It Happened One Night

1934 romantic comedy

Rating: 16/20

Plot: A newsman and a spoiled woman fleeing from a rich father meet and fall in love in a 1930's movie way.

"When a cold mama gets hot, boy, how she sizzles."

It's always a surprise to me when I like any movie from the 1930s, my least favorite decade for cinema. When I do, they're usually either made by Chaplin or it's a romantic screwball comedy. This wasn't made by Chaplin, probably because he couldn't stand carrots, so it must be a romantic screwball comedy. It's at least screwballish.

I wonder if those MAGA folk long for a time like this, those days when calling somebody "hooey" really had an impact. Those days when a woman needed a male movie star to come to their physical, mental, and spiritual rescue. Those days when cold mamas would get hot and sizzle. I'm not MAGA folk, but I do appreciate glimpses of simpler times. It's fun watching a true movie star like Clark Gable fast-talkin' his way out of jams and engaging in passionate discussions about piggy-backing, hitchhiking strategies, and the differences in doughnut dunking. This is a time when people fell madly in love within a few hours, and it seems so much more complicated now. I mean, apps are even required these days. In a movie like this, it's hard not to appreciate the banter, the kind craved by moviegoers still getting used to talkies and craving that sort of thing. It's hard to imagine anybody ever talking like the characters in this movie, banter that often makes them seem borderline schizophrenic.

My favorite moments in this might be when characters burst into song. It Happened One Night isn't a musical, but there's a fantastic sing-a-long during a bus trip with "Man on the Flying Trapeze." I've been on exactly one fairly lengthy bus ride, from Indianapolis to Knoxville, and it was one of the most excruciating experiences of my entire life. Maybe a spontaneous sing-a-long would have eased my pain, just like it had to have for these people trudging through a Great Depression. If I'm ever on a bus again, I'm going to get a sing-a-long going.

More musical moments involved Danker, a jovial fellow who picks the couple up when they're hitchhiking. He sings about "hitchhiking on the highway of love," how "people in love are very seldom hungry," and even his tonsils, all extemporaneously. Although this character later reveals himself to be a real son of a bitch, I'd imagine it would be difficult to be too angry at the guy. who can freestyle croon like Danker. "Shucks, that singing motherfucker is driving off with our luggage and leaving us in a pickle? What a load of hooey!"

I'm not sure if there's any real chemistry between Gable and Claudette Colbert or not, but they're both likable enough. Colbert's best moment has more to do with Capra's hammy direction than anything she's doing--a great end to a scene where it fades to black except for a single tear. As always, I did my best to imagine the two of them having sex since it's not something that's typically shown in a 1930's romantic comedy, and it didn't keep me up very long. I would have been fairly benign sex, I'd think, but maybe you'd expect more when their foreplay involves a trumpet.

People with toy trumpets are very seldom horny.

The above fact about Charlie Chaplin having something against carrots is likely made up. You should look that one up before trying to impress somebody with this bit of Chaplin trivia.