Summary
The scene shifts and we are in the office of Peter’s editor, Joe Gordon. His secretary informs him that there’s a message from Peter and he angrily tells her to throw it away. On second thought, he decides he wants to hear what it has to say, and she reads it to him. It’s a short, taunting note, and Gordon orders his secretary not to accept any more wires. The scene shifts to Mr. Andrews yelling at one of the detectives; he is so frustrated that no one can find his daughter. When two more detectives come in, Andrews tells them to make a radio announcement that he is now setting a reward of $10,000 for anyone who can provide any information about Ellie’s whereabouts. He also hands one of them a photograph of Ellie from his desk and tells him to release it to the papers. “Now we’ll get some action!” he bellows, and we see the newspaper cover with Ellie's photograph on it.
We see Shapeley looking at the front page story on the bus. Recognizing Ellie, he looks up and stares back at Ellie, smiling. A group of musicians are playing a song as the bus rolls along and Ellie and Peter listen to them, smiling. A sailor stands and sings along with the musicians, then another passenger sings a verse. Even the driver gets pulled into the song, but he grows so distracted that he accidentally drives off the road and into a muddy patch of water. The passengers are still in a lighthearted mood, when suddenly a young boy cries out; his mother seems to have lost consciousness. Peter rushes to the rescue and the boy tells him that he and his mother spent all their money on their bus ticket, and that they’re headed to New York, where there’s a promise of a job. Ellie walks over and tells the boy that his mother is waking up and is going to be alright. She then hands him the only money that she and Peter have and tells him to get them both something to eat at the next stop. At first, the boy doesn’t want to accept the money, but Ellie and Peter insist, and Ellie brings him back to sit with his mother.
Peter goes out to see what the driver did, and notices that the bus drove into a muddy ditch. When he tells the driver that they ought to phone for help, the driver informs him that the nearest town is 10 miles away. Shapeley comes out of the bus, approaches Peter and shows him the newspaper, offering to go 50/50 on the reward, or else he’s going to collect the reward himself. Peter invites Shapeley to go for a walk with him to talk over his proposition. When they are a little ways from the bus, Peter pretends that he is a gangster, telling Shapeley that he has two machine guns and that he’ll make sure that “the Killer” takes care of Shapeley. This makes Shapeley nervous, and his eyes widen as Peter tells Shapeley that he plans to collect a million dollars for the return of Ellie. Shapeley immediately rescinds his offer and decides he doesn’t want to get involved. Peter stays in character, putting on a show of worrying that Shapeley knows too much to back out now. “Why should I take a chance with you?” Peter asks, and Shapeley promises to keep his mouth shut. To make extra sure that Shapeley won’t tell anyone about Ellie, Peter threatens Shapeley that if he squeals he will set the gangsters on Shapeley’s children. Having struck an adequate amount of fear into Shapeley’s heart, Peter tells him to “beat it.” Shapeley runs away from the bus into the woods, tripping on a root on the way.
The scene shifts and we see Peter and Ellie running through the woods towards a small river. Ellie asks why they had to leave the bus, and Peter tells her that he thinks Shapeley will eventually realize that he was lying to him and that they have to keep hiding from the authorities. “The next town we come to, you’d better wire your father,” he tells her, rolling up his pants. When she asks why, he tells her that they ought to get some money before she starves. “Did you give that boy all your money?” she asks, surprised, and he reminds her that she was the one that was so generous with the boy. Resolutely, Ellie tells Peter that she plans to get to New York without wiring her father, even if she has to “starve all the way.” He agrees and hands her his shoes, before picking her up, slinging her over his shoulder, and walking her across the river. While Ellie thinks that the way he is carrying her counts as a “piggyback,” Peter disagrees and they get into a playful argument about it. Peter doesn’t believe that rich people are capable of giving piggybacks, and when Ellie informs him, “My father was a great piggybacker,” he spanks her.
We see the couple wandering through the woods at night. Ellie is getting tired as they climb through a fence into a small clearing. Peter makes a pile of hay to sleep on, but Ellie doesn’t want to sleep outside and is hungry now. He tells her it’s all in her head as he keeps making a bed of hay. As Ellie continues to complain, Peter laments ever getting involved with her, saying, “Taking a married woman back to her husband…I turned out to be the prize sucker!” He finishes making up a bed of hay for Ellie and scolds her to stop complaining. She lies down and gets ready to sleep. As Peter starts to make his own bed, he notices something and walks away from Ellie, but she doesn’t notice, saying to him, “If being with me is so distasteful to you, you can leave.” She leans back and tells the now absent Peter that she can get along without him, before suddenly realizing he’s gone. She calls out to him, growing more and more anxious at the thought of being alone. He rushes back and she throws her arms around him. Peter only went to get her something to eat, but when he shows her the food he found, she tells him she isn’t hungry anymore. Exasperated, Peter throws the food on the ground and continues making a bed for himself.
