(For Day 30 of NaPoWriMo, the prompt was for a poem about hearing a band or song throughout one’s lifetime. Based on a scene from this film, I went with the classic “The Man on the Flying Trapeze,” so the poem can be sung to that tune.
This might be the end of the month, but I’ve missed I think three days so I’ll be catching up before calling it quits.)

Remember that song we sang on the bus
When life was just you and me and not us?
My voice was drowned out by the crowd (‘twas a plus),
But yours, like a bell, had me reeling.

I hear it, years later, but clearly
To the sound of cans dragging behind.
The bouquet had been thrown, and we weren’t on our own,
And we sang with our voices combined.

Oh, we warble it still on the road all the time,
And though my voice borders on audial crime,
You still sound as sweet as you did in your prime.
So one more time, honey, with feeling!
_________________________

MPA rating: Approved (G-level)

Another Oscar-season showing from TCM, It Happened One Night is still fondly regarded today as a Frank Capra classic, so I was curious if the Best Picture winner of 1934 would hold up and, for the most part, it does. Claudette Colbert plays spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews, who elopes against her father’s wishes and then goes on the lam as he puts up a reward for her return. She is found by beleaguered newspaper reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable), who helps her in exchange for covering her story, and the two gradually grow closer along their travel misadventures. Both actors also won Oscars, as did the screenplay and Capra as director.

Any film this old is going to be somewhat dated, but the banter between Peter and Ellie feels more natural than a lot of other repartee from the era, like the flowery dialogue of Double Indemnity or the pretentious quips of The Philadelphia Story. It’s fun to watch the beauty Colbert humbled by the travails of being on the road, while Gable bears the bulk of the film’s charm on his back, proving it was second nature for him to play an appealing rogue even five years before Gone with the Wind. From the running joke of “the walls of Jericho” to Colbert’s famous hitchhiking scene, the film stays amusing without going silly with its screwball comedy, and I was surprised by a scene toward the end that was blatantly borrowed by Spaceballs, a testament to its influence. While I didn’t think It Happened One Night rose to the level of greatness I’ve seen critics ascribe to it, it’s an excellent early rom com that further proves the talents of Gable and Capra.

Best line: (Ellie’s father Alexander, to Peter) “Do you love her?”
(Peter) “A normal human being couldn’t live under the same roof with her without going nutty! She’s my idea of nothing!”
(Alexander) “I asked you a simple question! Do you love her?”
(Peter) “Yes! But don’t hold that against me, I’m a little screwy myself!”

Rank: List Runner-Up

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