It happened one night - winner of five Oscars

7/13/13 It Happened One Night - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay, 1934

It Happened One Night is the second Frank Capra-directed movie I have seen in the past week (Mr. Deeds Goes to Town being the first). Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert star in this romantic comedy; Claudette Colbert is a spoiled rich girl, Ellie Andrews, who, prior to the movie starts, marries a rascal of whom her father disapproves (sorry for that horrible sentence, but I really did not want to end the sentence in a preposition). Clark Gable is Peter Warne, a reporter from New York. Ellie escapes from her father by jumping off his yacht and swimming back to shore and then catches a bus back to New York, and that's how she meets Warne. Socialite meets street-smart reporter and all kinds of things happen. Gable was really good as Peter Warne, at times bemused by Ellie's snobbish behavior and naivete, and other times appropriately irritated. Until this project, I didn't have any appreciation for his work, and I don't know if he is in the top 20 of great American actors (although his part in Gone with the Wind may be the clincher), but he convinced me that if he's in a movie, it's worth checking out (see Mutiny on the Bounty). Colbert was believable as the petulant newlywed determined to get back to her ne'er do well husband; she is totally disdainful of Warne's honest attempts to help and provide 'guidance' on this road trip. There were some funny bits, like when they have to rent a cabin at an 'auto camp' (the precursor to the motel?), and it cost $2 a night! What really struck me was the amount of smoking during the movie, including smoking cigars on the bus (I can't imagine traveling 10 hours on a bus with a guy smoking a cigar, blech). If you can believe Wikipedia, and of course you can, this movie, with this cast, almost never happened. The fact that it happened, and won the five major Academy Awards, just goes to show you never can tell. Out of the two Frank Capra movies, I did prefer Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, but splurge, watch both.

I have completely and totally screwed up my Netflix rotation because I still have not watched Cimarron after having it for a whole month, and I still have 8 1/2. Chalk up another dollar fine on my library card, cause it's not getting watched until Saturday. Consider yourself warned. Mwah ha ha.