It Might Be "An Honorable Proposal," But It's A Lousy Ornament!

The Good: Generally good sculpt
The Bad: Sound clip is entirely underwhelming, Terrible balance, Incredibly light detailing, Seems pricey.
The Basics: The 2016 Gone With The Wind ornament makes the de facto argument that Hallmark has fully played out the film with An Honorable Proposal.


When it comes to Hallmark ornaments, there are few works that have been so over-mined as Gone With The Wind. Gone With The Wind may be a classic film, but it has surprisingly few iconic moments and all of those were done years before Hallmark released the An Honorable Proposal ornament. With the 2016 An Honorable Proposal ornament, Hallmark creates an ornament that seems to imply that they have truly given up on the franchise, even if they continue to release ornaments from it!

For those unfamiliar with the film, Gone With The Wind (reviewed here!) includes a scene wherein Clark Gable’s character Rhett Butler proposes on bended knee to Scarlett O’Hara.

It is Rhett Butler, holding Scarlett's hand as she recoils slightly, that is the subject of the An Honorable Proposal Hallmark Ornament. To add extra value to this one, Hallmark provided this ornament with a sound chip.

Basics

The An Honorable Proposal ornament recreates the moment Rhett Butler proposes to Scarlett, while kneeling down before her. The ornament includes the Rhett, Scarlett and a very simple brown base all cast in solid plastic. The ornament, released in 2016, is a mixed bag as it has a decent and generally accurate sculpt of the characters, with virtually no detailing on costumes and the faces of both characters are lacking in detailing and realistic shading, which makes the characters look a little more like animated versions of themselves as opposed to real live people.

Hallmark tried on both Rhett and Scarlett, but their costumes and facial sculpts are very minor. Scarlett has no coloring to her lips and Butler’s eyes do not have any of the color or vivacity of Clark Gable’s actual eyes. Moreover, the thin mustache on Rhett hides his lips. Measuring four inches tall, four and a quarter inches wide and two and one-quarter inches deep, the An Honorable Proposal ornament is a decent-sized Hallmark ornament. Unfortunately, at the original issue price of $24.95, it is a bit expensive, especially compared to other Gone With The Wind ornaments that featured more of the scenery for the same or less money.

The An Honorable Proposal ornament has Rhett looking up and Scarlett looking slightly away. The faces are very basically sculpted and poorly colored. Neither Rhett nor Scarlett looks quite like Clark Gable or Vivian Leigh. They look like caricatures of their characters with minimal facial detailing or coloring. Rhett’s mustache seems like a dirty lip. The characters are mirrored in the base, which is very simplistic.

This ornament remains fairly easy to find at Hallmark stores, so there is no reason (yet) to look for it in the secondary market. This ornament features a battery to power the sound effects.

Features

As a Hallmark Keepsake ornament, An Honorable Proposal has a sound effect, but no light effect. There is a button, when pressed, activates the sound chip. The sound chip actually contains a single sound clip from Gone With The Wind. The chip has several seconds of actual dialogue from the scene the ornament represents that plays with sufficient volume out the bottom of the ornament. That said, the clip of the dialogue between the two characters from the scene that the ornament embodies is not the most recognizable or iconic sound clip.

Balance

As with all ornaments, the intent of the Hallmark Keepsake An Honorable Proposal ornament is to be hung on a Christmas Tree. And for those creating the ultimate movie nostalgia Christmas Tree, the An Honorable Proposal ornament is a somewhat expensive option that is quite an extravagance beside ornaments from The Wizard Of Oz and prior Gone With The Wind ornaments. The ornament has the standard steel hook loop embedded into the top of Rhett's arm in pretty much the center of the ornament. From that position, the An Honorable Proposal ornament is very backheavy and it hangs with a ten degree pitch that is accented by the attached base.

Collectibility

Hallmark Keepsake began delving into the collectibles market in 1991 with Star Trek when it introduced the exceptionally limited edition original U.S.S. Enterprise ornament (reviewed here!). Within a few years, virtually every classic film franchise jumped on the bandwagon and began merchandising with Hallmark as well. Classic properties like Barbie, Disney, The Wizard Of Oz and Gone With The Wind have been made into Hallmark Keepsake Christmas ornaments. An Honorable Proposal is one of many Gone With The Wind ornaments on the market, though it is the only one mass produced for the franchise in 2016. Fans of the book and film are unimpressed by the An Honorable Proposal ornament; it is still exceptionally easy to find in the Hallmark stores at this time. Given that only the Limited Edition Gone With The Wind ornaments have appreciated, this mass-produced ornament is not likely to be a great investment piece.