Ellie lies down and looks at Peter, who takes his coat and lays it over Ellie for warmth. As he puts the coat down on top of her, he almost kisses her, then turns away. He lights up a cigarette and smokes silently, and Ellie asks him what he’s thinking about. “By a strange coincidence, I was thinking of you,” he tells her. She is intrigued, but he quickly clarifies: “I was just wondering what makes dames like you so dizzy.” Ellie watches Peter as he kicks some hay and lies down to sleep. A single tear falls down her cheek as she watches him and night falls. The next day, they walk down the road together. Peter tells Ellie that they are going to hitchhike, but there are no cars out yet. Ellie decides to sit down beside the road until a car comes, as she is tired of walking. He helps her remove some hay from her teeth and he eats some raw carrots, which horrifies Ellie. The duo argues, which causes them to miss a passing car. Peter scolds her for distracting him and brags about his ability to hitchhike. He demonstrates the proper thumb motion to get a car to stop for a hitchhiker. He then demonstrates the proper smile to give, and Ellie sarcastically says, “You figured that out all by yourself!” Suddenly, a car approaches and Peter tries to demonstrate his virtuosic hitchhiking tactics. He sticks out his thumb, but the car speeds past. A few more cars speed past and none of them stop.
Analysis
As Peter and Ellie continue on their journey, they are brought closer together by the thrill of travel and adventure. As much as the film is a romantic comedy, it is also a travel and adventure film. While they are becoming more intimately connected, the two travelers become adventurers of sorts together, setting their own course together free from the expectations of society. In this suspended state they find a great deal of fun and pleasure. This is best exemplified by the impromptu sing-along on the bus. As musicians play their instruments in the back of the bus, a warm camaraderie spreads among all of the passengers, and they are swept up by their shared enjoyment of travel. One passenger requests a song about the “flying trapeze” and several passengers stand to sing different verses. It is an almost utopian vision, strangers on the open road taking their turns at singing a familiar song, each contributing their own idiosyncratic perspective. Peter and Ellie smile at one another and sing along with the group, and even the bus driver gets swept up in the joy of the song, so much so that he drives off the road and into the mud.
The film depicts the precarious economic environment of the Great Depression, its inequities, tragedies, and the small patches of hope in between. While Ellie is an heiress who doesn’t quite know the worth of things, the people around her, on the bus and along the way, are struggling to get by on the little that they have. The theme of economic precariousness is most explicit in the scene with the despairing little boy on the bus, whose mother won’t seem to wake up, having passed out from hunger. The boy explains to Peter that they spent all their money on the bus tickets, so they could get to New York to pursue an employment opportunity. The little boy is despondent about his mother’s hunger, and has clearly been pushed to his emotional limits by his circumstances. His tears are sobering, to both Peter and the viewer, as we are confronted with the ways that children had to struggle to help their families make ends meet during the Great Depression. The film is connected to its historical context, and doesn’t shy away from depicting an America that is being tested by economic hardship. Class disparity is not simply a joke in It Happened One Night—as when Ellie tries to cut the line to the showers at the camp or when she expects the bus driver to wait for her to get back from a fancy hotel—it is also a solemn reality.
In spite of the conflict and the misunderstandings between the two traveling companions, a romantic spark begins to kindle. While Peter enjoys nothing more than to make fun of and bemoan Ellie’s spoiled temperament, he also finds himself charmed by her naivety and her neediness, and enjoys taking care of her even though he alleges that she gets on his nerves. Ellie similarly finds herself falling for Peter in spite of her initial distaste for his brusqueness, and as they set out on their own, she finds herself in thrall to him in unexpected ways. When he goes to look for food for her, she doesn’t notice he is gone and begins talking about the fact that he can leave if he wants to and that she will be fine without him, but when she finally notices his absence, she begins to panic and calls for him in terror. She falls into his arms when he does finally return. Then, when he lays a coat over her affectionately, Peter hovers above her, wanting to kiss her, before turning away. Frustrated by his affections for her, not to mention the fact that she is married to another man, Peter smokes a cigarette. When Ellie asks what he’s thinking about, he admits that he’s thinking about her, but covers up his affection with his usual cynical armor, calling her a “dizzy dame” and settling in to bed without so much as a goodnight. Watching Peter get ready for bed, Ellie begins to cry, for reasons not entirely clear to the viewer, but presumably having something to do with her affection for Peter.
The camera work and visual direction of the film add to the romantic and adventurous color of the film. When Peter and Ellie get off the bus and go out on their own, the landscape becomes dreamy and beautiful, and the film is shot to highlight this. Ellie and Peter rush to a river’s edge after leaving the bus, and sunlight reflects off the surface of the water with a bright luster. While they might be desperate and without food or money, Peter and Ellie enjoy the bounty of an enchanted American landscape, and this is highlighted by the way this section of the film is shot. The image of Peter rolling up his pants, slinging Ellie over his shoulders, and walking across the river carrying a briefcase is iconic and romantic, the image of two people who have gone “off the grid” together, traversing the elements with nothing but the clothes on their backs and a thirst for adventure. They wander through misty forests and make beds of hay, and though the wilderness may be a little scary for the sheltered heiress, Ellie, it is also undeniably enchanting, almost like a fairy tale.
The romance and beauty of Peter and Ellie’s travels are perhaps best typified by the image of the duo walking down the road the following day in search of a ride. Director Frank Capra decides to shoot their walk from behind, as if we the viewer are walking a few steps behind. This gives the impression that the viewer is somehow separate from Peter and Ellie’s journey, privy to their experience, but not actually implicated. Rather than alienating the viewer from the action, however, the choice to shoot the couple from behind puts the viewer in a more omniscient perspective, almost as if we are watching Ellie and Peter from the perspective of nature itself. This remove illuminates the way that coupledom itself is a kind of hermetically sealed arrangement, impenetrable to outsiders. The shot gives the poetic impression that Peter and Ellie are the only two people in the world, and the viewer is privileged to get a peek.
