The Walls of Jericho Go Up... and Down...

When I launched this new series a couple of weeks ago, I shared my very personal reasons for doing so and received a variety of responses - overwhelmingly positive - for which I am very grateful.

It would seem that I am not the only one who feels that we could all use some more joy in our lives right now. Just this morning, the BBC has run an article about a giant pink monster that appears to have inadvertently tapped into a global sense of despair and existential horror.



You know the world is in bad shape when the entire internet decides to unburden its collective psyche onto a sock puppet.

 

I'm afraid I don't have a sock puppet to offer anyone at the moment, but perhaps you'll accept a red panda eating a sandwich...?




I know we all have our own coping mechanisms when things get really bad. Some people talk to muppets, some join support groups, and others take up knitting. Personally, I'm going to screen It Happened One Night.



It Happened One Night is a landmark film of the early 1930s for many reasons. 

*It was one of the first films released after the Hays Office production code went into full effect. 


*It is often regarded as one of the first "screwball comedies" produced in Hollywood.


*And it was the first film to "sweep the board" at the Academy Awards, winning Oscars for Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay and Best Picture. Only two other films have ever won all five of those awards: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and Silence of the Lambs. 

(It Happened One Night is not remotely like either of those films.)


Quite apart from being a thoroughly delightful comedy with top-notch performances from all concerned, It Happened One Night was exactly the film that America needed at that particular moment in history, which is why it struck such a chord with audiences when it was released.


Claudette Colbert plays Ellen Andrews, the over-protected daughter of Wall Street millionaire Alexander Andrews (Walter Connelly).

In an effort to get away from her father's control, Ellen has attempted to elope with the flashy, bombastic and thoroughly disreputable "King" Westley; a flyer, show-off and general scoundrel. 

In a last ditch attempt to protect his daughter (and prevent her from joining her gold-digging beau) Andrews has locked his daughter on board their luxury yacht in Florida, but she escapes and sets across country to join her "beloved" in New York. En route, she crosses paths with Peter Warne (Clark Gable) an uncouth, hard-boiled newspaper man in need of a good story.


Can you guess what happens next?

It Happened One Night was never intended to be a major cinematic sensation. Columbia Pictures was a very minor studio at the time and very little money or effort went in to the production. Claudette Colbert was not the first choice for the role, or even the second, third or sixth choice. Miriam Hopkins, Myrna Loy and Margaret Sullavan had all turned it down, while Constance Bennett had made demands the studio wouldn't accept. Bette Davis wanted the part, but couldn't get out of her exclusive contract with Warner Brothers at the time, and Carole Lombard was tied up on another production. 

So then they called Claudette Colbert, who was decidedly unenthusiastic, but agreed to do it when they offered to double her salary. When filming wrapped, Colbert reportedly told a friend that she had just finished "the worst picture in the world." She didn't even bother turning up for the Oscars ceremony, and had to be grabbed from the train station to be told that she had just won the award for Best Actress that year.

Indeed, when the film was given its initial release in New York and Hollywood movie palaces, it did modestly well but nothing more. It was only when it went into general release in smaller cinemas around the country that its popularity suddenly exploded. Depression-era audiences, struggling with their burdens and their uncertainty, staring into their "yawning chasms of despair" (to quote Elmo) had found a film that truly spoke to them.


Because It Happened One Night shows everyone a wealthy, spoiled daughter of Wall Street who gets to experience life at ground level in America (or at least a Hollywood version thereof). And far from being a nightmare or a heavy-handed morality tale of woe, the experience is a joyous one for all concerned. (Except for King Westley, but he's a putz; no one cares about him.)

It Happened One Night also proved to everyone that Hollywood could talk about sex without talking about sex. Much fun is had at the expense of the newly-minted "production code", and the film settled any lingering fears that Hollywood movies were about to become boring or "chaste" in the new era.


And Hollywood itself was about learn an important lesson about how much power it wielded over the national psyche.

When Clark Gable took off his shirt in front of Claudette Colbert and revealed his bare chest, millions of American women (and more than a few American men) enjoyed the moment very much, but that enjoyment was not shared by the manufacturers of American undershirts, who experienced a measurable dip in sales when audiences noted that Gable wasn't wearing one.


And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how Product Placement was born, or so the legend goes.

It Happened One Night turned out to be exactly the right film for the right moment in history. And we will be screening it at 7.30pm on Thursday, the 8th of October at the Victoria Park Baptist Church.

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