Watch It Happened One Night For Free

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It’s not bad or unwatchable but despite the amplitude of the spectacle, the end result is underwhelming.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

It's been over eighty years since It Happened One Night debuted on screens and still, it remains the quintessential romantic comedy to watch. While being the influence of countless films since, It Happened One Night is triumphant and timeless because of its great cast, director, and script. At the start of the film, we see the beautiful Ellen Andrews (Claudette Colbert) in Florida aboard her wealthy father's luxury boat. Ellen is planning to marry King Westley, but her father disapproves of him and forces her to stay on the boat until he can find someone more suitable to his liking. This leads her to run away and seek out Westly herself while her father puts out a highly publicized bounty for her return. She boards a bus to New York and crosses paths with the charismatic Peter Warne (Clark Gable). He's a gifted newspaper reporter who also has a drinking problem that constantly gets him in trouble. Once Warne figures out who Ellen really is, he proposes a plan to her. He will escort her to New York for the rights to her story, which has become a national headline. While the seemingly mismatched pair goes on an adventure they eventually warm up and become close. The plot flies at a free-flowing pace that allows for wickedly good one-liners. The script is fantastic and allows for great comedic timing and also a sense of drama. There is a bit of suspense as the will-they won't-they couple explore their feelings for each other. While watching the film you get the sense that they will end up together, but it's never fully guaranteed and leaves room for you to doubt. We meet several supporting characters that mostly never overstay their welcomes, such as the bumbling Shapeley and boisterous Zeke. They are great in the small amount of time they get and don't distract from the main narrative. One minor problem with the story is that the geography is very confusing. The audience is left out of the loop when it comes to knowing where exactly the leads are. This makes it hard to track the importance of each setting.This is the prime example and maybe founding of the screwball comedy. Screwball comedies tell the story of two leads (often an unmarried man and woman) that come from different social classes and how they interact with each other based on their previous lifestyles. If you like films such as Heaven Can Wait and Raising Arizona, you should thank this film for popularizing the genre. Frank Capra won the academy award for Best Director for this film and he totally deserved it. He balances his cast well and allows them to have total freedom within the cramped space of the frame. He pushes the camera for claustrophobic scenes that force the actors to work together to make the physical comedy work. The acting is the definite draw and best part of the film. Both Gable and Colbert took home academy awards for their performances. Gable will go down as one of the best romantic leads ever. He's handsome, quick on his feet, and witty. He also delivers the perfect one-liners with confidence and swagger to make women want him and men to want to be him. Colbert does an excellent job as the uptight and bratty female that so many leading ladies are still trying to replicate almost eighty years later. She perfectly embodies a rich girl that is out of her element while in the real world. She bounces off Gable's laid back working man character with ease and her one-liners are just as good or even better than his. Walter Connolly also does a good job as Ellie's wealthy father, Alexander Andrews. He plays the overprotective but also understanding father. At first, he wants Ellen to marry someone rich and famous in order to boost his social status, but after seeing her unhappiness he changes and sees the errors of his ways. He's one of those fathers that every girl wants and every man should strive to be. It Happened One Night is the biggest influence on the romantic comedy genre. Having the great pair of Gable and Colbert, and Capra as the director lifts this film to the heavens of classic cinema. Even in 2017 the film is still fun and can be used to teach writers how to create good comedy.

A young woman from a wealthy background cracks under the pressure of her demanding lifestyle and runs away. On her way she meets a struggling reporter, who decides to stick with her with a story in mind. Together they experience the joys of life. If this sounds vaguely familiar, it might be because you've seen the 1953 classic, Roman Holiday, the plot of which fits the exact same description. This came first, however.The are also differences. Whereas Roman Holiday is a pretty clear romantic city comedy, this movie can best be described as a road trip movie. It's also a bit more dramatic, or at least not as clearly a comedy. Overall I find Roman Holiday to be the superior film, but that's mainly due to the strength of its main leads. It Happened One Night certainly has star power going for it, with Clark Gable proving himself Gregory Peck's equal in all ways that matter. But if you were to tell me Claudette Colbert was just as good in this as Audrey Hepburn was in Roman Holiday, I'd punch you. Not that Colbert is bad, mind you, but her character is written pretty passive. I blame mostly the era, but the problem still exists.Nevertheless, I do like this film. Frank Capra's light, idealistic world view is evident throughout and it's just such a joy to experience. In his world people still believe is basic goodness and there are no true villains. Or if there are, there are also plenty of people to laugh at them or to thwart their evil schemes. What can I say, they don't make movies like these anymore. An attempt to make a movie such as this nowadays just wouldn't fly. It would be seen as too naive. Its dialogue as too corny, its characters as lacking humane flaws. But in denying ourselves films such as these, we're losing something. Whether its simple honesty or something else. But we're losing it.And that's a shame.

