Review of It Happened One Night (1958) by Rick R — 10 Jun 2009

It Happened One Night (1934).

A lot of people think that Clark Gable made it big after playing the gangster who pushes Norma Shearer on the couch in A Free Soul (1931) and telling her that you're mine, you got that? Personally, I think that Gable really came into his own after making It Happened One Night on loan to Columbia pictures. It was after this movie, that MGM basically wrote that same character into all of his scripts from there on out. What ever works for you.

Gable plays Peter, a newly fired reporter for a New York newspaper who meets Ellen Andrews (Claudette Colbert) on a bus heading back to her newly eloped playboy husband, King Westley (Jameson Thomas) to the disappointment of her rich Father (Walter Connolly).

Ellen is a spoiled little rich girl, and is completely clueless to the ways of the common folk, so Peter offers to take her back to King Westley in exchange for an exclusive story about her. Through all of these adventures, and growing sexual tension, Peter and Ellie find that they're falling in love with each other.

There are many memorable scenes with this movie. The famous stripping scene next to the "Walls of Jericho", the hitch hiking scene where the leg is more powerful than the thumb, and the Flying Trapeze sing-along on the bus, all make this a movie to add to your DVD collection.