Overview

Fans of Gone With The Wind, Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, and Hallmark ornaments are likely to be entirely disappointed with the An Honorable Proposal ornament!

For other Gone With The Wind Hallmark ornaments, please check out my reviews of:
2015 As God As My Witness
"2014 Scarlett's White Dress
2013 Scarlett's Green Dress
2012 Scarlett Meets Her Match
"2011 Almost A Kiss
2010 Scarlett O'Hara
2009 Frankly My Dear

1.5/10

For other ornament reviews, please visit my Toy Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2016 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

One Of The Better Gone With The Wind Ornaments In Recent Memory Comes When Scarlett Meets Her Match!

The Good: Good balance, Good detailing on Rhett, Good sound chip
The Bad: Seems very expensive, Detailing on Scarlett
The Basics: The Scarlett Meets Her Match Gone With The Wind ornament is actually one of the best ornaments from the film that I have reviewed!


Ever since I started reviewing Hallmark Christmas ornaments, I have included the Gone With The Wind ornament on the list of ornaments I make a priority to review. I’m not exactly sure why; I am not a fan of the film and that admission alone usually garners a pretty nasty reaction by those who are (surprisingly opinionated fanbase, those Gone With The Wind fans!). Fortunately, for 2012, the Hallmark ornament offering for Gone With The Wind is one that objectively holds up quite well. It is the Scarlett Meets Her Match ornament and it is one that is surprisingly easy, even for a non-fan of the film, to like.

For those unfamiliar with the film, Gone With The Wind (click here for my review!) includes a scene wherein Clark Gable’s character Rhett Butler squares off with Scarlett O’Hara. Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett banter with one another and for the first time, Butler effectively puts O'Hara in her place.

It is Rhett Butler, standing before a shocked Scarlett that is the subject of the Scarlett Meets Her Match Hallmark Ornament. To add extra value to this one, Hallmark provided this ornament with a very impressive sound chip.

Basics

The Scarlett Meets Her Match ornament includes only Rhett and Scarlett, connected by his right foot abutting her dress, all cast in solid plastic. The ornament, released in 2012, has drastically varied executions, as it has a decent and generally accurate sculpt of the characters, good detailing on costumes, and Rhett’s face looks good. Unfortunately, Scarlett is presented almost like a cartoon (not animated, but comic strip quality) execution of the character for facial detailing and coloring.

Measuring four inches tall, three inches wide and two and three-eighths inches deep, the Scarlett Meets Her Match ornament is a decent-sized Hallmark ornament. Unfortunately, at the original issue price of $24.95, it is a bit expensive, especially compared to other Gone With The Wind ornaments that featured more of the scenery for the same or less money. Scarlett’s dress, while well-detailed, seems bulky and the ornament seems heavier than many of the other ones released this year.

The Scarlett Meets Her Match ornament has the two characters looking at one another with Rhett looking like he has just said the most deeply ironic thing in the world and Scarlett looking like she was scandalized by it. Rhett’s outfit matches Scarlett’s for quality with Hallmark including detailing like the polka dots on his tie. Scarlett’s dress looks good with subtle detailing around the edges of the ruffles on her dress adding an additional layer of realism to the ornament. The faces are recognizably sculpted and while Rhett looks like Clark Gable, this Scarlett does not look like Vivian Leigh. Given how much detailing the rest of the ornament possesses, it is somewhat surprising that Hallmark did not get Scarlett’s face quite right.

This ornament remains fairly easy to find at Hallmark stores, so there is no reason (yet) to look for it in the secondary market. This ornament features a battery to power the sound effects.

Features

As a Hallmark Keepsake ornament, Scarlett Meets Her Match has a sound effect, but no light effect. There is a button, rather oddly placed right on the front of the ornament on Scarlett’s dress, when pressed, activates the sound chip. The sound chip actually contains a single sound clip from Gone With The Wind. The chip has several seconds of actual dialogue from the scene the ornament represents that plays with sufficient volume out the bottom of the ornament. As a result, when one depresses the button, Vivian Leigh as Scarlett verbally spars with Rhett Butler. The sound chip is more than adequate, but the clip is not one of the many iconic moments from Gone With The Wind. Still, it’s better than having a sound clip that involves Rhett breaking Scarlett’s heart!

