It Happened One Night (1934)

Movie reviews, no not reviews; today I’ll write about my experience while watching a particular movie. Well, I have never done any movie reviews before and this I wouldn’t call a review; more like sharing my views. I’m a movie lover. I have watched a lot of movies but then again I have skipped out on a lot of them. I find movie reviewing quite hard because people always have different choices. It’s not that you’ll like what I like and often maybe I have missed out on something that you have seen. So the choice of movies is not always the same. There was a time when I used to watch 3 to 4 movies a day (my highest record was 7, not repetitive), even that was a long time ago.

So today I’ll tell you about a movie that I had watched recently and it’s called – It Happened One Night (1934). It is quite an old movie; all black and white, reminds you of the good old days but let’s talk about that later. Some of you have seen it, and for others who didn’t, I suggest you see it. Do you know it has a Bollywood version too? And a famous one? Yes, I’ll reveal it but not just yet.

So let’s take a look, shall we? “It Happened One Night” was unlike many other comedy movies that were getting produced at that time. It was starred by Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable and directed by Frank Capra and co-produced by Frank Capra and Harry Cohn. Although I have watched a few other movies It's a Wonderful Life and Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, this movie is a little bit different for me as I had watched the Bollywood version before.

Okay, I’ll stop with the suspense, the Bollywood version of it was, drumrolls, Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin (1991). Among other adaptations are Chori Chori (1956) and Nau Do Gyarah (1957). As I haven’t watched the latter mentioned movies, I can’t make a statement.

So back to It Happened One Night (1934). The movie starts with the scene where the heiress Ellie Andrews was locked in her room by her protective father (who happens to know what’s good for her) because she ran off and married the charming pilot King Westly. The millionaire Captain's father was trying to reason with the naïve daughter to eat something, but the daughter is too adamant to understand as she trying to find her ways to get to her husband. As they were fighting, the angry father slaps Ellie and with that, she jumps off the ship and swam on to the shore. As she pawned her possession, she bought a bus ticket and clothes for herself on her journey from Florida to New York City to where Westly is. And then we see our hero, the arrogant and saucy Peter Warne drunkenly swears off to his Boss and hitches to the same bus as Ellie.

And after that we'll see these two banter a lot over trivial stuff, Ellie's father claims her missing and declares a nationwide search. Peter think of this as an opportunity and stuck around to Ellie claiming that he'd take her to her husband and in the back of his mind, cooking up a sensational story.

The journey was long and tough as Peter and Ellie continue to agree and disagree with each other. No, I’m not going to tell you the whole story. Go and watch that movie, it’s beautiful and it will definitely make your day (thank me later). So, anyway, the bus had to stop, and then again the bus breaks down and after a lot of struggle, Peter manages to get a car and tries to get to NYC.

On their journey they both feel that they’re falling in love with each other, as Ellie voices out her liking towards Peter, he says nothing but tries to figure out how this could work as his pockets are empty. Due to a miscommunication, Ellie sends her location to her father and her father takes her away. The wedding ceremony of Ellie and Westly is being planned. On that very day, Peter arrives at the Andrews’ and they all clear out their confusion. Ellie runs off from her wedding and ends up with Peter. Oh come on, there are a lot of thrills in between of course.

Library of Congress of the United States National Film Registry has selected It Happened One Night (1934) for preservation as being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant." Back in 2013, Sony Pictures has done extensive restoration on this movie.

If you want to know what I thought about this movie, then I would say "old is gold" but this one is a gem. Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable are two of my favorite artists and they had done a marvelous job. The movie is so entertaining that you'll not be able to take your eyes off the screen. I have a slight weakness towards old movies and although it's not my top pick, it's among the top 5.