Ellen "Ellie" Andrews (Claudette Colbert) is an heiress who has eloped with King Westley (Jameson Thomas) against the wishes of her father (Walter Connolly). He wants the marriage annulled as he sees King as nothing more than a schmo. After an argument, Ellie runs off and plans to take a bus here from Miami to New York City, where King plans to meet up with her. At the bus station, Peter Warne (Clark Gable) is having an argument on the phone with his newspaper editor boss, Zeke (Arthur Hoyt), and he's drawn quite a crowd outside the phone booth who are cheering him on. Zeke fires Peter and hangs up, but Peter keeps talking as if he's won the argument but is quitting the job anyway. Peter and Ellie are both going to board the bus, but beforehand he sees someone steal her bag and chases after him. Peter does not catch the thief and when he returns, Ellie hadn't even realized the bag was stolen. On the bus, Peter and Ellie are in nearby seats, but she wants no part of him as he tries to simply be polite. He finds her interesting just the same since she seems to have a "nose-in-the-air" aura about her.
The bus stops in Jacksonville for breakfast and will leave in 30 minutes. Ellie tells the driver to wait for her to return since she'll be "a few minutes late," but when she returns looking for the bus she's told it left 20 minutes ago. She sees Peter is there too, and he has tickets for the next bus for the both of them. Ellie continues her snobbery and Peter soon gives her a tongue-lashing, calling her a spoiled princess and knowing who she is and why she's on the run, as her elopement and subsequent argument with her father has made the newspapers.
Boarding the new bus, Peter has left the seat next to him vacant. Ellie sees that empty seat but opts for another one next to a man who immediately begins talking to her like a carnival barker. He is Shapeley, and he's a bore. Peter eventually gets up and tells Shapeley to sit elsewhere so he can sit next to his wife. Shapeley stutters an explanation as he moves. Ellie thanks him and warms up to him a little bit.
It's late and the rain is pouring down, so the bus stops for the night at a set of cabins. Peter gets a cabin for the two of them, hanging a blanket over a rope in the middle of the room for privacy that he calls the "Walls of Jericho." They strike a deal as well, where Peter will get her to NYC to reunite with King in exchange for the story rights on this for his newspaper. Meanwhile, Ellie's father is on the hunt for her, having hired a private detective to track her down.
The next morning, Ellie winds up having to get used to the idea of a communal shower, but afterwards finds she enjoys the simple breakfast of eggs, a donut and black coffee. After breakfast, they see that someone's outside looking for someone, and they correctly assume that they're looking for Ellie. Peter throws together a quick plan, messing up Ellie's hair and talking loudly about their "family" as the detective enters the cabin. This turns into the couple having an argument until the detective decides to leave. Peter and Ellie laugh at the success of their ruse as they prepare to head back out on the road.
The detective reports back to Mr. Andrews that Ellie is still not found, so he decides to offer a reward for her safe return. Back on the bus later that evening, Shapeley sees the headline of this reward and realizes the photo with the article is the woman who Peter said was his wife the prior day. A group of entertainers are singing and playing instruments on the bus and after one rousing tune, the bus driver applauds with everyone else but loses control of the bus in the process, running into a mud bank. Peter exits the bus with Shapeley behind him. Shapeley says he knew she wasn't his wife, but knows who she is now and will split the reward with Peter if he helps him out. Peter acts like he accepts the offer and brings Shapeley a bit into the woods nearby, where he then pretends they're involved with a criminal racket and if they can get through it, she'll be worth millions and they can split it then. Shapeley nervously decides to back out, which Peter plays up like he's a coward now. Shapeley swears he'll keep quiet and not tell anyone about it, and even agrees to find a new bus for the rest of his journey.
This takes care of Shapeley, but Peter realizes now that he and Ellie will have to find a new way to NYC as well whenever Shapeley realizes he's been had. They set up a makeshift pair of straw beds for the night, and in the process we see the first romantic sparks fly between them as they both think for a brief moment of kissing.
The next day, they decide to continue on their journey and Peter tells Ellie they can hitchhike. Peter claims to be an expert on the art of hitchhiking, showing her the three methods of thumbing and what each mean. Unfortunately, Peter's methods prove rather unsuccessful. Ellie decides to give her own hitchhiking method a try, and the first car that passes stops for them.
The driver who picks them up (Alan Hale) seems like a fun guy, as he enjoys loudly singing during the drive. However, at a rest stop when the couple get out to stretch their legs, the driver runs off with their luggage. Peter immediately runs after him and winds up catching him. Ellie is pleased to see the car return with Peter at the wheel, who says he tied the guy to a tree after smacking him around a bit.
