It Happened One Night - Winner 1935

A.O. Scott recently wrote a excellent analysis of the Romantic Comedy for the New York Times which I encourage you to read because when it comes to analysis I'm always floored and envious of Mr. Scott's learning and insight(A Fine Romance, My Friend, This Is). In this piece, Scott mentioned the film It Happened One Night which by extraordinary coincidence reached the top of my Netflix queue a few days later.

Claudette Colbert plays Ellie, a daughter of a wealthy business man who has secretly married a wealthy New York playboy. Her father keeps her trapped on a boat until she escapes and begins to head north to be reunited with her husband. Along the way she meets Peter (Clark Gable) a down on his luck newspaper reporter. His initial attraction to her spitfire attitude is changed when he discovers who she is and knows he is sitting on a goldmine of a story. He aids her in her trip north in order to get exclusive rights to her stories.

They have a pretty typical introduction to each other (what we usually call today a "meet cute") and of course experience many misadventures along the way. In fact I was a little surprised by how this pretty much fell in line with what I would describe as a conventional romantic comedy. But beyond a conventional plot, the movie doesn't try to be anything more than it is. It relies on its actors to play the characters they have been given and they do this well. It has some nice snappy dialog between Gable and Colbert. There are a few songs keeping the mood light but most decently integrated into the film.

Its an overall generally charming film. The leads are great together in their charm. There are several charming scenes including the dividing of a motel room with a piece of string and a banquet and a great scene taking place near hay stacks on a farm. Its a competently directed charming film that won best picture which shows you how things have changed since I doubt any similar film could do as much in these days (although I suppose a Juno win (no matter how much it would sicken me) would prove me wrong). Still if I'm going for charm, this one falls short of The Thin Man which had the brilliant banter between William Powell and Myrna Loy.