Balance

As with all ornaments, the intent of the Hallmark Keepsake Scarlett Meets Her Match ornament is to be hung on a Christmas Tree. And for those creating the ultimate movie nostalgia Christmas Tree, the Scarlett Meets Her Match ornament is a somewhat expensive option that looks good beside ornaments from The Wizard Of Oz and prior Gone With The Wind ornaments. The ornament has the standard brass hook loop embedded into the top center of Rhett's head and it is pretty much the only option for the ornament, though it looks unfortunately obvious there. The Scarlett Meets Her Match ornament hangs level when hung properly and because it is so heavy, it hardly sways unless it is really knocked.

Collectibility

Hallmark Keepsake began delving into the collectibles market in 1991 with Star Trek when it introduced the exceptionally limited edition original U.S.S. Enterprise ornament (click here for that review!). Within a few years, virtually every classic film franchise jumped on the bandwagon and began merchandising with Hallmark as well. Classic properties like Barbie, Disney, The Wizard Of Oz and Gone With The Wind have been made into Hallmark Keepsake Christmas ornaments. Scarlett Meets Her Match is one of the only Gone With The Wind ornaments on the market and the only one mass produced for the franchise in 2012. Fans of the book and film seem to be neutral to the Scarlett Meets Her Match ornament; it is still exceptionally easy to find in the Hallmark stores at this time. Given that only the Limited Edition Gone With The Wind ornaments have appreciated, this mass-produced ornament is not likely to be a great investment piece.

Overview

Fans of Gone With The Wind, Clark Gable, Vivien Leigh, and Hallmark ornaments are likely to be split on this ornament. The sound clip is interesting and fans of Rhett Butler will be thrilled by the level of detail on him. But for those who love Scarlett, the Scarlett Meets Her Match ornament is more disappointing than anything else.

For other Gone With The Wind Hallmark ornaments, please check out my reviews of:
2011 Almost A Kiss
2010 Scarlett O’Hara
2009 “Frankly My Dear”

7/10

For other ornament reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
| | |

Did George W. Bush Govern Based On Gone With The Wind?

The Good: The acting of Gable, McDaniel, and (occasionally) Leigh
The Bad: Overrated, Long, Unlikable characters, Plot
The Basics: In this disappointing Southern epic, Scarlett O'Hara and Rhett Butler remind us that there are important principles worth fighting for: slavery, keeping women coquettish and marrying without love.


On the behind-the-scenes features for the film Brazil, Terry Gilliam notes that when the studio executives called Brazil the "Movie of the Decade," he knew the film was in trouble. He says he knew they had no idea what it was about and they had to sell it big, as the movie of the decade, in order for it to have a viable chance of success. The tagline for Gone With The Wind is "The most magnificent picture ever!" and man are they wrong.

The truth is Gone With The Wind is another in a long string of disappointments for me as I study film history (take that Citizen Kane and On The Waterfront!). I have spent my life listening to people pump up various classic films as the best in movie making and I keep watching them and discovering how wrong those people are. Gone With The Wind is an epic of the United States South in the build-up to the Civil War through Reconstruction.

Gone With The Wind follows Scarlett O'Hara, a young rich white girl who appears pretty much spoiled out of her mind. She claims to be in love with Ashley Wilkes (Ashley is a guy, though if he hadn't been, it might have made for a more interesting movie), who appears to be the only man not courting her and she otherwise appears indifferent to. In the days leading up to the Civil War, Scarlett learns Ashley will marry another woman and she marries some loser who she doesn't truly care about. Fortunately, he gets killed and she is expected to mourn.

She doesn't. Instead, she finds herself catching the eye of scoundrel Rhett Butler. Butler, about a thousand times more interesting than Scarlett, tries to woo Scarlett, but finds she is still attached to Ashley, who returns from the war still very devoted to his wife. As events in the South change as a result of the devastating attacks on Atlanta and the surrender, Scarlett is forced to accept that her life is changing. When Reconstruction taxes threaten to bankrupt her, she marries again.

Eventually, far too late for most viewers to actually care, she ends up with Rhett, they live happily for a while and have a daughter. Then, things fall apart.

