PUBLISHER:
Another Frank Capra offers a new interpretation of the great hollywood director beyond the patriotic sentimentalist or the cynical opportunist that he has been taken for. Often cast as a cinematic simpleton or primitive, Capra's exploitation of the stylistic and narrative resources of cinema was, in fact, extremely self-conscious and adventurous in ways typical of artistic modernism. His modernism is also evident in his repeated and strong identification with female characters. Informed by recent work in genre theory and feminist psychology, Another Frank Capra shows Capra to be a "proto-feminist" director whose feminism has been entirely neglected by previous critics.
"I'd change places with a
plumber's daughter anyday."
Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert
ELLEN
ANDREWS is a headstrong rich girl, running from her millionaire
father after she hastily married a celebrity aviator. Peter
Warne is an out-of-work reporter who spots Ellen hiding out
on a long distance bus trip, trying to make it to New York
City from Miami without being caught by her father's private
detectives. Contempuous of Ellen's snobbery and childishness,
Peter is also pitious over her naivity on the road, and makes
a deal to help her get to her husband in exchange for an exclusive
story. Peter teachs the sheltered rich girl about survival
on the road, and she teaches him more valuable lessons about
the heart.
...I didn't envy or scorn Irving Thalberg. Like everybody else I fell in love with him – and he with me. From the dozen scripts he had me read, I chose Soviet, a strong meladrama about an American engineer hired to build a super dam in Russia. Thalberg promised me a "dream" cast: Wally Berry, Marie Dressler, Joan Crawford, and Clark Gable – wow!
Nearing Soviet's starting date, frail Thalberg had to go to Europe for health reasons. Left in sole command, Mayer couldn't wait to harpoon Thalberg's pet projects. He canceled Soviet, sent me packing back to Columbia, but he still honored Cohn's bonus and loan-out of MGM's stars. Without Mayer's hatred there would have been no It Happened One Night. (From Capra's book The Name Above the Title.)
Capra
chose "Night Bus" from a stack of story possibilities
after finishing Lady For A Day. No one in his crew
at Columbia had much faith that the story would make a very
good film, and Capra had to convince everyone, including Columbia
chief Harry Cohn, to let him do the film. Finally when filming
was to begin, Capra panicked and tried to stop the film, but
by then Cohn had arranged too much to stop production, so
it went ahead.
Capra's
first choice for the male lead was Robert Montgomery, but
the loan was refused from MGM who had him under contract.
Instead, Louis B Mayer sent Clark Gable over in an effort
to chastise Gable for making demands for better money. At
that time, Columbia was still considered something of a "poverty
row" production facility. At first Gable was cold and
disinterested in the filming, but through Capra's enthusiasm
and the enjoyment of the close-knit Columbia crew, Gable became
ardently involved.
Myrna
Loy was asked to play the female lead, but refused it after
reading an early script draft (Loy later remarked that the
finished picture bore little resemblance to the story she
had turned down.) After Loy, Miriam Hopkins and Margaret
Sullivan each turned it down. Constance Bennett wanted to,
but only if she could produce it herself. Then Bette Davis
wanted to, but RKO wouldn't allow her, who had her under
contract than. Harry Cohn interested Claudette Colbert by
offering her $50,000. She had worked with Capra in 1927
on the silent For The Love Of Mike, in which the
pair got along very poorly.
In
the original story, Peter Warne was an out-of-work Chemist.
In the early drafts, Capra changed him to a highbrow artist.
Myles Connolly, a long-time Capra co-writer, suggested making
him a hard-boiled newspapermamn, "one of us."
A character with that occupation had appeared in the Robert
Riskin scripted, Capra directed Platinum Blonde in
1931. Indeed, in the Pat McGilligan introduction to Six
Screenplays by Robert Riskin, he disputes Capra &
Connolly's administering the crucial change in the lead character,
but suggests that Riskin must have played a more important
role.
The
success of It Happened One Night changed the careers
of both Capra, and its screenwriter, Robert Riskin. "He
and Capra extracted unusual freedoms at Columbia. Unlike most
of the studio's contract employees, they were allowed to work
off the lot, usually at Riskin's place or Capra's house. After It Happened One Night, they made a habit of convening
at their lucky place, where they had brainstormed 1934's Oscar-winning
Best Picture, the La Quinta Hotel, in the desert some twenty
miles from Palm Springs." (Six Screenplays by Robert
Riskin, from the Introduction by Pat McGilligan, University
of California Press, 1997.)
It
Happened One Night broke the house records at Radio City
Music Hall in February, 1934. Overall, the film brought in
over $1 million in rental fees for Columbia in it's initial
release. The total production cost on the film was $325,000.
The
film won Academy Awards for best picture, director, actor,
actress and story.
A
remake was done in 1956 as a musical, titled You Can't
Run Away From It.
(SIX
SCREENPLAYS BY ROBERT RISKIN and Joseph McBride's FRANK
CAPRA: THE CATASTROPHE OF SUCCESS figures greatly in compliling
the facts I've put together here. To read about these books,
go here.)
IT
HAPPENED ONE NIGHT 1934
Produced
and Directed by Frank Capra. Script by Robert Riskin. From
the story "Night Bus" by Samuel Hopkins Adams. Cinematographer:
Joseph Walker. Length: 105 minutes.
Cast:
Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Jameson Thomas,
Roscoe Karns.
Release Date: 23 Feb 1934
Premiere Information: New York opening: 22 Feb 1934
Production Date: 13 Nov--22 Dec 1933
retakes 8 Jan--12 Jan 1934
Color: Black and White
Sound: Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)
Duration (in mins): 105 mins.
Duration (in feet): 9,431
Duration (in reels): 11
Alternate Title: Night Bus
Distribution Company: Columbia Pictures Corp.
...I didn't envy or scorn Irving Thalberg. Like everybody else I fell in love with him – and he with me. From the dozen scripts he had me read, I chose Soviet, a strong meladrama about an American engineer hired to build a super dam in Russia. Thalberg promised me a "dream" cast: Wally Berry, Marie Dressler, Joan Crawford, and Clark Gable – wow!
(From Capra's book 
