Review of It Happened One Night (1958) by Darryl S — 17 Aug 2014

Never caught this much-loved comedy. Now, I see it'll be getting the Criterion white-glove treatment by year's end. Ironically, it just so happened to pop-up on TCM, so I decided to give this old gal a looksie.

... Frankly, I'm not much of a fan of "breezy" road-trip shows. And my proclivity doesn't change here. Alas, this award-winner just simply has too many implausibilities for my taste. The variety of scenarios these two main characters go through in a course of several days is just too unrealistic.

I know, I know.... I'm supposed to simply not look at this realistically, but simply go with the flow of snappy dialog and old-fashioned charm. And, to be honest, I did sit through the entire film, compelled to see if there would be any detour to what I viewed as its predictable trajectory.

No such detour(s). That said, there was a certain charm to the hamminess of the actors' performances, and slap-dash vignettes. Reading the "inside scoop" of how this film inevitably came about (on Wikipedia) did give me more interest than I may not have had initially.

In short, I'm glad I've finally watched It Happened One Night. It made for a breezy hour and a-half for what was a couch-potato evening.... :).