My last strictly film comment is that this is one of the most overblown wastes of time I've sat through. At 238 minutes, this epic lacks all of the imagination and intrigue of other long movies that I have gladly watched repeatedly. From the extensive opening credits that tell more than once who most of the players are to when the television told me to change to disc two, I tried to give this movie a chance. The second disc, which ends almost the same way as the first, failed to grab me at all.

But one thing about the movie did engage me. That was how unlikable most of the characters were. Now, I'm from the North and I know most people from the South think we hate them. They tend to express viewpoints that indicate we dislike them and that we think they are dumb, backwards hicks. The truth is, I only have two beefs against the people who seem to rule the South and they are that the South clings to segregation ideals (don't believe me? Check out how in 2004 the people of Alabama voted to not change the language of their State Constitution to eliminate the references to differences between white and "colored" schools) and they produce loudmouth hypocrites like George W. Bush and then vote to keep him in power.

Watching Gone With The Wind, I felt like I was watching an idiot opera of America blundering pointlessly into conflict and stupidity. I call this opera "The Bush Years."

In the beginning of Gone With The Wind, proud Southerners rally around the idea of war with the North. They glowingly ready for war, declaring it will be over in a few weeks. When Rhett points out that it's stupid to go to war considering the North has all of the cannons, he is essentially told to sit down and shut up. This reminded me of how George W. Bush, at the outset of the Iraq War told people that it wouldn't take long and the Iraquis would welcome the U.S. And people who showed intelligence that illustrated the false premises the Bush Administration was using were pressured, fired, told to shut up or threatened.

Then there is the way the Bush Administration talks about morals. Never do they spout what Jesus says (like "Love thy neighbor" or anything to the effect of help out the poor), but rather they declare themselves the moral center and moral people and then go out to butcher people who are simply defending their homeland. And they lie, too. God, I'm fairly sure, has some choice words against lying in the Bible. And what does this have to do with Gone With The Wind? Well, there's the Southern idea of the noble Southern Gentleman (probably cooked up by the same people who invented the concept of the "Latin Lover"). The Southern Gentleman is a straightforward guy who is good to his word. Like Rhett. Rhett gives his words to the Northern invaders when he openly lies to them about where his friends were when they were out causing mischief. Perhaps the Bush Administration watched Gone With The Wind and said, "Hey, look at this! He says something, declares it true, stakes his reputation on it, and then lies. We could do that!"

Maybe the scene where the slaves are walking down the streets of Atlanta to go dig ditches for the Confederate War Machine gave the Administration the idea that the Iraquis would be happy to help us out in their "liberation."

And in Gone With The Wind, there is the greatest threat the South ever faced. Carpetbaggers. Now, I know there's a horrible connotation to "carpetbagger" and I can't say I don't understand it. You have a group of people coming into a region that is filled with people who claim to be Christians who are saying "Hey, stop beating and enslaving these other people!" And they tried to change the laws and the culture to make sure that happened. Those bastards! To carry my Bush Administration analogy to its close on this point, the carpetbaggers Bush faces are us, the normal citizens of the United States. We threaten his megalomaniacal reign by simply exercising our freedoms. We are people who believe that if terrorists are going to attack us because of our freedoms (another lie, by the way), the least we can do is actually have a free society. He calls those of us who would exercise our civil liberties and stand up for real freedom "terrorists."

The Bush Administration, if it hasn't, should watch Gone With The Wind with an American interpreter. Gone With The Wind is a portrait of a desperate people clinging to backwards notions, fighting progress and fighting for oppression in the name of culture. And given how unlikable Scarlett is, it's hard to argue that that culture should survive. Worst case, it's almost four hours the Administration is not out in the world threatening to blow us all up.

As a winner of the Best Picture Oscar, this film is part of W.L.'s Best Picture Project, which is available by clicking here!

For other historical epic and cinematic romances, check out my reviews of:
Charlie Wilson's War
The Spitfire Grill
The Red Violin

4/10

For other film reviews, please visit my index page!

© 2010, 2009, 2004 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



| | |

Sideboob And Campy Special Effects Cannot Save Mutiny On The Bounty

The Good: Moments of performance, Moments of character
The Bad: Plot is overdrawn, Characters are unlikable, Special effects are terrible, Casting is problematic, Bonus features
The Basics: A disappointing, long black and white film, Mutiny On The Bounty has character and storytelling gaps that follow a thematic point never made in the movie.


