‘It Happened One Night’ (1934): Frank Capra’s Pre-Code Oscar Winner

Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in the film "It Happened One Night" (1934) in a publicity still. Public Domain

Commentary

The 95th Academy Awards are taking place at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood on Sunday, March 12. The 95th year! It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost a whole century since the first Oscars were handed out at a short, private ceremony at the Blossom Ballroom in the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel.

I applied to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for press credentials to the Oscars, but I sent my application too late. I thought it would be a good idea to cover the event if I could, but, frankly, I’m relieved I didn’t have to. I neither know nor care about any of the actors or nominees, and I doubt you readers care much more about today’s celebrities and the latest releases. I’ll just wait until Monday morning to skim through the news and see whether the star-studded event included any controversial losses, Satanic rituals, or violent assaults by winners.

Clark Gable's Oscar for "It Happened One Night" is displayed at "Meet the Oscars", an exhibit featuring the 50 Oscar statuettes that will be presented at the 78th Academy Awards, at Hollywood and Highland in Los Angeles on Feb. 10, 2006. Kevin Winter/Getty Images

Conservatives aren’t the only people turning off the television during awards season. For the past few years, all the major award shows have had historically low ratings, with in-person ceremonies after the pandemic being generally lambasted as boring, goofy, and hypocritical. This season, the Golden Globes ushered in the red-carpet season with dismal ratings and an obnoxious overdose of propaganda. Instead of wasting our time watching and analyzing the 95th Oscars, let’s review the first movie to sweep the five major Oscar categories, “It Happened One Night” from 1934.

A Depression Era Story

This Frank Capra movie, regarded as the first screwball comedy, is a classic rich girl meets poor man love story. Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) is an heiress who impulsively marries a news-seeking playboy, King Westley (Jameson Thomas), against her father’s wishes. Millionaire Alexander Andrews (Walter Connolly) has his daughter kidnapped right after the ceremony and held prisoner on his yacht in Florida, planning to get her marriage annulled. However, Ellie refuses to be controlled any longer, so she jumps overboard and swims to shore. With her father’s detectives hot on her trail, she pawns her wedding ring to buy simple clothes and a ticket for a night bus headed to New York, where King is waiting for her.

Original movie poster for the American film "It Happened One Night" (1934), directed by Frank Capra. Public Domain

On the bus, Ellie meets a loudmouthed, drunken reporter named Peter Warne (Clark Gable). After having a fight on the telephone with his editor, Joe Gordon (Charles C. Wilson), Peter heads to New York, immediately getting into a disagreement with Ellie over seating arrangements. At one of their stops, Ellie’s bag is stolen, prompting Peter to take more notice of her. Soon, he figures out her real identity, recognizing her from local newspapers, and he sees a great opportunity. Instead of turning her over to her father for the promised reward, he decides to help her get to New York without being discovered so he can get a scoop on her story.

Knowing that he’ll reveal her secret if she refuses, Ellie agrees to pool her financial resources with Peter to rent a motel room. They register as husband and wife, but Peter maintains propriety by hanging a blanket between the twin beds as “the walls of Jericho.” Peter isn’t the only one who discovers Ellie’s identity, however. An annoying admirer of hers on the bus, Oscar Shapely (Roscoe Karns), figures out that she looks familiar as well, so the pair have to set out on their own. During their challenging, impoverished, and funny trip, they may just find something neither one was expecting.

Pre-Code, Pre-Capra

You may or may not be familiar with the movie term “Pre-Code.” This film’s Wikipedia page was the first place I heard or read about the term more than seven years ago. It created a mild curiosity that grew into a passion for Hollywood history, leading to my becoming a blogger and then a journalist. Even if it doesn’t mold your career trajectory, learning about Pre-Code films will change the way you watch old movies. The term means before the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code, which began with the formation of the Production Code Administration (PCA), a branch of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA), in July 1934. This chapter of cinematic history is complex and confusing. The Code is nicknamed the Hays Code after Will H. Hays, the first MPPDA president, but he did not write it, as commonly believed—Martin J. Quigley and Father Daniel A. Lord did. Their documents’ official title is The Motion Picture Production Code of 1930, which was when it was officially adopted by the MPPDA. However, the Studio Relations Committee (SRC), a PCA branch formed to enforce the Code’s guidelines for proper film content, was thoroughly ineffectual for four years. Thus, 1930-1934, the early talking picture period generally recognized as the “Pre-Code Era,” was not before the Code’s existence—it just was before they figured out how to use it!