Meanwhile, Ellie's dad has decided to make peace with King in order for his daughter to come home. He makes another statement to the papers with King where they both say they've buried the hatchet and accept the marriage. Peter sees this in the evening newspaper and tells Ellie at the hotel they're at near Philadelphia (with the "Walls of Jericho" blanket installed once again) that he will uphold his end of the deal and have her in NYC tomorrow. Ellie, however, realizes she is in love with Peter, and she goes to the other side of the curtain to profess this. Peter isn't sure what he thinks of this until a few hours later, after Ellie has fallen asleep. Peter decides to take the car to NYC, where he meets with the editor and tells him the story and how she's fallen for him. The newspaper can have the story exclusively for $1,000. The editor agrees.
Unfortunately, as Peter has run to NYC, the hotel owners see that the car's gone and think he's stiffed them on the payment. They find Ellie still in the room and kick her out, and she thinks that Peter has abandoned her. Meanwhile, just after Peter has left the editor's office, the editor gets a call from the detective that Ellie has phoned her father and a police escort is now bringing her back home where she wants to have a formal marriage ceremony to King. Back to Peter, he is hoping to return to the hotel before Ellie awakens, but at a railroad crossing he sees the cavalcade of police cars, including one with Ellie and her father in it. Peter turns the car around but can't catch them.
Back home, Ellie and her father talk, but he can tell that Ellie seems upset about something. She tells him the story as she understands it, and when saying Peter's name she notices her father almost grab at one of his pockets. She reaches into that pocket and finds a note from Peter to her father about a "financial matter." Now she firmly believes he's just taking the reward, which her father agrees he is entitled to. Later, Peter does meet with Mr. Andrews and he gives him an itemized breakdown of expenses from the journey he took with Ellie, totaling about $40. Mr. Andrews asks why he wants this with the reward. Peter wants none of the reward, just the expenses. He admits to loving Ellie before leaving, although he can't figure out why he should love her.
At the wedding ceremony, as Mr. Andrews walks Ellie down the aisle, he tells her that Peter did not want the reward and that he loves her, and he accepts Peter wholeheartedly. He encourages her to run off since a car is waiting to take her to Peter. During the vows, she does just that. Two quick scene dissolves go to one with Mr. Andrews on the phone telling King to take his "buyout" check and enjoy it, and the second to an older couple who own a hotel, wondering why the new couple that just checked in needed a rope, a blanket and a toy trumpet. The camera cuts to the outside of the cabin where we hear a trumpet fanfare, and then a cut to inside the cabin where we see the blanket fall off the rope and to the floor, signifying the "Walls of Jericho" have come tumbling down.
It Happened One Night was not an immediate success upon its release. The box office was just okay. In time, word of mouth caused more people to want to see the film, and it ultimately drew very well. Apparently it wasn't just the early moviegoers and critics who weren't keen on the film either. Both Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert hated the script. They found it mediocre and actually goofed around on set a lot to keep their spirits up. Once the film was completed, Colbert proclaimed that she "just finished the worst picture in the world." As a final zing, when Colbert was nominated for the Oscar, she never thought she would win. She didn't even attend the ceremony. She, of course, did win, and was rushed from a Los Angeles train station to the ceremony so she could accept her award later on. The film won Best Picture honors (then called Best Production) over 11 other nominees, with this high number simply due to the Academy at the time having no real limited number of potential nominees set in stone. The other films nominated in this year were The Barretts of Wimpole Street, Cleopatra (not the Liz Taylor one), Flirtation Walk, The Gay Divorcee, Here Comes the Navy, The House of Rothschild, Imitation of Life, One Night of Love, The Thin Man, Viva Villa! and The White Parade. And don't worry, I've never heard of most of those either.
My opinion? It's a nice film, funny at times. It doesn't drag. The hitchhiking scene and a few other spots have a lot of zippy dialogue. As a whole, though, I'm not sure it's something I could call an all-time classic. It is widely considered the first screwball comedy, but I've seen others that I find more screwball-y and funnier, with 1936's Libeled Lady my personal favorite. One thing about screwball comedies that this film is very guilty of is that a lot of action seems to happen in a short period, often too much stuff in too short a period that defy all laws of space and time. I often had a hard time figuring out who was in what city, when, and how they got there so fast. With all that said, It Happened One Night still gets a thumbs-up. Don't overthink it, just enjoy it, because it is fun.
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