There are a couple of notable changes for the 1934 Academy Awards. Most notably, the Academy changed the award year to contain a single calendar year, rather than taking pictures from August first of one year through July 31st of the following year. That was the big change as far as the Academy was concerned. Another change was upon us as far as the films were concerned.
It Happened One Night in many ways is the most sophisticated and the most structured story of any of the Academy Award winners to date. Certainly Wings was more compelling from a visual effects standpoint. Cimarron was a greater spectacle. Grand Hotel was more sophisticatedly shot. However none of those films can match the shear storytelling prowess of It Happened One Night.
This is a film that had it all. It had two major stars in Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert at the top of their respective games. It had a director in Frank Capra who would go on to be one of the great directors in the history of American Cinema. It had a well written script by Robert Riskin that was well-structured and dramatic, even as it made the audience laugh. This was the first comedy to win Best Picture, and one of only a handful of comedies to come away with the statue all time.
The story follows Ellie Andrews (Colbert), who has married a playboy pilot against the wishes of her wealthy industrialist father. As their yacht lay moored in Miami, Ellie jumps off of it and swims to shore where she makes her way to a bus station and gets an elderly woman to buy her ticket in order to avoid being spotted by the detectives her father has sent to find her. On the bus, Ellie meets Peter Warne (Gable), a down on his luck newspaper writer. The two of them are like oil and water at first, but when Peter finds out who she is after her suitcase and money are stolen, he offers to get her to New York where she can meet up with her husband in exchange to an exclusive on her story.
What follows is a deliberate, yet charming and funny story of two people changing and falling in love. The spoiled heiress becomes humble as she has to accept help from people in ways that are more complex than simply paying them off. The grizzled and cynical newspaper reporter softens and sweetens as he learns to accept and appreciate all of the heiress’s complexities. More than anything, this is a film about growing and changing, for there is no way that either character would end up with the other without significant internal change.
That is one thing that Frank Capra would prove to be a master of over the course of his magnificent career. He took imperfect characters and over the course of the narrative, made them perfect for their circumstances. He made his characters evolve in a way that felt realistic and engaging and never forced. It Happened One Night is a great example of how he did that. It’s also a great example of how story and character arcs can fit seamlessly into a 3-Act structure. Just when it looks like Ellie and Peter are destined to be together, something happens that drives them apart. A misunderstanding seems to end what was a beautiful burgeoning relationship. The story totally changes direction at that point ushering us into the third act where Peter needs to convince not only Ellie, but himself as well that he’s the right man for her.
Looking at it another way, this film follows the Hero’s Journey very closely as well. All of the stages of the journey are represented and there are archetypal characters that help to make this film a classic. The Ordinary World shows Ellie living in her life of luxury. But she’s a bird in a gilded cage. She literally flies off the boat, thus giving herself her own Call to Adventure by fleeing from her father and trying to get to her husband in New York. The Meeting of the Mentor is when she meets Peter. Ellie doesn’t know how to navigate in the real world, having been spoiled her whole life, and never having to do anything for herself. Peter shows her the ropes and then ultimately gives her her second Call to Adventure by offering her the deal of getting her to New York in exchange for an exclusive on her story. At first she Refuses that call, but ultimately has not choice but to accept. The Tests, Allies and Enemies portion of the journey shows Ellie and Peter having to overcome thieves blackmailers and detectives to keep on their journey. The Approach shows Peter and Ellie starting to fall for each other, but still fighting that urge. The Supreme Ordeal has them spending the night in a cabin, attracted to each other, but not able to consummate their feelings. They then have to put on archetypal mask, pretending to be a couple traveling together to avoid being caught by still more detectives. The Reward has them starting to fall in love and learning new tricks from each other that make them more whole as human beings. The Road Back has them in another cabin, but completely broke. They’re only a couple hours from New York, but Ellie no longer wants to be with her husband. She wants to be with Peter. Peter sneaks off to New York to get an advance on the story, but Ellie is awakened by the owners of the cabin who think that they don’t have any money. Succumbing to despair, Ellie calls her father to come and pick her up. The Resurrection shows Peter demonstrate his true virtue to Ellie’s father and thus to Ellie. The Return with the Elixir shows Ellie running out on her wedding and running back to Peter.
Again, this is a structurally sound story that that is woven particularly well with strong character development. Clearly, this is a film that is instructive for any aspiring screenwriter.
Did the Academy get it right?
I believe they did, and time has borne that out. There are two other films that were nominated against it that are also considered classics in The Thin Man, as well as Cecil B. DeMille’s Cleopatra. That said, It Happened One Night is really at a different level, and in a lot of ways was a game changer for the Academy. It took storytelling and character development to a new level of sophistication and it’s rightly on AFI’s list of the 100 greatest films of all time, coming in at number 46. It’s also number 8 on AFI’s list of top 100 comedies. Based on that historical evidence alone, I believe the Academy got it right this year.