Flashback Friday: It Happened One Night (Capra, 1934)

There are five Academy Awards that are considered to be the most prestigous: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor in a Leading Role, Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Best Screenplay. They are the oldest and most enduring prizes given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Together, they make up "The Big Five" Oscars. Sweeping "The Big Five" is a very rare and distinctive milestone. The Holy Grail of Academy honors, only three films in the eighty-four years of Academy history have ever won this honor; the most recent was in 1991, when The Silence of the Lambs took "The Big Five". Before that, 1975's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest shared the honor with only one other movie, with a gap of almost forty-one years separating them. The original winner was also the first comedy to win the night's biggest award. So today, we're finishing off our Best Picture Flashback Friday series with the 1934 "Big Five" winner, It Happened One Night.

Though it ultimately became one of director Frank Capra's biggest success stories, It Happened One Night was initially perceived as a failure. Infamous for it's troubled production and initially mixed reception, the movie bounced back better than most films ever hope to. Released before the extreme  enforcement of the Motion Picture Production "Hays" Code (the governmental censorship of films that made them "appropriate" with little-to-no provocative content), It Happened One Night remains one of the earliest and most popular romantic comedies of all time.

The movie tells the story of the bratty Ellen "Ellie" Andrews (Claudette Colbert), who runs away from home after her wealthy father (Walter Connolly) annuls her marriage to a man named Westley (Jameson Thomas). On the bus that will take her to her husband, Ellie meets newspaper reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable), who recognizes her celebrity status immediately. Peter blackmails Ellie to give him an exclusive story in exchange for him taking her to see Westley; or, he will take her back to her father in exchange for the reward he's offering for his daughter's return. Ellie reluctantly agrees to Peter's deal. 

Ellie, used to her spoiled and rich lifestyle, has trouble adjusting to living life on-the-go. She comes to totally totally depend on Peter's street smarts, and together they have several misadventures on the quest to find Westley. The bus they travel on has several mechanical issues, and the pair frequently has to stop and find their own way to Ellie's husband. On their comedic and screwball journey, Ellie and Peter eventually begin to fall in love.

It Happened One Night was a nightmare for Capra. He wanted neither Gable and Colbert to be involved in the production, but after several rejections by his first choices, he eventually agreed to cast them. During the 1930's, Hollywood was still under the Studio System, in which the five major studios controlled the actors involved with their films. All actors were under contract to do a certain amount of motion pictures with the same studio, but the studio could "loan" them out if there was no need for them at the time. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer did this with Clark Gable, and "loaned" him out to small-time studio Columbia Pictures for a minor profit. Claudette Colbert was cast by producer Harry Cohn, even though Colbert never wanted to work with Capra again after the disastrous For the Love of Mike. She accepted only with a gigantic salary and shortened production schedule.

Gable and Colbert became friends during the filming of the movie, initially hating the script together. However, after a few days of production, they eventually agreed that the movie could not be worse than some of their first films. Gable and Capra both played practical jokes on Colbert throughout filming to lighten her mood. And even though Colbert and Capra argued throughout filming, she eventually thanked her director after she won the Oscar.

The movie is influential for it's famous hitchhiking scene, in which Ellie flashes her leg to catch a ride. A double was supposed to perform the hiking-up of the pants, but Colbert was so furious with the double's performance that she did it herself. Also, the film featured a scene where Gable takes his shirt off to reveal he was not wearing an undershirt. His "bare chest" masculinity, according to legend, led to the brief decline in men's undershirt sales. Bus travel also skyrocketed after the movie was released. Other scenes, like the curtain between the beds and the abandoned wedding premise, have been used dozens of times since the movie's release to almost cliche effects.

The movie received mixed reviews during the initial release, with the two leads and director both expressing dissatisfaction with the final product. However, after a few weeks in theaters, audiences began to flock to the picture. It became a huge hit for both Columbia Pictures and Frank Capra.

It Happened One Night was nominated for five Oscars, sweeping "The Big Five": Best Picture (Frank Capra and Harry Cohn), Best Director (Frank Capra), Best Actor (Clark Gable), Best Actress (Claudette Colbert), and Best Screenplay (Robert Riskin). After the 7th Academy Awards ceremony, and a late appearance by winner Colbert, Clark Gable gave his Oscar to a young boy. Gable promised that winning the award was much more important than the statue itself. The boy, several years later, gave the statue back to the Gable family after Clark's death.

Other nominees that year included Claudette Colbert's own Cleopatra (made before the Elizabeth Taylor version), Imitation of Life, and The Thin Man. With the exception of possibly The Thin Man, no other movie has stood the test of time as considerably as It Happened One Night. Today, the film is considered to be one of the best romantic comedies of all time, landing the number three spot on the American Film Institute's Ten Top Ten: Romantic Comedies of All Time. The movie also appears on AFI's lists of the greatest comedies, romances, and movies ever made.

A fun Oscar movie, and influential for it's "Big Five" win, It Happened One Night is an important milestone in Academy Award achievements. It's an enjoyable comedy that holds it's own against the best movies ever made. Be sure to check out this "Big Five" winner.

Join us on the next Flashback Friday for a look back at the 84th Academy Awards ceremony, all leading up to the 85th Academy Awards, on Sunday, February 24 at 8 P.M. on ABC!