“It Happened One Night” was released on February 18, 1934, five months before the PCA’s formation, so it is undeniably Pre-Code. It’s interesting to compare this Frank Capra film, one of the director’s first hits, with his later beloved classics. Seeing the Pre-Code work of an artist whose later work you know and love can feel like discovering your father’s college scrapbook. You may be surprised to see that the respectable citizen sowed some wild oats as a youth! So it is with Frank Capra and this film. While it certainly doesn’t top any list of notoriously salacious, violent, or controversial films from this period, it lacks the warmth and sincerity which would mark later Capra films. Instead, it contains content that proves its Pre-Code status.

Cropped screenshot of Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable from the trailer for the film "It Happened One Night" in 1934. Public Domain

Perhaps Ellie Andrews could be the heroine of a Code Capra film, but Peter Warne is nothing like the Capra leading men whom Gary Cooper and Jimmy Stewart would play later in the decade. His first line is “In a pig’s eye,” a vulgarism which was banned by many 1930s censor boards. He’s rebellious, violent, and generally anti-social. He isn’t fighting against corruption and tyranny, like later Capra characters—he’s just fighting against the establishment. Like many Pre-Code films, this movie includes a lot of extreme yet pointless drunkenness, which is especially problematic when you consider that Prohibition wasn’t repealed until December 1933, after most of these films had been made. The men treat Ellie with very little respect, with her father’s slapping her across the face in the first scene, Shapely’s making indecent flirtatious advances toward her, and Peter’s frequently using aggressive dialogue and behavior toward her. There are at least a couple of scenes where a little more of Miss Colbert’s figure is revealed than what is necessary or proper, such as when she reveals her thigh in the famous hitchhiking scene. Besides that, there is a general air of suggestiveness in the dialogue and scenarios, which lowers the moral tone of the characters and the story.

What Happened One Night?

Films released in 1934 are where the whole Pre-Code situation gets really confusing. Many movies were in production or had just finished primary filming when the PCA was formed in July. After ignoring the SRC throughout production, they suddenly had to heed the Code-enforcers if they wanted to receive Seals of Approval for distribution throughout the United States. Oftentimes, there was little the PCA could do with the films at this point, since they had already begun production with scripts which violated the Code. The purpose of the Code was not to censor finished films; it was to guide filmmakers throughout production to help them make clean movies from the start. Most early Code films don’t meet the decency standards of later Code films, since it took a while for Hollywood to embrace the strange new concept of decency.

Cropped screenshot of Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable from the trailer for the film "It Happened One Night" in 1934. Public Domain

Many of the films “It Happened One Night” competed with at the Oscars were released later in the year as early Code films. It’s not surprising that an uncomplicated Pre-Code film would stand out as being artistically better, thus winning Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Adaptation. Although proper Code enforcement would help films be more entertaining than ever, many 1934 Code films were caught in limbo.

“It Happened One Night” is entertaining, and it’s a fascinating glimpse into the unique world of America in 1934. However, if you’re looking for the heartwarming nostalgia Frank Capra films usually provide, you won’t find much here. The only moment which even hints at “Capracorn” is when a young boy on the bus (George P. Breakston) tearfully panics after his mother faints. When Ellie learns that they are starving, she gives the lad her bottom dollar. This is a brief testament to the leading lady’s unselfish generosity and a tableau of the Depression Era. However, this movie’s everyman lacks the power of later Capra heroes because he lacks their moral fiber. This Oscar Sunday, I invite you to rent or buy this film on Amazon Video or YouTube and consider how greatly the Code influenced even the noblest of filmmakers, Frank Capra. If it encouraged him to make his inspiring movies, could it motivate today’s filmmakers to pursue a higher standard?