It is a rare thing these days when I sit down to watch a film and I know almost no one in it. Yet when I sat down to take in the 1935 version of Mutiny On The Bounty, there was only one actor outside Clark Gable I recognized. That actor was Ian Wolfe, best known to me as Mr. Atoz from the penultimate episode of Star Trek, "All Our Yesterdays" (click here for my review!)! I came to Mutiny On The Bounty excited; this was one of the few Best Picture winners my wife was excited about watching with me. As it turns out, she was a big fan of the book. Until about fifteen minutes in, it remained one of her favorite books, but she seemed especially disenchanted with the film.

For my part, I've never read the book, so I did not come to the movie with any expectations, but I found the film tiresome shortly after my partner did. The fundamental problem with Mutiny On The Bounty is not that the title gives away the most important plot point, but rather that the opening scrawl repeats the significant plot point and also provides the entire resolution to the film. In the simplest possible terms, the "Foreword" placed at the opening of the movie states the effect of the actions of the movie, much like a character recap does in some movies (i.e. "James left behind his life of crime and became a lawyer before he was shot in a drug store robbery in '63"). As a result, the two hours of Mutiny On The Bounty becomes an academic exercise without any real surprises. Rather insultingly, the film takes an hour and a half before the actual mutiny occurs!

In the late 1700s, Britain is maintaining its power at sea by impressing criminals and common citizens they find in bars. A young husband is compelled to join the crew of the HMS Bounty and leave his wife and infant son behind. Aboard the Bounty, Christian Fletcher is acting as first officer to Captain William Bligh, a man he has never served with. Fletcher takes Byam, the son of a long line of naval officers, under his wing and the Bounty sets off for Tahiti to get breadfruit trees. Along the way, Bligh makes enemies of almost all of the enlisted seamen as he maintains discipline through the brutality of lashings whenever the slightest infractions occur.

Fletcher, suspecting Bligh of stealing supplies and resenting the mistreatment of the men who are compelled to be there anyway, becomes the target of Bligh's wrath for having compassion for the men. When Bligh fails to break Fletcher and the rations are cut again and the beatings continue mercilessly, Fletcher decides to prevent the men from murdering Bligh and they take over the Bounty. Setting Bligh and his loyalists (most of them, anyway) adrift, Fletcher takes the reluctant Byam and the Bounty back to Tahiti to try to make a life for himself and the rest of the men.

Mutiny On The Bounty has its fatal flaws in revealing too much too early and then making the audience wait far too long for it. While there are dates special effects that are just horrible - the keelhauling that occurs is so bad as to be laughable - they are more forgivable than the problems with casting. Byam, played by Franchot Tone, looks so similar to the two midshipmen he shares a room with that they are almost impossible to tell apart and the scenes where they are all three together result in a lot of confusion. It does not help that not only do all three have similar faces, they are dressed in the same outfits and have almost identical haircuts as well! Clark Gable and Charles Laughton (Bligh) are distinctive casting, but most of the others have at least one other person they may easily be mistaken for, even the seamen with many lines!

The story of Mutiny On The Bounty might be translated well to film, but this is not the ideal translation of it. Far too often, the audience sits and has to ask, "Why are all of these supposedly good people putting up with all this?" While there's no Nuremburg judgment to get the enlisted men to resist tyranny on their own at the point that this movie was made (though there are some very nice socialist sentiments slyly inserted into the film where the Tahitians reject capitalism!), why Fletcher takes so long to reach his breaking point is not made clear. Arguably, it is because on Tahiti he falls in love and cannot stand the brutality any longer, but why he even gets on the boat again is not made clear.

Similarly, how Bligh has so many men loyal to him when he treats so many of them so poorly is not adequately explained in the film. Throughout the first three quarters of the film, Bligh utilizes fear and torment exclusively as his tools to maintain order and discipline. Yet, when cast adrift by the mutineers, Bligh suddenly becomes determined to save his crew and the weird change of heart rings false, save for the moments he becomes obsessive about seeing Christian punished.

