starring Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert
directed by Frank Capra
Ellen Andrews (Claudette Colbert), a grown woman who recently married someone to whom her rich father objects, dives off the side of her father's yacht, swims back to shore, and goes on the run. She is desperate to get back to her husband. She catches the bus from Miami. She is headed for New York City.
Peter Warne (Clark Gable), a reporter who recently got fired, runs into Ellen on the bus. They don't know one another but are forced to sit together due to a lack of seating. He figures out who she is and offers to help her if she will give him an exclusive story. She is reluctant to take him up on his offer but she accepts his assistance after her suitcase and most of her money is stolen.
Things get complicated after someone else on the bus recognizes her. They leave the bus and start hitchhiking. They get closer and closer to New York.
I saw this movie once before, in the 1980s,. I think that's the last time I saw it. I know that it has been a long time since I last saw it. I don't have any strong recollections of the movie. The only moments that I could recall were the well know ones.
This movie won all five Academy Awards for which it was nominated. It won Best Picture, Colbert and Gable won for Best Actress and Best Actor, Capra won for Best Director, and Robert Riskin won for Best Writing (Adaptation). It was Colbert's only Academy Award win although she was nominated twice more in 1936 and 1945. It was Gable's only Academy Award win although he was nominated twice more in 1936 and 1940. It was Riskin's only Academy Award win although he was nominated on four other occasions in 1934, 1937, 1939, and 1952. Capra won three Academy Awards total, all for directing, this was his first win. He also won in 1937 for Mr. Deeds Goes to Town and 1939. He was also nominated for Best Director in 1934, 1940, 1947/
I don't think I've seen Gable or Colbert in anything else recently. Alan Hale plays a guy who picks them up while they are hitchhiking. I love the little part of the movie that he is in. He was also in The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938) and The Sea Hawk (1940), both of which star Errol Flynn and both of which I've watched in the past 18 months.
I like the humor in this movie but there are other aspects of it that don't feel right to me. Does she really love him? Does he really love her? I know they say they do but I didn't feel it. I heard the words. I can believe that there was a bond that developed between them but I didn't fully buy the relationship.
What keeps this movie going and keeps it good is the humor. In some ways it felt like a collection of moments rather than one cohesive story.
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