Cinematic Love- Is It the Happy Ending We Make It Out to Be? by Ja'el

Ja’el Thomas
Professor Sinowitz
February 23,2020
Romantic Comedy

Cinematic Love- Is It the Happy Ending We Make It Out to Be?

Who doesn’t want a happy ending? Romantic comedies tend to have happy endings. These happy endings result in a woman forgiving a man for something he did earlier in the story, and then they get married without him having learned a single thing. Garner argues that there is a recurring pattern in Shakespeare's work Much Ado About Nothing. These patterns include: the men’s desire to be betrayed so they can return to their homo-social bonding, and the women just forgiving them even though they learn nothing. These patterns are transformed in It Happened One Night but still include traces of women’s easy forgiveness. Peter Warne’s (Clark Gable) desire to be betrayed is for a different reason. Warne wants to be proven right about his class prejudices, and no matter how rude he is, Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) forgives him every time though he shows no signs of having changed. 

In the beginning of the movie, Warne and Andrews are in a bus station when he realizes her identity as the daughter of one of the richest men in Florida. She offers to pay him and he gets annoyed saying, 

“Never mind. You know I had you pegged right from the jump. Just a spoiled brat of a rich father. The only way you ever get anything is to buy it, isn’t it. You’re in a jam and all you can think of is your money. It never fails does it? Ever hear of the word humility? No you wouldn’t. I guess it never occurred to you to say “Please Mr. I’m in trouble, will you help me?” Noo, let it bring you down off your high horse for a minute… I’m not interested in your money or your problem. You, King Wesley, or your father. You’re all a lot of hooey to me.”

This one occurrence of Andrews offering to pay him immediately confirms Warne’s prejudices of the upper class. He immediately supposes she is a rotten spoiled brat. He goes on this whole self-righteous rant to put her in her place, maybe knock her down a few pegs. Andrews probably hurt his pride, and so he does what wounded men do, yells at her making her feel inferior. If he believes all these terrible things about her then it will make it easier not to fall for her and get his heart broken. The truth is, even in this rant, he still likes her a little because before this scene, they were on the bus and he allowed her to sleep on him which most likely causes him to put up his defenses shortly after.

Warne constantly tries to keep his feelings for Andrews from building by being rude every time he feels something. His desire to be betrayed is his defense mechanism from getting hurt. For example, the first time there is a visible hint that something more could happen between them is the scene after Warne and Andrews have abandoned the bus and are looking for a place to stay the night, so they find a place outside near the hay. Andrews is laying down on the hay in a full body shot. There becomes some tension as the audience can presume that Andrews is thinking about Warne because the camera cuts to a mid-shot focusing on her as she sits up and then it zooms out to a two-person shot showing both of them. Warren comes up to her and says, “It’s liable to get chilly before morning. Better use this.” and puts his jacket on her as the camera zooms in while they stare into each other’s eyes. This shows the viewers just how close they are to each other. It is also made obvious that they are both thinking about kissing each other as all thoughts of banter vanish. However, Warne decides not to kiss her and as he backs away, the camera moves with him, zooming out to a full body shot. This body shot parallels Warne giving Andrews her space as the camera gives the characters space. As he walks away, he takes out his cigarette. “What are you thinking about?” Ellie asks. Warne responds, “By a strange coincidence, I was thinking of you.” “Really?” she inquires hopefully. “Yeah I was just wondering what makes dames like you so dizzy”, he replies sourly as he throws his cigarette. His last words to her reminds them both of Andrews’ class because he is calling her a silly rich girl. This is a prime example of how Warne puts up his defenses when his feelings arise, by hurting Andrews in the process: she cries as the scene closes.

Even though Andrews gets hurt by Warne’s brashness, she forgives him anyway. The women in both It Happened One Night and Much Ado About Nothing are expected to forgive the men easily. Just as Hero forgives Claudio fairly rapidly, Andrews forgives Warne often when he is constantly rude to her. One example of a time where Andrews forgives Warne is when they are waiting outside of the gas station after hitching a ride. She wants to take the man’s offer for food rather than eat the carrots that Warne provides her.  “What were you going to do, gold-dig that guy for a meal?” This scene is filmed in a double shot/medium shot of them sitting in the car. She replies, “Sure I was. No fooling I’m hungry.” “Eat a carrot.”, he demands. She responds with, “No. I’m going in and asking him.” To stop her Warne threatens her, “You do, and I’ll break your neck.” as he grabs her arm to prevent her from getting out of the car. The camera cuts to a wider, three quarter shot as they get out of the car, then it cuts again to them at a bench to a double/full body shot , “C’mon, let’s get out of here, stretch our legs.”  She grows silent as they leave the car. He sits on the bench and she turns her back to him. He then realizes that he might have been too harsh, so he touches her arm softly and apologizes, “I’m sorry I-” “Oh, that’s all right.” she interjects with her back still facing him. She forgives him almost instantly! She doesn’t even let Warne fully apologize. She forgives him so often in the movie, that a reason for this could be because she probably thinks she deserves it. Andrews constantly finds out more about the real world and is forced to recognize her privilege. For example, the bus driver does not wait for her, she’s not able to buy chocolate because she has to spend on a budget, she’s made to wait at the back of the line to shower, she can't afford food or separate rooms and so on. So perhaps every time she is corrected, she feels it is another lesson she has to learn.

However, Andrews' ignorance of her privilege does not excuse Warne’s disrespectful nature towards her. Warne gets his happy ending even though he is not going to change. When Warne talks to Mr. Andrews (Walter Connolly) about his daughter, he says the harshest things about Andrews, and her father just smiles agreeing. “What she needs is a guy that'd take a sock at her once a day - whether it is coming to her or not. If you had half the brains you're supposed to have, you'd have done it yourself long ago.” Why should he change if he still gets the girl?

      Kendall says that Andrews “is the one who controls the action… she realizes she too has a choice.” However, this is not necessarily true because she is simply running into the arms of another man, lowering her class to be with him. Sure, she chooses to be with him, but that may be the only thing she gets to decide because in their relationship, during the entire movie, he has been the one making the decisions. In the end, is Andrews retreating to the crappy motels, being on his turf. Some critics might read the shift from Garner's schema as a sign that the entire schema does not apply to this film, but it does because there are still similarities: Warne still has a desire to be betrayed, and Andrews still forgives him. The fact that Warne lacks male friends is why there has to be a different reason he wants to push her away, and it is because he could get hurt due to her higher social class. Andrews already has everything, and if she has him, she could have everything she wants, and he is too prideful for that.

In conclusion, Warne wants to believe he is right, so that he doesn’t lose anything if it turns out that Andrews doesn’t return his feelings, which is why he pushes her away with his bad manners using class as an excuse to retreat. However, Andrews simply forgives him, humbling herself to be submissive, giving the viewers the happy ending they crave. Although, this may not be a happy ending for Andrews. Because Warne does not learn from the mistakes of being impertinent, there will be more nights of Andrews crying herself to sleep.

Works Cited

Adams. It Happened One Night. Culver City, CA: Columbia TriStar Home Video, 19.
Kendall, Elizabeth. The Runaway Bride. Ccoper Square Press, 1990.