To that end, this version of Mutiny On The Bounty also has some terrible gaps in storytelling. For example, when Bligh hunts for Fletcher after recovering Byam from Tahiti, he runs his small ship aground on a reef. Literally the next scene has the alleged mutineers Bligh recovered on trial in England with no mention even of what happened in between or how the bunch survived! This is just bad storytelling and Mutiny On The Bounty has holes like that in the story, though they cover some of them with mentions of large amounts of time passing, most notably on Tahiti.

As well, what makes no sense is the "how" of the final verdict, which we learn in the first minute of the film. We are told that there is a new understanding brought about between officers and seamen as a result of the actions in Mutiny On The Bounty and in the penultimate scene we are again TOLD this. The problem is, we are never shown it. We see brutality - on the order of Bligh having a dead man whipped to illustrate just how serious he is about maintaining order and a man being keelhauled because he wanted water for his raw knees - but we are not privy to seeing the effects of this other than the terror and the mutiny. How either of these things leads to a new understanding or what that new understanding truly is is never actually shown. This is not to say I wasn't paying attention; Byam gives a great speech where he pleads for a change in the way seamen are motivated, but it comes out contrary to Bligh and with a rejection of Fletcher's tactics. Movies that simply tell us the moral without showing them are not a great use of the medium.

What Mutiny On The Bounty has in its favor is generally wonderful acting. Director Frank Lloyd gets wonderful performances out of Franchot Tone, most of the actors playing seamen, and, of course, Clark Gable. Gable is charismatic without relying on the twinkling-eyed charm he had in Gone With The Wind. Instead, here he stands as a likable, good-natured man with a straight spine and a sense of willpower which permeates his being. He delivers almost all of his lines with a quiet rationality that reads as true and ethical. In fact, the only problems with his performance come when he tries to be emotive in an over-the-top way. The scenes where Gable has to yell seem almost as out of place as the jig scene on Tahiti.

Arguably the most consistent acting comes from Charles Laughton's performance. The perpetually-frowning Bligh is a good role for Laughton, who has a cold stare that he uses perfectly to embody the character. He plays dour well and he is instantly unlikable as Bligh.

On DVD, Mutiny On The Bounty comes with very few DVD bonus features. The original movie's trailer and the 1962 remake are featured, as is the producer of the film accepting the Best Picture Oscar (which is a rarity to see on DVDs!). There is also a featurette on Pitcarin Island, but it is pretty dull. While the print looks excellent (it was clearly cleaned up for the DVD release) there was not much else put into making the DVD special.

Just because something is old or is based on great source material does not mean it translates well or endures. The 1935 version of Mutiny On The Bounty is not just dated, it is sloppy in many ways. Whether or not there is a better version out there, this version may be safely skipped.

[As a winner of the Best Picture Oscar, this film is part of W.L.'s Best Picture Project, by clicking here! Please check it out!]

For other movies preoccupied with journeys, please check out my reviews of:
The Lord Of The Rings Trilogy
The Bounty Hunter
Land Of The Lost

5/10

For other movie reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here to reach a full list!

© 2010, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



| | |

Few Laughs, Few Smiles It Happened One Night Is A Capra Failure (Though Clark Gable Strips)!

The Good: ? One or two lines
The Bad: Not funny, Obvious character development, Blasé acting, Predictable plot, In all ways mediocre.
The Basics: A huge disappointment, It Happened One Night is neither funny, nor romantic, nor dramatic; it's just bad!


The more movies I watch, the more I begin to think the works of Frank Capra are overrated. I know somewhere in my past, I saw and enjoyed Mr. Smith Goes To Washington, but recently when I watched You Can't Take It With You I found myself troubled. You Can't Take It With You won the Best Picture and I suspected that that was essentially a "lifetime achievement" award for Capra based on his prior successes. Then, though, it turned out Capra already had his Academy Award from It Happened One Night. So, tonight when I sat down to It Happened One Night, I was prepared for an awkward mix of zany and thematically heavy-handed. Instead, this 1934 film is consistent. Sadly, it is consistently droll.

While viewers are treated to a young Clark Gable stripping and there are moments I have to figure were audacious at the time (slapping a lady, men and women sharing a hotel room out of a sense of thrift, a man seeing a woman's underwear as she changes for bed), they now seem very dated. And while It Happened One Night is billed as a comedy, I do not recall laughing once, though I did smile a few times (most notably when Peter takes on a porter on the bus). As I usually note with such things, It Happened One Night is based upon a short story and this review is solely a review of the film, not the work upon which it was based.

