Movies from the Heart—It Happened One Night

One of the more common tropes of the romantic film is that the people who are going to end up together hate each other at the beginning. It was true in last week’s film, When Harry Met Sally, and it’s true in this week’s film—It Happened One Night [1934] by Robert Riskin.

Comedies these days don’t often win Academy Awards. Last week’s When Harry Met Sally—a film now lauded by critics and viewers alike—was nominated for just one Academy Award, for best writing… which it didn’t win. But It Happened One Night won the five big awards—Best Picture, Best Director, Best Writing, Best Actor, Best Actress.

It’s interesting to look back and see that, in the early days of cinema, it wasn’t that unusual for a comedy to win Academy Awards. But today, comedies are seen as “less than” when it comes to awards. It’s almost as if Hollywood wants to convince the world that it’s important by honoring only the so-called important films. A shame, really. Because comedies can be tough to write and are SO good when they’re done right.

Take a look at a trailer for the film.

The famed director Frank Capra, who directed It Happened One Night, worked for many years with screenwriter of the film Robert Riskin. In addition to It Happened One Night, Riskin wrote several very successful films that Capra directed: Mr. Deeds Goes to Town, Lost Horizon. You Can’t Take It with You and Meet John Doe. But Riskin got very tired of Capra getting all the credit and ads from the studio touting the films by saying they have “the Capra touch.” So one day, Riskin walked into Capra’s office and slammed a hundred blank pages on his desk and said “Put your fucking touch on that.”

They never worked together again.

This raises a very important point. Whose film is it anyway? Just like in Capra’s time, the director continues to get nearly all of the credit for a film. But the Writer’s Guild of America has addressed this question on billboards all over Los Angeles. They’ll quote a famous movie line like, “Here’s looking at you, kid,” and underneath say, “Somebody wrote that.”

Riskin wrote some fantastic screenplays, and It Happened One Night is at the top of that list. It has two killer characters—a spoiled heiress and a cynical reporter—who are thrown together on a cross-country trip. And it does something I’d encourage any writer to do—imagine how your characters could come together in a different, imaginative way. If you can do that, you’ll go a long way to creating a story that people will relate to… and remember.

Next week, another classic romantic film: His Girl Friday.

Copyright © Diane Lake

24Nov24

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