| Overall Grade: |
A |
|
| Story: |
A |
|
|
| Acting: |
A+ |
|
|
| Direction: |
A |
|
|
| Visuals: |
A+ |
|
|
It Happened the Other Night...
by MARJORIE (movies profile)
Aug 20, 2006
1
of
1 people found this review helpful
To distract myself from non-stop CNN reporting about the war in the Middle East, I flipped to my very favorite channel, TCM. I came in on the middle of this movie and was sure I'd seen it but forgot the point of it. However, I just KNEW a scene was coming up where Gable puts up that blanket divider between him and Colbert. Since I could see it coming, I paid close attention and thought it was highly clever, funny, fairly sexy and such a nice change from modern movies which are so blatant and a turn-off. I recently saw Gable's last movie with Marilyn Monroe ("Bus Stop"?) shot in the mid-late 50's and he was markedly older-looking just as his contemporary, Cary Grant, showed so much age 20 years past both of their primes. It was so refreshing to be able to accept him as the male romantic lead in 1934 just as Grant was in movies like "Suspicion"
with that outstanding actress whose name escapes me...I could never buy Gable being the romantic lead as time went by. I didn't want to look that closely at him anymore. In this movie he is so funny with Colbert, just a perfect flirty match.
The other scene that stands out and I saw coming was when they were hitch-hiking. I was cracking up at the way Gable tried to get a ride and every car went right on by. Everyone knew that he was blowing it and Colbert was biding her time to do it her way. So, she finally lifts her skirt just past her knee and immediately a car stops and they get a ride...Eating raw carrots was, also, so funny to watch because Colbert was experiencing an entirely new way of existence that Gable took for granted, seemingly. Another way of challenging her while knowing she was giving in to him and his wiley ways, slowly but surely...This movie is a prime example of the screwball comedies in the 30's that continue to crack me up because of how silly they are. Colbert's rich father is an actor who is in a lot of those movies and I always look forward to whatever role he plays so convincingly. Wasn't he the rich and neglected uncle of a very selfish Bette Davis, in another movie, and died before she could inherit his wealth, as she planned?..."It Happened One Night" left a lot to the imagination of the movie-goer as far as Gable's and Colbert's relationship. But, in the end, it was easy to see that his macho ways got to her and she succomed to his charms...I'm so glad that you chose this movie and look forward to reviewing many more in this genre. I hope you include a lot of Hitchcock's tightly-crafted masterpieces. |
My Public Profile 
