IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934) (A-minus) - Frank Capra directs Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in the granddaddy of all romantic comedies, and a classic newspaper picture, to boot. He's Peter, a reporter on the skids, and she's Ellie, an heiress running away from an arranged marriage. She's sassy and he's incorrigible, and they are thrown together when Peter runs across Ellie on the lam and realizes she is his ticket back to the big leagues.
The screenplay by Capra regular Robert Riskin (based on a story by Samuel Hopkins Adams) is clever and charming. Colbert has a looseness with the comedy, an underdog appeal that reminded me of Anna Faris. I must admit, I probably have never seen Clark Gable in a movie, besides clips from "Gone With the Wind"; my whole lifetime has involved watching imitations of him. Here, he is understated, quietly strong in his portrayal of a man torn between career and the heart.
The film still has a modern feel to it, 90 years later. (Circumstances require the pair to share hotel rooms, and they keep it kosher by stringing up a blanket between their beds -- they call it their Wall of Jericho.) Capra -- the feel-good legend behind "It's a Wonderful Life" and "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington," among other touchstones -- wields a light touch, but he keeps the story moving. The final third is just a little too long in wrapping things up. But you have to love that ending, which had to have inspired Mike Nichols and "The Graduate."
SPOTTED: Alan Hale Sr. (father of Gilligan's Skipper) as a singing driver who picks up the hitchhiking couple.
THERE'S ALWAYS VANILLA (THE AFFAIR) (1971) - Random algorithms led us to one of George A. Romero's non-zombie films, this surprisingly thoughtful slice of life about two opposites who try to make a random relationship work. Raymond Laine plays Chris, our narrator, a college dropout and Army veteran who is drifting through life for the moment. (His look here is preppy bohemian.) He meets-cute Lynn (Judith Ridley), a model who slums through shlocky TV commercial shoots.
This has the loose tone of TV shows of the time, a shambling narrative and a vignette format not far removed from "Love, American Style." But it also has the maturity of a Mike Nichols drama from the era, even if the vibe throughout is B-movie and based in Pittsburgh. We follow Chris as he runs into his estranged father, takes the old man to a strip club and then takes him to meet Chris' ex-stripper ex-wife, whose son may or may not be Chris'.
Once he meets the beautiful Lynn, he has the chance to level out his life, but he seems determined to sabotage the opportunity, mainly by being lazy and indecisive. You never get a good sense of chemistry between him and Lynn, and it will come as no surprise that there isn't much in the way of a happy ending in the cards for a serious woman marking time with a manchild.
Laine is a strong lead. He would not have much of a career; his IMDb profile lists such roles as desk sergeant, bus driver and "harmless man" and titles like the Romero follow-up "Hungry Wives" (tagline: "Caviar in the kitchen, nothing in the bedroom"), where he played another boy-toy. He's got just a hint of Duplass in his demeanor. He was a few decades too early to be appreciated as a Mumblecore mainstay.
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