Summary
Blissfully unaware that Ellie has phoned her father and is getting picked up soon, Peter drives down the road on his way to propose. “Just gotta get there before she wakes up!” he says to himself. The scene shifts and we see a squadron of police cars as well as a car carrying Mr. Andrews and King Westley. Mr. Andrews orders them to drive faster. Speeding down the street, Andrews’ group passes Peter’s car. The scene shifts and we see a crowd gathered around the sheriff’s office, where Andrews escorts Ellie into his car. They drive away, sirens blaring. Meanwhile, Peter is still making his way towards the motel, singing the song about “The Man on the Flying Trapeze” from the bus. He approaches a set of railroad tracks and stops for a passing train. As the train goes by, he waves cheerfully to the workers, who wave gleefully back at him.
When the train has passed, Andrew’s squad drives past Peter’s car. He spots Ellie through the car window, leaning on King Westley. Turning his car around, Peter follows Mr. Andrews' car, but is eventually foiled by a flat tire. As the scene shifts, we see stacks of newspapers being printed with headlines about Ellie’s return home and her happy marriage to King Westley. In Joe Gordon’s newsroom, a journalist stops Peter to tell him that Ellie is marrying King Westley officially, and Peter shrugs and walks towards Gordon’s office. When he finds that Gordon is out, Peter throws the $1000 that Gordon gave him down on his secretary’s desk, with the message to “tell him I was just kidding.” He walks out of the office, dejected. Just as he is leaving, Gordon comes back and notices the money. He runs towards Peter and Peter apologizes for misleading his editor. Gordon accepts his apology, slipping the money into Peter’s breast pocket, and telling him to come back and talk to him once he’s sobered up.
It is the day of Ellie’s official wedding to King Westley; a newspaper headline informs us that Mr. Andrews insisted on a church wedding in spite of their elopement. We see Mr. Andrews knocking on Ellie’s door. When he goes into her room, he finds her in a daze and tells her that King Westley is planning a real “stunt,” arriving at the wedding in an autogyro—a kind of aircraft. When Ellie seems nonplused by the prospect, her father sympathizes, before noticing that Ellie seems genuinely sad. He asks what’s wrong and if she’s changed her mind about King, reminding her that it’s not too late. Suddenly Ellie begins to weep and falls in her father’s arms. Mr. Andrews comforts her and asks, “You haven’t fallen in love with someone else have you?” From her silence and her tears, Mr. Andrews can tell that she has, and he asks where she met the man she’s in love with. “On the road,” she replies.
While her father is ready to “move heaven and earth” to reunite her with the man she loves, Ellie is sure that Peter doesn’t love her, and tells her father that Peter disparaged her for being wealthy and pampered. Mr. Andrews wants to speak to Peter himself, but Ellie wants to go through with the wedding to King, convinced that Peter wants nothing to do with her. “I’m tired of running around in circles,” she says, slumping down on a couch. She continues to lament her circumstances, dejected, finally mentioning Peter’s name. “Peter Warne,” Mr. Andrews says, touching something in his inside jacket pocket. Sensing that her father must have heard from Peter, Ellie grabs the thing he is touching—a letter from Peter—from his pocket. Peter’s letter tells Mr. Andrews that he needs to discuss “a financial matter in connection with your daughter.” Ellie hands back the letter, a scowl on her face. She believes that the letter is proof that Peter was only ever interested in her for the reward.
When a maid comes into the room with a tray of drinks and announces that King Westley is coming up, Ellie downs two drinks one after the other. Mr. Andrews leaves, running into King Westley on his way out. King goes to Ellie, kisses her, and asks if she’s happy. She tells him how happy she is to be marrying him, that together they will “get on a merry-go-round and never get off.” The scene shifts and we see Peter in his office, drinking and reading the articles about Ellie. When his phone rings, it’s Mr. Andrews who wants to settle their business matter at his office. Initially Peter insists that he doesn’t want to intrude on Ellie’s wedding, but he suddenly has a change of heart and tells Mr. Andrews that he wants to come over and “get a load of that 3 ring circus you’re pulling.”
