Do you like movies that are smart, funny, have good dialogue, and no rump shots -- people keep their “threads” on? Well.....there is a topless scene in this one that caused men’s undershirt sales to drop drastically. How about a film from the 1930s which was the template for all the romantic comedies that came after it?
It Happened One Night was released in 1934 right in the middle of the Depression and people saved their egg money and flocked to it because it gave them a short respite from what was going on in their world. Films like this one and My Man Godfrey poked fun at the rich and almost every Frank Capra film ever made tells the tale of the “common man” who always fought the good fight and persevered over adversity.
Did I mention this one won five Oscars and has Clark Cable shirtless in it? Yep, the Gone With the Wind guy – though the role of Rhett Butler did not come to him until 1939. I don’t care that he was old enough to be my Grandpa when I first saw this film on Turner Classic Movies – Clark Gable is, was, and always will be the “cat’s meow.”
Please don’t let the age of this movie keep you away from it. Let this one give you the inspiration to watch more of these “old flicks” to discover where the ideas for the “new flicks” originally came from and for the joy of watching good actors do their work.
Quotes
Alexander Andrews: Oh, er, do you mind if I ask you a question, frankly? Do you love my daughter?
It Happened One Night was released in 1934 right in the middle of the Depression and people saved their egg money and flocked to it because it gave them a short respite from what was going on in their world. Films like this one and My Man Godfrey poked fun at the rich and almost every Frank Capra film ever made tells the tale of the “common man” who always fought the good fight and persevered over adversity.
Did I mention this one won five Oscars and has Clark Cable shirtless in it? Yep, the Gone With the Wind guy – though the role of Rhett Butler did not come to him until 1939. I don’t care that he was old enough to be my Grandpa when I first saw this film on Turner Classic Movies – Clark Gable is, was, and always will be the “cat’s meow.”
Please don’t let the age of this movie keep you away from it. Let this one give you the inspiration to watch more of these “old flicks” to discover where the ideas for the “new flicks” originally came from and for the joy of watching good actors do their work.
Quotes
Alexander Andrews: Oh, er, do you mind if I ask you a question, frankly? Do you love my daughter?
Peter Warne: Any guy that'd fall in love with your daughter ought to have his head examined.
Alexander Andrews: Now that's an evasion!
Peter Warne: She picked herself a perfect running mate - King Westley - the pill of the century! What she needs is a guy that'd take a sock at her once a day, whether it's coming to her or not. If you had half the brains you're supposed to have, you'd done it yourself, long ago.
Alexander Andrews: Do you love her?
Peter Warne: A normal human being couldn't live under the same roof with her without going nutty! She's my idea of nothing!
Alexander Andrews: I asked you a simple question! Do you love her?
Peter Warne: YES! But don't hold that against me, I'm a little screwy myself!
Plot Summary
Tired of always being told what to do, society princess Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) rebels and marries a “gold digger” named “King” Westley (Jameson Thomas) against the wishes of her wealthy father Alexander Andrews (Walter Connolly). Mr. Andrews manages to bring his daughter back home before the honeymoon, but she runs away again – making the headlines of all the major newspapers throughout the country. Frantic to find his daughter before she actually “does the deed” with King and ruins her chances for love and happiness with someone who wants her for her, not her father’s money, Mr. Andrews offers a reward for her safe return.
On the lam and making her way back to King she boards a bus where she meets Peter Warne, a newspaper reporter who is always one step away from being fired and re-hired by his kind, but hot-headed editor. Peter recognizes her and offers her a deal. He wants the exclusive rights to her story and if she agrees he will help her find her way back to Westley. If she does not agree he tells Ellie he will call her father and collect the reward money. She takes the deal and the adventure (and misadventures) begins.
Life Lessons
I have a senior friend named Bob who grew up on a farm in Illinois during the Depression. He said, “Sue we were all poor, but none of us knew it because everyone one else was in the same boat.”
My dad’s family fared pretty well during that time period because my great grandpa and my grandpa had been businessmen in the small community of Melrose, Iowa. In the ‘30s you couldn’t throw a rock in that town and not hit one of my relatives. You might remember them, let’s see there was Red Bob (my dad’s cousin), Black Bob (my dad’s brother), Babe (my dad), and then that guy Chicken poop (dad’s other cousin). There were lots of Parks places in that little Irish town over the years – the livery stable, post office, a general store, wool business, a small farm with chickens and eggs, and large gardens – all family owned and while the Depression was not easy and they were not rich, they didn’t go without.
My mother’s family did not fare as well. My grandfather chose to leave his prosperous family (they were in the construction business and the family story is they helped build their stretch of Route 66) in Illinois in the 1910s – 20s. He followed the adage “go west young man,” and completely left his life in Illinois behind, and gypsy that he was, after a stint as a dynamiter out west, hired out as a farm hand at various farms throughout the Midwest. He was educated, a math whiz, an amazing storyteller, and he married my grandmother right out of the catholic orphanage she was raised in. Mom tells the story of a period when she was little where her family lived off onions, their garden, and beans if they were lucky. Mom said, unflattering homemade flour sack undies aside, it wasn’t all bad, neighbors helped each other and people made it through.
