a ride, & Clark Gable hanging a blanket across the room so as to separate their sleeping quarters. It is during the climax where Ellie must make her big decision: go through with the church wedding to her hubby ... or have the marriage annulled so she can be with Peter.
Gable makes for a dashing, devilish, wisecracky hero. Colbert blends the 'poor little rich girl' with real comedic chops & emotional vulnerability. The plot can get a bit nonsensical at times, but that simply does not matter because the 2 stars exhibit such great bickering-turned-amorous chemistry that we're down for whatever comes their way, plot-wise. And the dialogues btwn. them crackle with wit & simmering tensions. 'THON' is just a very humorous, breezy, & surprisingly sophisticated comedy that hit the spot with the Depression era audiences and ... it still enchants today.