It Happened One Night

1.  Relate what was discussed in class or the text to the screening.

The film It Happened One Night is an American Romantic film about a rich woman, Ellie, who was running from her millionaire father after she married a celebrity aviator, and she was trying to go to New York City from Miami in a bus trip without being caught by her father’s private detectives. When she took the bus, she met a reporter, Peter, who wanted to get an exclusive on her story and he told her if she accepts, he will help her to reunite with a new husband in New York, but if she does not accept, he will tell her father where she is and he will collect the reward that her father published to the newspaper that “if someone found her daughter, he will give a recompense” and Ellie accepted to help him. 

As shown in the film, Peter hangs a blanket between the two beds, because of the necessity of spend the night comfortably, with this scene the author of the film tries to show a metaphor for purity before marriage, and it finished with a romantic ending.On the other hand, with this film, starring with Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert and directed by Frank Capra,who was an immigrant that came to the United State in 1903,started the era of the screwball comedy in 1934. According to the screen text,the Screwball Comedy was a war of the sexes with a supplanted real sex, verbal sparring/witty dialogue and the women were equal or better.

Moreover, Capra is considering being the best director between the 1930^th and 1940^th era and he won 3 Oscars for being the best director while he was a director in the Columbia Pictures with these films: It happened One Night (1934); Mr. Deeds Goes to town (1936) and You can take it with You (1938), also he was nominated for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939) and It’s a Wonderful Life (1946). He also made documentaries as well as feature films.In contrast to the other films, It happened one Night was the only film which won the "big five" Oscars in the categories  Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Writing.

                    2) Find a related article and summarize the content.  

                             http://www.filmsite.org/itha.html

In the article that I found said that, It Happened One Night, “is one of the greatest romantic comedies in film history, and a film that has endured in popularity. It is considered one of the pioneering "screwball" romantic comedies of its time, setting the pattern for many years afterwards along with another contemporary film, The Thin Man (1934).” Also in the article shows the history of It Happened One Night in detail, of how it started and how it was ended.

3) Apply the article to the film screened in class. 

When I read this article I could see the similarities between was I learned in class about It Happened One Night and this article with the fact that It Happened One Night was one the greatest romantic comedies in the history of the films and this film won 5 Oscars in the categories of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Writer. Something that I learned from the article that I didn’t learned in class were that Capra “had originally wanted MGM stars Robert Montgomery and Myrna Loy to play the lead roles, but ended up, surprisingly, with top MGM star Gable 'on-loan' (as punishment for refusing a role opposite Joan Crawford) from the studio.”

I learned also from the article, based on this Film the Animator expert Friz Freleng inspired in the creation of various cartoon characters like Bugs Bunny’s fast talking personality which was based on “Oscar Shapeley (Roscoe Karns), and also related to the one mention by Gable of an imaginary hit man named 'Bugs' in the film; (Bugs Bunny's debut film was Porky's Hare Hunt (1938)); Bugs Bunny's carrot-eating technique was based on Peter Warne (Clark Gable) and the way he talked while chewing on a carrot; Yosemite Sam was inspired by Alexander Andrews (Walter Connolly) and Pepe LePew was inspired by King Westley (Jameson Thomas).”

4) Write a critical analysis of the film, including your personal opinion, formed as a result of the screening, class discussions, text material and the article.

It happened One Night film is well known for be the greatest film that Frank Capra directed in 1934. In my opinion I agree with that "It Happened One Night" is the best American romantic comedy film of that time because the story was very interesting, the actors were the best ones and this film had the best director, Frank Capra, who was the first one who started the screwball comedy. I truly can recommend to everyone to watch it because this movie was the only one that won 5 Oscars in that time, in the categories as the Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Writer.

CHECKLIST FOR PLAGIARISM 
1) ( x  ) I have not handed in this assignment for any other class.

2) ( x  ) If I reused any information from other papers I have written for other classes, I clearly explain that in the paper.

3) ( x ) If I used any passages word for word, I put quotations around those words, or used indentation and citation within the text.

4) ( x  ) I have not padded the bibliography. I have used all sources cited in the bibliography in the text of the paper.

5) ( x  ) I have cited in the bibliography only the pages I personally read.

6) ( x ) I have used direct quotations only in cases where it could not be stated in another way. I cited the source within the paper and in the bibliography.

7) ( x ) I did not so over-use direct quotations that the paper lacks interpretation or originality.

8) ( x ) I checked yes on steps 1-7 and therefore have been fully transparent about the research and ideas used in my paper.

Name: Kareline Santiago Date: 02/26/13