So I was sick in bed 2 days this week with some kind of sinus virus or infection. Dizziness, nausea, yuck. On the 2nd day I was actually on the couch, and watching tv. Of course there was nothing but junk on the tv during the day. I resisted the temptation to get drug into the Anna Nicole Smith hearings, which didn't leave much else to watch. Finally one of the old movie channels showed 'It Happened One Night' one of my favorite movies. Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable. You can't get better than that! Clark Gable is so cool. Why aren't any actors today as good as the ole guys, Gable, Cary Grant, William Powell, Jimmy Stewart? They had charm, personality and charisma that always showed through. Actors today are so flat and have no personality. They're the same in every role. So, if you've never seen the movie, it's a about a sheltered heiress who marries a man that her banker father does not approve of. The guy is named King Wesley and he looks pretty smarmy to me. So Ellen jumps off a boat and gets on a bus to try to get back to NY. Peter is a reporter, who happens to also be on the bus headed back to NY and recognizes the heiress. He says he'll help her get back to NY if she agrees to let him publish her story about trying to get back to King, despite her fathers protest. Of course many adventures follow and many laughs are had. And well, you can guess it, of course they fall in love and Ellen realizes King Wesley is a smarmy money grubber.
There's the hitchhiking, where Ellen uses something other than her thumb to get a car to stop. The 'Walls of Jericho' at the motor inn. The bus passangers singing 'The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze' which looks totally fun, but I'm sure long bus rides aren't really that fun. There's the famous scene where Clark Gable takes off his dress shirt to reveal that he isn't wearing an undershirt. The story goes that sales of undershirts dropped because men thought it was cool to go without an undershirt just like Clark Gable.
My one complaint about the movie is that we don't get to see much great 1930s clothing! We see Claudette in her two piece suit through most of the movie, her slip, mens pajamas, and 2 bias gowns. She does wear the cutest little hat though.
