It Happened One Night is a screwball comedy made in 1934 starring Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell, is arguably Frank Capra’s best film. This film set the pattern for many Hollywood comedies featuring the escapades of the rich as well as the working class, the madcap heiresses that followed in their footsteps. The film’s was a trendsetting story which starts when Elly Andrews (Claudette Colbert), a spoiled daughter of an immensely rich patriarch Alexander Andrews (Walter Connolly), who we know to be just as stubborn as her father “the old man”, he goes on a hunger strike after he has her abducted during an attempt to elope with playboy/aviator King Westley (Jameson Thomas). Elly and King are already married when Andrews’s people grab her, but …show more content…
Peter, being resourceful, hangs a blanket between the two twin beds which Provides the debutante with a bit of privacy and the respectability that she demands. The playful banter of Elly and Peter’s reactions on the separate sides of the blanket are brilliant evocations of what lies behind the facade men and women show one another when in a compromised romantic situations. The old Hollywood, black and white film stock was essential to make the scene flow and famous. Capra uses of minimal light that were bounced off shining eyeballs and pointed towards haloed hair as special effects were a good success. Reduced to walking the highways for a ride, Peter gives Elly a lengthy lecture on the art of hitchhiking only to be passed by a procession of automobiles staggered with brilliant comic timing by Capra. Elly then gives it a try, “and I won’t use my thumb.” Elly hitches up her skirt, bringing the first car to a screeching halt with her lovely long legs. Leaving Peter with his jaw open and egg on his face. In this sense, the film is ahead of its time in gender role definition. Elly will not allow control over her life. But as the story unfolds, it becomes clear that Elly cannot follow up on her bold words and gestures. She certainly has a lot of spirit, but she realizes she needs Peter to take care of her. Without Peter to protect her, she is terrified, and often comes shrieking into his arms for protection, the minute something frightens her. There are also problematic class issues here. At first the film seems to be satirizing the very wealthy, and appears to be criticizing their lack of social responsibility. Peter shows the sincerity and soaring spirit of the average man. Indeed writer Robert Riskin in his long collaboration with Capra became known as the chronicler of the nobility and decency. Riskin’s reputation rings