|
It Happened
One Night (1934)
In Frank Capra's classic Best Picture-winning screwball
romantic comedy, putting together mismatched individuals in various
uncomfortable misadventures - a spoiled socialite heiress and an
unscrupulous reporter:
- the opening scene of the flight of runaway heiress
socialite Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) from her wealthy father
Alexander Andrews' (Walter Connolly) yacht in Miami, Florida after
a temper tantrum with him: ("I come from a long line of stubborn
idiots") - she jumped off the luxury yacht in her clothes
to flee and take a Greyhound bus northward to New York to meet
up and elope with her fortune-hunting fiancee - an aviator named
King Westley (Jameson Thomas)
- the early phone booth scene in a bus station during
the firing of rogue newspaper reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable)
(nicknamed
"The King") for drunkenness on the job, who yelled at his
boss Joe Gordon (Charles C. Wilson) on the phone as a crowd gathered
outside the booth: (Peter: "In a pig's eye, you will!...Hey listen
monkey face, when you fired me, you fired the best newshound your filthy
scandal sheet ever had...That was free verse, you gashouse palooka!");
and then after his boss fired him and hung up, Warne made up the remainder
of the call for the benefit of onlookers: ("Oh, so you're changing
your tune, eh? You're a little late with your apologies. I wouldn't
go back to work for you if you begged me on your hands and knees. And
I hope this will be a lesson to you!")
- after leaving the booth, Warne took a swig from a
bottle, then told the many admiring witnesses: "We don't need
anymore of his lip...I guess he knows now, how I feel about his job....
Is my chariot ready?"; he was ushered away as they shouted and
escorted him: "Make way for the king. Make way for the king.
Long live the king"
- a long overnight bus ride to New York, beginning with
Peter's loss of his rear bus seat when Ellie sat in his place (while
he stashed his luggage) and the driver announced:
"First come, first serve"; Peter was forced to share a cramped
seat in the back; after the bus lurched forward, she fell into his
lap, and he quipped: ("Next time you drop in, bring your folks")
- the "Walls of Jericho" sequence in a rural
autocamp when Peter separated their shared twin bedroom with a clothesline
and a blanket, as Ellie dryly observed: "That, I suppose, makes
everything quite all right?"; he explained the arrangement: "Well,
I like privacy when I retire. Yes, I'm very delicate in that respect.
Prying eyes annoy me. Behold the walls of Jericho! Uh, maybe not
as thick as the ones that Joshua blew down with his trumpet, but
a lot safer. You see, uh, I have no trumpet"
- as the sequence continued, he gave her a memorable
lesson on the various ways men undress - he flirtatiously undressed
in front of her, taking one article of clothing off at a time: ("Perhaps
you're interested in how a man undresses. You know, it's a funny
thing about that. Quite a study in psychology. No two men do it alike.
You know, I once knew a man who kept his hat on until he was completely
undressed. Now he made a picture. Years later, his secret came out.
He wore a toupee. Yeah. I have a method all my own. If you notice,
the coat came first, then the tie, then the shirt. Now, uh, according
to Hoyle, after that, the, uh, pants should be next. There's where
I'm different..."); when he was in the midst of undressing,
she fled to her side of the bedroom, but he reassured her: "...you
got nothin' to worry about. The walls of Jericho will protect you
from the big bad wolf"
- Peter and Ellie's discussion in separate beds with
the lights turned out, when he introduced himself as Peter Warne
("I'm the whippoorwill that cries in the night. I'm the soft
morning breeze that caresses your lovely face...Yeah, I got a name.
Peter Warne"); when she said she didn't like his name, he responded
by suggesting a new temporary last name for her - to pretend that
they were married for the one night: ("Don't let it bother you.
You're giving it back to me in the morning...The pleasure is all
mine, Mrs. Warne")
- and later, Peter's breakfast lesson on how to dunk
donuts and how real folks eat: ("Dunking's an art. Don't let
it soak so long. A dip and (he stuffed the donut in his mouth) plop,
in your mouth. Let it hang there too long, it'll get soft and fall
off. It's all a matter of timing. Aw, I oughta write a book about
it")
- the scene of their deception of two nosy private
investigators by impersonating a make-believe, quarreling married
couple - he berated her for flirting with a "big Swede" on
the Elks' dance floor and then insulted her: ("You're just like
your old man. Once a plumber's daughter, always a plumber's daughter.
