It Happened One Night

The latest victim of my current black and white movie spree, It Happened One Night is an absolute gem. Smartly turned out and snappily executed, it almost made it to the top of my ancient and creaky films list (My heart still belongs to On the Waterfront, or rather, a young Marlon Brando).

It Happened One Night follows Ellie Andrews, the Paris Hilton of yesteryear, as she fumbles her way through crowded bus stations, woodsy cabins, and toppling haystacks. What's so refreshing about this flick is that the spoiled brat is given a dressing down in the most elegant way possible by Rhett Butler...ahem...Clark Gable. As the uberconfident newspaperman, Clark Gable tells it straight to Claudette Colbert. He doesn't give a damn about her feelings or sensibilities, but he is there for her every step of the way, nudging her none too gently towards independence. There's something appealing about a man who mistreats a woman for her own good, and this sentiment seems to be echoed in other movies of that era, when being a man required a fair degree of wit and callousness overlaid with impeccable manners. Other staples of the pre-1950s also include black servants and women in men's pajamas, but all of the above are simply minor inconveniences along the way.

While not nearly as caustic or sharp as Preston Sturges' masterpieces, the writers here still produce material that is light-years better than anything that's currently in vogue. As Julia pointed out to me, the technology and cost of making a motion picture eighty years ago ensured that the dialogue would be sparse and well thought out. There weren't three hour monsters back then, stuffed to the gills with inane dialogue and gratuitous pyrotechnics.

Like its predecessors, It Happened One Night is undoubtedly stylized, but the depth is still there. The acting is immensely nuanced, and there's nothing wrong with watching a feel-good movie. After watching modern masterpieces such as Amores Perros and 21 Grams, I feel like I've gone twenty rounds against Mike Tyson. Instead, I can watch an incredibly well-edited and fun piece like It Happened One Night and smile afterwards. There's romance, action, acting...what else could a girl want for ninety minutes?