It Happened One Night - NR
Common Sense Note
Parents should know that at the onset, Warne's manners toward his traveling companion leave something to be desired. "Hey, brat!" he says, and doesn't think twice about telling her to "Shut up."
Families who see this film might discuss how comedies have changed and remained the same since this 1934 film. How has slang changed? Can you figure out the meanings of unfamiliar phrases or words?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Scott G. Mignola
Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert star in this classic Frank Capra romantic comedy about an unlikely pair who fall in love on a bus trip from Florida to New York. An instant hit in 1934, it was the first movie to win all five major Academy Awards.
Fate throws an unlikely pair -- reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable) and spoiled society woman Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) -- together on a bus headed for New York. Upon learning that she's fleeing her millionaire father to be with her disapproved-of new husband, Warne smells a headline and tags after her.
The two grow close on the trip, and before they reach New York they're broke and in love.
As fresh today as it was in 1934, this sharply written comedy is great fun from setup on through its lively, suspenseful final minutes. The manic story line established the formula for screwball comedies like Bringing Up Baby with Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn.
Frank Capra was a wonderful director with a knack for squeezing the charm out of his actors, which is evident all over the place here. He and screenwriter Robert Riskin would team up again for Meet John Doe.
Here's a nugget of trivia to share with the kids: The scene in which Clark Gable eats a raw carrot helped inspire the creation of a certain cartoon rabbit. You'll notice that a fictional gangster named "Bugs Dooley" is mentioned in the movie, and that a bus passenger calls Gable "doc," even though he's not a doctor. If your kids don't make the connection, pop in Big Top Bunny afterwards. That ought to do it.
Rate It!
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Sexual ContentWhat mild suggestions there are about sexual relations -- or the lack thereof -- are discreet. |
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Social BehaviorPete Warne is not nice to Ellie Andrews, but in the end she teaches him not to judge a book by its cover. |
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