Make no mistake though, the Depression left its mark on that generation of folks and they learned early on about what “making do” was all about. Did your parents or grandparents save bits of soap in a jar, string around an old farmer’s match box, Montgomery Ward catalogs for those long and sometimes cold journey to the small house on the hill - one or two-holers that were homes for wasp nests and spiders during the summer? Mine were like that too, they hated to throw anything out – everything was utilized and to throw away a piece of cooked corn on the cob when it could be reheated and used for tomorrow’s lunch was a crime against humanity.
The Depression was like that – it showed what people were made of. Some people lost everything and it broke them, but most people, like my parents, your grandparents, or your great great grandparents just put one foot in front of the other and kept going, having faith that their economic troubles were temporary and better times were just around the corner.
Dr. Seuss is timeless and I love his philosophy about troubles, maybe you’ll like it too – here it is:
Plot Summary
Tired of always being told what to do, society princess Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) rebels and marries a “gold digger” named “King” Westley (Jameson Thomas) against the wishes of her wealthy father Alexander Andrews (Walter Connolly). Mr. Andrews manages to bring his daughter back home before the honeymoon, but she runs away again – making the headlines of all the major newspapers throughout the country. Frantic to find his daughter before she actually “does the deed” with King and ruins her chances for love and happiness with someone who wants her for her, not her father’s money, Mr. Andrews offers a reward for her safe return.
On the lam and making her way back to King she boards a bus where she meets Peter Warne, a newspaper reporter who is always one step away from being fired and re-hired by his kind, but hot-headed editor. Peter recognizes her and offers her a deal. He wants the exclusive rights to her story and if she agrees he will help her find her way back to Westley. If she does not agree he tells Ellie he will call her father and collect the reward money. She takes the deal and the adventure (and misadventures) begins.
Life Lessons
I have a senior friend named Bob who grew up on a farm in Illinois during the Depression. He said, “Sue we were all poor, but none of us knew it because everyone one else was in the same boat.”
My dad’s family fared pretty well during that time period because my great grandpa and my grandpa had been businessmen in the small community of Melrose, Iowa. In the ‘30s you couldn’t throw a rock in that town and not hit one of my relatives. You might remember them, let’s see there was Red Bob (my dad’s cousin), Black Bob (my dad’s brother), Babe (my dad), and then that guy Chicken poop (dad’s other cousin). There were lots of Parks places in that little Irish town over the years – the livery stable, post office, a general store, wool business, a small farm with chickens and eggs, and large gardens – all family owned and while the Depression was not easy and they were not rich, they didn’t go without.
My mother’s family did not fare as well. My grandfather chose to leave his prosperous family (they were in the construction business and the family story is they helped build their stretch of Route 66) in Illinois in the 1910s – 20s. He followed the adage “go west young man,” and completely left his life in Illinois behind, and gypsy that he was, after a stint as a dynamiter out west, hired out as a farm hand at various farms throughout the Midwest. He was educated, a math whiz, an amazing storyteller, and he married my grandmother right out of the catholic orphanage she was raised in. Mom tells the story of a period when she was little where her family lived off onions, their garden, and beans if they were lucky. Mom said, unflattering homemade flour sack undies aside, it wasn’t all bad, neighbors helped each other and people made it through.
Make no mistake though, the Depression left its mark on that generation of folks and they learned early on about what “making do” was all about. Did your parents or grandparents save bits of soap in a jar, string around an old farmer’s match box, Montgomery Ward catalogs for those long and sometimes cold journey to the small house on the hill - one or two-holers that were homes for wasp nests and spiders during the summer? Mine were like that too, they hated to throw anything out – everything was utilized and to throw away a piece of cooked corn on the cob when it could be reheated and used for tomorrow’s lunch was a crime against humanity.
The Depression was like that – it showed what people were made of. Some people lost everything and it broke them, but most people, like my parents, your grandparents, or your great great grandparents just put one foot in front of the other and kept going, having faith that their economic troubles were temporary and better times were just around the corner.
Dr. Seuss is timeless and I love his philosophy about troubles, maybe you’ll like it too – here it is:
“I have heard there are troubles of more than one kind.
Some come from ahead and some come from behind.
But I've bought a big bat. I'm all ready you see.
Now my troubles are going to have troubles with me!”
~Dr. Seuss
It Happened One Night Movie Cast
· Clark Gable as Peter Warne
· Claudette Colbert as Ellie Andrews
· Walter Connolly as Alexander Andrews
· Roscoe Karns as Oscar Shapeley
· Jameson Thomas as “King” Westley
· Charles Wilson as Joe Gordon
· Alan Hale (Sr.) as the light-fingered motorist
· And Others
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