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- Movie Night at the Playboy Mansion - It Happened One Night
Movie Night at the Playboy Mansion - It Happened One Night
| January 08, 2010 Tomorrow night: Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer in a zany film noir adventure, “INTO THE NIGHT.” On Sunday: Jeff Bridges in “CRAZY HEART.” Next Friday: William Powell and Carole Lombard in the ***** comedy “MY MAN GODFREY.” And on Saturday—a week from tomorrow: Bob Hope and Paulette Goddard in the comic mystery “THE CAT AND THE CANARY.” Tonight: One of the most memorable films in the history of Hollywood. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in Frank Capra’s ***** comedy “IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT.” What makes this movie so remarkable is the fact that it was produced by the then small—Poverty Row—studio (Columbia) with a couple of stars borrowed from other studios—MGM and Paramount—for a film nobody wanted to make, except Capra. “NIGHT BUS” was a short story published in Cosmopolitan. MGM optioned the picture rights and planned to make it with Robert Montgomery and Myrna Loy. But Louis G. Mayer lost interest in the property and decided to save Montgomery for another cross-country bus picture he had more faith in called “FUGITIVE LOVERS.” So “NIGHT BUS” was turned around, driven all over town, and finally given a parking space at humble Columbia Pictures. Capra got behind the wheel and the rest is history. Capra initially wanted the MGM stars—Robert Montgomery and Myrna Loy—for the picture, but they weren’t available. Capra’s second choice was Robert Young, with Arline Judge as a co-star, but Robert Young was busy on another film. A third MGM star was available, however: Clark Gable. And Mayer loaned him to Columbia to “punish Gable,” because he was being uncooperative and complaining about his salary. Everyone agreed that Arline Judge was too young for Gable. Bette Davis expressed interest in the role, but Warner Bros. wouldn’t release her because they were punishing her for, well, as Richard Bann put it, for just being Bette Davis. Harry Cohn suggested Loretta Young, a contract player at Columbia, but Capra didn’t want her. Capra’s collaborator, Robert Riskin, offered the part to his girlfriend, Carole Lombard, but she turned it down—and him too, when he proposed a few months later. Margaret Sullivan turned it down. Constance Bennett turned it down. “Not if I never play another part,” said Miriam Hopkins. Claudette Colbert hated it too, but she took it for the money. $50,000 of the $300,000 budget went directly to her. Even when the film was finished, she said, “I’ve just finished the worst picture in the world!” Capra was sure she would be perfect for the part. He had worked with her before. “All she had to do,” Capra wrote in his autobiography, “was bug Gable on camera as much as she bugged me off camera.” The crew found her “bitchy, snooty...the crew hated her,” said sound man (later, director) Ed Bernds. Meanwhile, Gable was drinking. Depressed at his salary, at being loaned to lowly Columbia, and being dumped by Joan Crawford for Franchot Tone. One night, driving drunk through the Hollywood Hills, Gable hit and killed a pedestrian. A Metro exec took the rap in exchange for a lifetime job at MGM. Gable hid out in Palm Springs with Jean Harlow (cheating on her husband, Hal Rosson), while Capra was searching for a female lead for his picture. When Gable arrived at Columbia, he was drunk and insulting to Capra, who was then a relatively unknown director. But they soon became friends and Gable enjoyed making the movie. Capra let Gable play the role as his boyish, fun-loving, roguish self, so that the audiences saw the real Clark Gable on screen for the first time. Colbert had a fling with Gable while making the movie. (Didn’t everyone?) Sound man Ed Bernds accidentally heard Gable and Colbert talking between scenes. Colbert was jealously needling Gable about an affair he was having with Carole Lombard, who everyone knew Capra collaborator Robert Riskin wanted to marry. When Colbert disparaged Columbia and the film they were making, Gable snapped, “Are you nuts? We’re making a good movie, a damn good movie! I tell you, this little wop’s got something!” And, indeed, he did! No one expected the film to be a hit. No expensive advertising or advance publicity heralded its release. The initial reviews were indifferent and the initial box office no better, and then—in its more general release in the hinterlands—“IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT” became an unprecedented phenomenon. The movie became a box office blockbuster, and critical acclaim followed thereafter. The picture swept the Academy Awards—winning Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Screenplay. It became the single greatest sleeper of all time! It made Columbia into a major studio. It established Capra as a major director. It established screwball comedies as a major genre of the Depression Era. And it made Gable, who had been loaned to Columbia as a form of punishment, the undisputed King of Hollywood. It even influenced men’s fashions. When Clark Gable began undressing in the now famous “Walls of Jericho” motel scene, he was wearing no undershirt. This, at a time when men still wore tops to their bathing suits. As a direct result, the sale of men’s undershirts plummeted. And they never really recovered their previous popularity. So now—one of the most remarkable—and most entertaining—films of the Thirties. From 1934—Frank Capra’s “IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT.” |
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Mar 13, 2010
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