It Happened One Night

Frank Capra, 1934

This film is about a spoiled, rich young woman named Millie (Claudette Colbert) and her desire for freedom. At the beginning of the film we watch Millie being held against her will on her father’s yacht; she goes on a hunger strike, refusing to eat until her father allows her to leave his ship and go back to the man she has recently married, an aviator named King Westley. When her father continuously ignores her request, has her marriage annulled, and then slaps Millie in the face, she jumps ship and finds herself ashore looking for a ride.

Eventually Millie runs into recently fired newspaper reporter and ne’er-do-well Peter Warne (Clark Gable). Warne sees Millie as his meal ticket back to success. Seeing how her running away from her father to King would make a great story, Warne offers his help to Millie only if he can tag along—otherwise, he will spill the beans on the entire operation. Millie, seeing that she has no choice, agrees and their adventure to New York begins.

This film is a classic romantic comedy of its time. The behaviors and actions the audience is supposed to find romantic include:a father slapping his daughter’s face, but only out of frustration and love; a stranger (/Gable) following a young woman on her way to New York; the same man telling her to shut up and telling her how she is going to behave, but only for her own protection; Mille (Colbert) actually liking being “looked after” even when she pretends she doesn’t; and eventually the falling-in-love of the two fugitives.

Like most romantic comedies of this era, the leading woman is basically made an infant depending on-- or in Millie’s case, stubbornly depending on-- the kindness of a stranger who is of course a man. Within the first 20 minutes of the film, Warne rescues or tries to rescue Millie at least four times. I find this very unbelievable seeing as how this is the same woman (not girl) who stood up to her father and even jumped off of a boat into an ocean and swam ashore all on her own. To counteract this the movie relies on the fact that she is in fact rich and spoiled. Knowing this, we the audience shouldn’t expect her to know how to keep up with her luggage, know what time her train leaves, or to even keep up with her ticket. How poor Millie has not been eaten by wolves up until now, I just don’t know.

For all of Millie’s faults, by the middle of the film we begin to see Warne’s cold heart towards Millie melt a little bit. He, like the audience, sees her softer side, her “I’m not just some selfish-rich-idiot side,” and he likes what he sees. This however, is problematic because he knows he has a job to do, and she is his golden ticket back to being a golden-boy at the newspaper where he once held a job.

As this is a classic film of the 1930’s, Millie and Warne eventually fall inlove and are no longer afraid to say this to one another; they are married, and are finally able to “let the walls of Jericho fall” –you’ll have to watch the movie to understand that reference.

With all of this film’s flaws, I give this movie, for its era, two thumbs up.

Tearene Weaver