It Happened One Night (1934) **** (out of 4) Ellie (Claudette Colbert) is a rich, spoiled brat who runs away from her father (Walter Connolly) after he objects to her runaway marriage. Soon she is out on the road trying to get back to New York when she runs across Peter (Clark Gable), a man who recently quit his job at the newspaper. Peter and Ellie can't stand one another but he agrees to help her reach New York in exchange for an exclusive story.Frank Capra ended up winning Best Director and the picture ending up nabbing all the major awards, which was the first time this had ever been done and it wouldn't happen again until ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST did it fifty years later. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT is a film that has been copies dozens if not hundreds of times over the years so it's easy to look at it and not see anything original but in 1934 this here was original material and it's easy to see why it was a box office hit and walked away with so many Oscars.It's funny to think that Columbia approached this as a "B" movie but it shows what a great director can do with a good story and a wonderful cast. There's no question that Capra's magical touch is all over this film and especially when you see the way it is edited and how it goes for its laughs. There are some hilarious moments scattered throughout the film including the now legendary hitchhiking scene but there's another hilarious and more quiet moment dealing with Gable scaring someone who is trying to work his way in on the reward money.What makes this film so memorable is the fact that you get two superb performances from the two lead legends. Colbert was already a star by the time this came out but she's perfect in the role of the brat who slowly begins to realize that she's been seeing the world in the wrong way. The film also offers up fine support from the likes of Connolly and Roscoe Karns. With that said, it's Gable who steals the picture and it's easy to see why his career never looked back after this. His comic timing is simply flawless throughout and the toughness he brings to this "charming" character is something most actors wouldn't have been able to pull off. The chemistry between the two leads certainly make the picture.I do think there are some flaws with the picture including it running five or ten-minutes too long. I think the predictable ending could have happened a little quicker but this is just a minor issue in an otherwise terrific film. IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT is a landmark in Hollywood history and it deserves its reputation.

Spoilers. Observations. Opinions.Clark and Claudette are excellent. I had put off seeing this film, because I thought that besides the leg-flashing hitchhiking part there must not be much interesting stuff in this movie.I finally watched it. It held my interest all the way through. It was funny and hilarious in places.Westley looked old enough to be Claudette's father. At the beginning, I thought Claudette was marrying her father's friend, another "old" man.Good to see Ward Bond, and an earlier version of tough looking Greyhound bus.Shapely was annoying, as he was supposed to be. The actor essayed the part well. Shapely believed it when Clark inferred that Shapely's children could end up being hurt. Hilarious! Tough guy Clark.Yes, I am interspersing the names of actors and characters.The father, in the end, paying off Westley, was a good move. This is part of the denouement of tying up the loose ends of the story. Clark, waiting in the car while the marriage ceremony was supposed to start, surely peeled off quite fast after that wonderful scene of Claudette running to meet him in her beautiful white wedding gown and veil.A singing Alan Hale was also hilarious. He was annoying to his passengers. He was the one whose car Claudette stopped when she raised up her skirt to her upper leg. Clark had failed in his ride-thumbing lessons; he couldn't flag down a car to save his neck.Clark pretended to be hard boiled, and Claudette pretended to be disinterested. Later, they had a meeting of the minds, er, hearts.This is a pre-code film. Pre-code films existed from near the beginning of sound films to around mid 1934. Pre-code allowed more sexuality, sexual innuendoes, adultery, violence, etc., than were allowed after this period. Church groups, moralists and Hollywood censors took care of that. Some pre-code things I noticed: motel managers wondered if sleepers Clark and Claudette were married. Claudette removed her clothes down to her slip. Clark showed his bare chest to Claudette. The beds were separate, and separated by a blanket draped over a rope, but they were in the same bedroom. Even Claudette raising her skirt up high on her thigh got a lot of the audience's attention when this film was new.