Dir. Frank Capra
It Happened One Night is the ur-romantic comedy. Every modern romantic comedy you've ever seen has an origin in this film. Amazing then, that It Happened One Night remains timeless. When the core of the film is the budding romance of two people stuck together due to external circumstances, then those external circumstances don't really matter, it's all charisma, chemistry, and witty dialogue. What It Happened One Night masters, more than many of its successors, is heart.
Take one of the most iconic scenes of the film, where our leads - Peter (Clark Gable), down on his luck reporter, and Ellie (Claudette Colbert), absconding bride-to-be, are required to share a room for a night. Ellie has fled her father (Walter Connolly) and has caught the night bus to New York, so that she can reunite with her husband-to-be. Peter, who has just lost his newspaper job, sees Ellie as his route back, her story being that of the headline grabbing famous heiress, on the run from her rich, famous father.
Prior to this scene, the two have warmed to each other, Peter more-so than Ellie. However, as Peter organises the room, a situation forced due to rain blocking the night bus' route, we feel for Ellie. She has previously had the suitcase with all her money stolen, and even Peter has taken her remaining four dollars, thinking her spoiled nature will have her waste it. She is now in the tricky situation of potential blackmail. What cost will Peter ask for his silence? A night shared with her under duress?
Thankfully however, Peter dispels this horrid idea in the most charming of ways. The two single beds on opposing walls, already some reassurance that there is nothing untoward going on, are immediately divided by Peter as he hangs a wire with a blanket on it. He plays with her expectations - "Oh, I like privacy when I retire. I'm very delicate in that respect". He proclaims: "Behold the Walls of Jericho", tosses her a spare pair of his own pyjamas, and asks her: "Do you mind joining the Israelites?", pointing to the other side of the room. She stares and judges his performance. Unabashed, Peter continues to undress, telling a funny story about the order in which a man undresses, taking his shirt off, and just before he'll take his trousers down, she dashes to the privacy afforded by the blanket.
Already, this is a fantastic use of a prop. It's a symbol of Peter's playfulness, respect, and good intentions. He could have been a swine, as we later see fellow traveller Oscar Shapely (Roscoe Karns) reveal himself to be. Instead however, Peter continues his subtle charm offensive of Ellie. The blanket is used even further however as a device for developing their relationship, as after turning off the light, Ellie undresses.
The scene becomes intimate - rain pouring outside, Peter's face half-lit as he smokes. He sees her underclothes thrown over the blanket, wryly assesses them, then states: "I wish you'd take those things off the Walls of Jericho.", once again playfully using his name for the privacy blanket. Ellie quickly apologies and does so, having absent-mindedly hung them. After undressing, within this private intimacy, she asks him his name, reminding us that despite their clear chemistry, they barely know each other.
At a later motel, after the two have bonded even further, the Wall of Jericho is placed again. However Ellie, who has fallen for Peter, rushes around it, into his arms, breaking the privacy and distance that he had established in that first scene. She loves him, and tells him so. He knows that she is engaged to someone else, someone that she was mad enough about to run away to and start her entire adventure. Crestfallen that he won't promise to run off with her, she returns to her bed. After she falls asleep, Peter asks her if she really meant what she said, to no reply. He peeps over the blanket, finding that she's fallen asleep. He was going to reciprocate, even peeping over the blanket, but the timing was off.
He decides on another plan, as he surreptitiously dresses, all the while protected by the blanket, leaving her to sleep. His plan is to sell the story of their love to his editor, asking for an upfront payment of a thousand dollars, enough for them to run away together. As he races back in the car, trying to reach her before she awakes, it becomes apparent that she was kicked out by the moral motel owners, and found by her father, returning her home. When she was awoken by the motel owners, we see Ellie just as confused as them at Peter's leaving, as she initially calls out over the blanket, which the owners pull down. The blanket is therefore reinforced as a symbol of their relationship, one that is now being used, in Ellie's mind, as an aid to his leaving her high and dry. The privacy it once represented shattered by the motel owners violently tugging it down.
This theme is finalised at the film's end. Peter has convinced Ellie's father that he truly loves her. Her father then convinces Ellie that she should leave her would-be husband at the altar, which she does, dashing to a nearby car. We don't see either of the two leads from this point. We do however see the marriage being annulled, with Ellie's father then receiving a telegram: "What's the hold up? The Walls of Jericho are tumbling". He replies: "Let 'em tumble!". We see an exterior of a motel cabin, lit from inside. The motel owner tells her husband that the guests asked her for a blanket and a string, despite it being the middle of the night. The husband replies that they sent him to the store to get a toy trumpet. We hear it toot, the blanket fall, and the lights go out. The couple can marry, and the private Walls of Jericho now fallen, they can become truly intimate with one another.
Having a prop used multiple ways in a scene is difficult enough. Having a prop used multiple ways throughout an entire film even harder. It Happened One Night pulls it off, wringing that blanket dry of narrative use, and thematic symbolism; even using it as a fantastic denouement to the entire film, and ergo the relationship of Peter and Ellie. The initial "Walls of Jericho" scene is one of the most iconic from the film, and one of the most iconic romantic comedy scenes in film. What makes it so great is that that object, which aids in forming the heart of the film, does so in such a smart and controlled way throughout the entire film. It's timeless filmmaking, through and through.