There's not an ounce of brains in your whole family"); when
the flabbergasted detectives left, the auto-camp manager commented: "I
told you they were a perfectly nice married couple"
- the busload of passengers singing "The Man on
the Flying Trapeze"
- after leaving the bus for a trek cross-country, the
scene of Peter serving as a male protector by carrying Ellie slung
over his shoulder across a moonlit stream; as he waded through the
water, he taught her yet another lesson on piggyback carrying, arguing
with her about what it takes to be a "piggy-backer" - an
ability he claimed that her family of rich people didn't have: ("I'll
bet there isn't a good piggy-back rider in your whole family. I never
knew a rich man yet who could piggy-back ride...You show me a good
piggy-backer and I'll show you a real human. Now you take Abraham
Lincoln for instance. A natural born piggy-backer. Where do you get
all of that stuffed-shirts family of yours?")
- the thumb vs. show-some-leg hitchhiking technique
scene at the side of the road; Peter condescendingly lectured Ellie:
("It's all in that ol' thumb, see?...that ol' thumb never
fails. It's all a matter of how you do it, though"); after
a detailed lecture on the three proper and correct ways that common
people hail passing cars while thumb hitchhiking, he failed miserably
and she suggested her method: ("Oh, you're such a smart alec.
Nobody knows anything but you. I'll stop a car and I won't use
my thumb...It's a system all my own") - she provocatively
raised her skirt above the knee, exposing a shapely, stockinged
leg and garter - an immediately effective technique - the next
car screeched to a halt; she joked: ("Well, I proved once
and for all that the limb is mightier than the thumb"); he
quipped back: ("Why didn't you take off all your clothes?
You could have stopped forty cars")
- the night-time scene of Peter's idealistic speech
to Ellie, as they both were outstretched on adjacent beds, when he
described a dream of a Pacific island paradise where social pressures
and restrictions would disappear, and he could live with a woman
isolated from the world's worries: ("Sure, I've thought about
it. Who hasn't? If I could ever meet the right sort of girl. Ahh,
where you gonna find her? Somebody that's real, somebody that's alive!
They don't come like that way anymore. Have I ever thought about
it? Boy, I've even been sucker enough to make plans. You know, I
saw an island in the Pacific once. I've never been able to forget
it. That's where I'd like to take her. She'd have to be the sort
of a girl who'd jump in the surf with me and love it as much as I
did. Nights when you and the moon and the water all become one. You
feel you're part of something big and marvelous. That's the only
place to live. The stars are so close over your head you feel you
could reach up and stir them around. Certainly, I've been thinking
about it. Boy, if I could ever find a girl who was hungry for those
things..."); Ellie responded with wet eyes and love for him
("Take me with you, Peter. Take me to your island. I want to
do all those things you talked about"), but he was taken aback
by her love for him and told her twice:
"You'd better go back to your bed," where she cried herself
to sleep
- the aborted wedding scene when Ellie fled from the
altar of her wedding as a runaway bride with her long veil trailing
behind
- the last scene, set in another autocamp, this time
in Michigan, with Peter and Ellie in possession of a marriage license;
the auto-camp manager and his wife discussed the couple: ("Funny
couple, ain't they?...They made me get them a rope and a blanket
on a night like this. What do you reckon that's for?"); when
the manager mentioned they had requested a trumpet, the wife was
puzzled: ("But what in the world do they want a trumpet for?");
suddenly, they heard the sound of a tinny trumpet blast - a signal
that the blanket had 'fallen' (off-screen) and the "walls of
Jericho"
had toppled
|
Heiress Ellie Andrews Diving Off Yacht
Reporter Peter Warne - In A Phone Booth, Fired by His
Boss
"Make way for the King!"
Sharing a Cramped Bus Seat: "Next time you
drop in, bring your folks"
The "Walls of Jericho"
Lesson on Undressing
The Art of Dunking Donuts
Nighttime Discussion: Divulging His Name
Pretending to Be A Married Quarreling Couple
Wading Through Stream With "Piggy-Backer"
Dreaming Together
Ellie's Aborted Wedding
|