We see Peter coming into Mr. Andrews’ office. Mr. Andrews invites him to sit down and informs Peter that Ellie didn’t mention anything about him helping her. “That’s typical of your daughter,” Peter says. Mr. Andrews then tells Peter that Ellie thinks he is entitled to money for his services. In response, Peter hands him an itemized list of all the expenses he had on the trip with Ellie, which comes out to about $39. When Mr. Andrews asks if he wants the $39 in addition to the $10,000 reward, Peter says he doesn’t want any reward money, just the amount he has listed. “You’re a peculiar chap. The average man would go after the reward,” Mr. Andrews says. Peter insists that it’s a matter of principle and that because he was duped by Ellie, he cannot accept the money. Skeptically, Mr. Andrews writes Peter a check, and as he hands it to him, asks frankly, “Do you love my daughter?” Peter doesn’t answer him directly, instead suggesting that she and King Westley are a good match and that anyone who falls in love with Ellie ought to have his head examined. Mr. Andrews continues to prod Peter, asking if he loves Ellie. Finally, on his way out the door, Peter admits, “Yes! But don’t hold that against me, I’m a little screwy myself!”
In the hallway, Peter sees Ellie raising a glass for a toast. The two of them lock eyes, and Ellie walks towards him. “I hope you got your money,” she tells him, and he tells her he did. When she tells him to stick around, he declines and walks briskly out the door. Mr. Andrews goes up to his daughter and tries to inform her that Peter loves her, but she is heartbroken and dismisses her father, saying, “I don’t want to hear another word about him!” Guests assemble for the wedding as King Westley arrives in an autogyro. The musicians play a wedding processional, as Mr. Andrews walks Ellie down the aisle. Mr. Andrews turns to his daughter and tells her, “You’re a sucker to go through with this. That guy Warne is okay. He didn’t want the reward, all he asked for was 39 dollars and 60 cents…He loves you Ellie, he told me so. You don’t want to be married to a mug like Westley, I could buy him off with a pot of gold.” He then tells her that if she changes her mind, there is a car waiting for her at the back gate. Ellie says nothing as they arrive at the altar.
The wedding ceremony begins. In the last moment, Ellie runs from the ceremony, causing a stir. She runs through the field, pursued by guests and reporters, and hops into a car, her veil trailing behind her. Mr. Andrews puffs on a cigar as he watches the chaos. The scene shifts and we see Mr. Andrews mixing a drink later on, when suddenly a call comes through from King Westley. He tells King that he has sent over a check for 100,000 and thinks it was wise of King to accept the annulment. He then receives a telegram from Peter and Ellie, who want to know what’s taking so long with the annulment. The scene shifts and we see an older couple looking over at a cabin that Ellie and Peter are sharing. The wife thinks that Ellie and Peter aren’t married, but her husband assures her that he just saw their license. The couple then discusses the fact that Ellie and Peter asked for a rope and a blanket as well as a trumpet for their room. We hear the sound of the trumpet and see the blanket fall to the floor.
Analysis
It Happened One Night is as much a story about the Great Depression in America as it is about two unlikely lovers. Rural America in the 1930s serves as a backdrop for Peter and Ellie’s affair, and we see traces of its impact throughout. Director Frank Capra, known as a filmmaker for his optimistic framing of the American dream, depicts the ingenuity of the lower classes and their ability to come together and experience joy in spite of trying circumstances. For instance, the doldrums of the public night bus are transformed by a joyful musical moment, when all the passengers join in song on the ride North. This musical interlude serves to show the power of human connection in trying times, and indeed, the community of the bus rushes to the aid of the young boy whose mother has passed out from hunger immediately after. Then in this section of the film, we again see Capra’s utopian vision of a connective America. As he drives to propose to Ellie, Peter encounters a passing train filled with railroad workers and other blue-collar people. Peter’s lovestruck joy is infectious and he yells and cheers for the workers who wave joyfully back. Capra imagines an America in economic crisis in which individuals can still find connection and togetherness across class lines, and in which love brings together not only the lovers themselves, but also their community.