A twenty-one year old woman escapes a ship (upon which she is essentially a prisoner) and her controlling father by jumping overboard. Swimming to shore, her wealthy father sets investigators searching for her, though she manages to elude her pursuers by taking a night bus out for New York City, she finds herself on her own for the first time in her life. Down on his luck with his reporting career, Peter Warne boards the same bus and the pair find themselves headed north. Soon, the reporter figures out that his travel companion is Ellie Andrews, the heiress.

When circumstances force the pair from the bus, Peter and Ellen take up at a small hotel and they make a deal; Ellie will continue to avoid her pursuers with Peter's help and Peter will get the opportunity to tell the story of Ellie living outside her usually fabulous lifestyle. As the reward for Ellie increases, pressure builds on Peter (and those around the pair) to turn Ellie in. Inevitably, the traveling companions develop a bond and Ellie has to decide if she wants to keep running or pair up with Peter.

It Happened One Night has some very basic comedic bits that now seem more droll than innovative. For example, Peter carries Ellie across a river at one point and he stops just long enough to surprise her with a spanking. They argue about how one cannot be both afraid and hungry at the same time and Ellie kicks straw on Peter while he actually works at making a bed in the straw. The only real moment that seemed innovative or even interesting in the humor department was when Peter convinces another bus rider to not turn Ellie in for the reward by convincing the man he is a mobster who has abducted the woman he correctly identifies as the heiress.

As well, the movie seems ridiculously dated and often contrived. For example, almost five minutes of the rather short movie are wasted with a sing-along on the bus. This gives the bus driver a few frames where we are supposed to laugh (I assume; I didn't) as he joins in the singing behind him. This causes the bus to break down in one of the worst special effects I've seen in an old film (the bus driver is clearly not the same man in the long shot as in the close ups). Sadly, the bus "episode" is not the only point where the movie makes a musical digression. Picked up by a driver when the pair is forced to hitchhike, Peter and Ellie are subjected to a musical driver who sings annoyingly.

It Happened One Night is a weird mix of supporting social mores of the time and challenging them. Peter is bossy and domineering with Ellie, even going so far as to threaten to break her neck when she acts out. At the same time, Ellie is strong enough to make her initial leap and when Peter's thumb fails to get the pair a ride, she puts out her leg. Times were clearly changing, but this is an early Depression era film that captures two people living poorly to try to achieve their goals.

It Happened One Night is populated by characters that it is virtually impossible to empathize with. Ellie's father is controlling and by extension supposed to be unlikable. But even as he manipulates Ellie and her husband for his own selfish needs, Ellie hardly stands out as a likable character. Instead, she is the archetypal rich kid and while the carrots Peter digs up are an obvious symbol for her setting aside her spoiled ways, she never pops as a likable character who is even remotely more than the type of character she represents.

Similarly, Peter is the scoundrel character who seems like he is only out for himself, but has a heart. Those of us raised after Star Wars recognize this as an archetype Han Solo fits into, but Clark Gable was known for helping to establish that archetype in cinema with several of his roles, including Peter. But Peter's arc just seems passé, even if this actually is supposed to be establishing the mold. There is a sense of predictability which permeates the film and it makes it virtually unwatchable.

In fact, It Happened One Night is particularly charmless and none of the characters or performances particularly pop. Gable is strangely familiar - like his character - in the role of Peter. Gable twinkles his eyes (or we assume he does as the film is in black and white) and he delivers his lines with his trademark sense of charm. The thing is, the charm is patented and plain and it is so predictably what one expects from Clark Gable.

Gable appears on screen with Claudette Colbert (Ellie) and while this was my first time seeing Colbert in anything. Colbert was entirely unmemorable as Ellie. Generally bland, Colbert has no on-screen chemistry with Gable and that is the death knell to a buddy comedy or a romantic comedy.

And It Happened One Night is just such a failure. It is not funny, not romantic, not dramatic enough. In fact, all it is is contrived and there are enough new movies like that; there's no need to go back to the vault for a classic disappointment like this one.

[As a winner of the Best Picture Oscar, this film is part of W.L.'s Best Picture Project, by clicking here! Please check it out!]

For other travel comedies, please check out my reviews of:
Excess Baggage
The Proposal
Couples Retreat

2/10

For other film reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


| | |