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By
NICK ZEGARAC
"It Happened One Night" is
the story of Peter Warren (Clark Gable), a
happy-go-lucky newspaper hound who discovers the
scoop of his life when his path crosses that of
missing heiress Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert).
Ellie is a head strong spoiled rich girl who has
eloped with a much older man, King Wesley (Jameson
Thomas) -- a man her father (Walter Connelly) does
not approve of. Smitten and completely void of the
inclining that King merely wants her for her
father's money, Ellie escapes her father's house
arrest and embarks on a cross country journey on a
night bus. Peter has just been fired by his editor
unless he can produce a story of merit for the
newspaper. At first, the madcap escapee heiress
seems like a prominent angle. Determined to expose
Ellie, Peter slowly finds himself falling in love
with her instead. Director Frank Capra's original
road trip gives us some classic gems, not the
least of which is Ellie hoisting her skirt past
her knee to procure a ride for her and Peter.
Not always the most congenial of stars, Claudette
Colbert had to be strong-armed by Columbia chief,
Harry Cohn to make this picture. While working,
Colbert reportedly didn't try very hard at her
part, was constantly clashing with director Capra
and, after principal photography was completed,
stormed off the set without so much as a "thank
you" -- instead declaring, "I've just made the
worst picture of my career!"
Small irony that the role Colbert disliked the
most is the one that garnered her only Best
Actress Oscar. And Gable, then dubbed the king of
Hollywood, had been loaned out by MGM as
punishment for refusing to do a part in one of
their pictures. However, when "It Happened One
Night" premiered, Gable had nose-thumbing rights.
He took home the Best Actor statuette. (Film
Factoid: the sequence in which Gable and Colbert
disrobe in preparation for going to bed created a
minor sensation in the undergarment business. When
Gable removed his top shirt to reveal that he was
not wearing an undershirt, sales of undershirts
plummeted to a record low.)
Columbia Home Video's presentation of this Academy
Award winning masterwork is rather a mixed bag of
blessings. While the film has had extensive
restoration done -- thanks in part to UCLA and to
the Library of Congress -- this DVD exhibits a
generally soft picture with slightly out of focus
images. Some scenes are so blurry that they
suggest a dupe negative was cut into the first
generation camera negative. There is some aliasing
and shimmering, as well as an almost total loss of
fine details during many of the scenes taking
place at night. Plus, there is -- at times -- an
excessive amount of film grain and some digital
grit. The soundtrack has been restored as well but
continues to exhibit a scratchy background hiss
and distracting pops. The one extra worth
mentioning is "Frank Capra Jr. Remembers..." a
snippet of a featurette in which the son of the
director talks about his father and the movie.
It's excessively short but interesting
nevertheless. |