While love is infectious in the film, it seems as though Ellie and Peter may lose one another in the final stretch. After Peter leaves in the middle of the night to submit his story and collect some money from Gordon for an engagement to Ellie, Ellie is awakened by the motel owners, and mistakes Peter’s empty bed for his rejection. Feeling abandoned, she dismisses the incident and returns to her father and King Westley, ready to return to her scripted life as an heiress. This misunderstanding becomes all the more damaging when Peter realizes that she has gone home, and he mistakes her action as a rejection as well. Thus, there are two instances of dramatic irony. We the audience know that Ellie and Peter love each other, that Peter intends to propose and that Ellie would likely say yes, but because of their respective misunderstandings, the two lovers end up thinking that their respective affections are not returned. Their love hangs in the balance as each of them believes the other to have moved on or to have never cared at all.
Curiously enough, it is Ellie’s overbearing father who comes to her rescue at her darkest moment. At the start of the movie, he was an unpleasant and paternalistic figure, who never let his daughter fly free or make her own decisions. Here, however, he wants to help his daughter make a good decision for herself and to have some freedom and choice. When he observes Ellie’s deflated behavior following her return home, he wants to understand what is bothering her, and he correctly guesses that she has fallen in love with someone else. While she is sure that Peter never really loved her, Mr. Andrews is not so sure. After his meeting with Peter, he is convinced of the newspaperman’s genuine love for his daughter and wants to help his daughter reconnect with her traveling companion. As time runs out, and the wedding processional begins, Mr. Andrews whispers to his daughter that Peter still loves her and that he thinks she should reconsider her choice to reject him, mentioning that there is a car just outside the gate for her to use, should she change her mind. Throughout the film, Mr. Andrews has been an almost antagonistically limiting force, but now he opens a door for his daughter and encourages her to follow her heart.
Mr. Andrews’ assessment of Peter is based on very little—Ellie’s apparent heartbrokenness and Peter’s refusal to accept the reward money—but he feels confident in his judgment. Indeed, the integrity of Peter’s love for Ellie is measured primarily by how little money he is willing to accept for his having returned her safely to her father. Mr. Andrews is surprised when the only money that Peter requests at their meeting is $39.60 to cover basic travel expenses. This humility and restraint is impressive to the older millionaire, who marvels at the fact that Peter cannot be bought. As he tells his daughter when they are walking down the aisle, “You don't want to be married to a mug like Westley. I can buy him off for a pot of gold.” In contrast to Peter, who Mr. Andrews sees as an honest man, King Westley is greedy and opportunistic, and would gladly accept money in exchange for Ellie. This characteristic of Peter's—his decent, honest relationship to money and value—is what so charms Mr. Andrews, and what convinces him that Peter is the right man for Ellie.
After Ellie flees her wedding to King Westley in order to run off with Peter, we do not see the couple’s reunion. Rather, the scene shifts to Mr. Andrews on the phone with King Westley, who has gone along cooperatively with the annulment. Moments later, a telegram arrives from Peter and Ellie, who want to know if the annulment went through. The finalization of Ellie’s separation from King is of the utmost importance, as the reunited couple wants to know if they can finally let “the walls of Jericho” fall. “The walls of Jericho” are, of course, the curtain that Peter and Ellie have had to hang between their two beds in their travels in order to temper the scandalous sexual tension of an unmarried opposite-sex duo sharing a bedroom. The hanging curtain has been a symbol of the impossible desire shared between the two of them, but once the annulment goes through, they will be able to drop it once and for all. Having fled to a cabin much like the ones they stayed at on their journey north, Ellie and Peter ask the motel owners for a sheet so that they can ceremoniously drop the curtain and become a married couple. We do not see the happy couple—only the motel owner and his wife gossiping about their strange request. In the final moment of the film, we see the curtain fall to the floor, symbolizing the fact that Ellie and Peter are now able to breach the boundary between them and consummate their love. We are left with a suggestive symbolic image of the couple’s sexuality, the dropping of a curtain and a physical boundary.
