A longer version of It Happened One Night

I had a draft of the screenplay to It Happened One Night and I kept putting it aside. I would read bits of it but then stop. Why? Because it was 173 pages long. And it's also written in that old style of screenwriting, which you don't see nowadays. So it's a bit hard to get through. But I did get through it so I wanted to jot down some notes on it.

The screenplay was written by Robert Riskin, adapted from a magazine article called Night Bus by Samuel Hopkins Adams that was published in Cosmopolitan. There are many things I've read about this screenplay. One being that the first drafts were horrible and not the finished product that is seen on screen--this was the reason given by Myrna Loy as to why she turned down the script. And from what I've read, of the other six actresses that turned down the role of Ellie, many gave the same reason although not all of them. It's been said that the characters were different, Ellie was a cranky heiress and Peter was a scientist, so these things were changed in the final draft. Riskin worked on the script, Frank Capra giving back notes--I believe Columbia also gave notes--until at last the shooting script came about.

The draft I read was not the final draft and it's lengthier than the film itself. I'm not sure which draft it was, but it was close enough to the finished product. The differences between the script and film are mostly extended dialogue. And what was cut out of the film was a wise choice. The finished film is a much tighter and shorter film than what would've ended up if they remained true to this version of the script.

I think one of the things that surprised me was how a chunk of scenes were marked as omitted on the script. This occurred when Ellie and Peter hitched a ride from the singing Danker, and I kept wondering what could they have possibly cut out? It obviously wasn't very important. In later scenes, there are other marks of scenes omitted as well, but not as large as this particular scene. Whatever that was cut, the scene as I read it in this draft was still just a tiny bit too long, which is probably why it was cut further in the film. Like much of the script, in this scene there are longer periods of focusing on particular objects to get the point across. For example, the driver, Danker, once he comes back out of the Lunch Wagon where they've stopped, takes the time to really look at Peter and Ellie and then back to his car and then to the suitcase and then around before he finally takes off. Now, most of this is done in the film in quick speed, but not the zoom in on the suitcase. There's no need to because the actions that follow, with Peter running after the car and the driver not stopping, show enough of the driver's motivation.

There was also extended dialogue throughout the script, and it's really well written that it's such a shame that it had to be cut out. But the truth of it is is that it was necessary. Some of it was exposition, and I appreciated the fact that instead, Capra allowed his actors to show these cut out dialogue bits of exposition through their actions. When Peter and Ellie find themselves in the haystack and have a moment of near intimacy, in the script Peter is going on ranting about how Ellie must've made guys go crazy and she's used to it. While this makes him sound whiny and a bit unlikable it's also telling too much. Instead, this bit of dialogue is cut out and all you see in the film is Peter going off to smoke a cigarette while he glances back at Ellie. With a great actor, you don't need to have your character say anything, and Clark Gable does a great job of showing exactly what Peter is feeling at that moment: nervous and fighting within himself against the feelings stirred up inside of him.

There's a final scene cut out right before the wedding is supposed to take place. King Westley and Andrews have a talk in which Andrews makes it quite clear that he's giving in to this marriage and how King Westley will probably take over his company one day, and how he doesn't necessarily like it but he's giving in. But he's worried about the huge responsibility King Westley is taking on with Ellie. King Westley doesn't seem bothered by this, to which Andrews tells him he should be. Then he makes a request of King Westley.

It seems to be the only thing that will win Andrews' respect, to which King Westley says he'll try to do. And you know, having seen the film several times already, I knew all the things that were coming when I read the screenplay, but this was a funny surprise. I wasn't sure if the request was meant to test King Westley or if it was meant to be funny, and I went with the latter, especially when I remembered the scene between Peter and Andrews that soon followed in which Peter says that any man who would marry Ellie needs to sock it to her at least once a day. So of course, you suddenly understand why Andrews was definitely won over by Peter after that statement. It was a funny scene I wouldn't have minded seeing in the film, but maybe the thought of confusion, which I initially thought when I read it, influenced the cutting of that scene.

This draft of It Happened One Night was funny, well-written, and with great dialogue. It was definitely a lot longer and it showed the importance on cutting down excessive, although funny, dialogue. There were other bits of dialogue that were sharpened between this draft and the film, which were much better in the end, and in all things, the film is much better, tighter than the script that I read. And I think this is what's important, the fact that the dialogue has to be on top, sharp, as well as the fact that the story can't be too long or drag along. It was a good read to see the process in between writing and re-writing, and the final draft that is seen on the screen.