It Happened One Night and the Hollywood Production Code

The Curtain as Symbol

One of the most sensually evocative scenes in Capra's It Happened One Night (1934) is when a bare-chested Peter Warne begins undressing in front of Ellie Andrews. He has a giant smirk across his face as he starts unbuttoning his pants, daring her to bolt behind the curtain he has hung on a rope to serve as a room divider. She has scoffed at the idea of sharing a room with a man and sees the curtain as a flimsy sort of protection of privacy, while he maintains that it is as strong as the walls of Jericho — the beginning of a running gag that will return at the film's end. His smirk and state of half-undress (with the threat of further exposure) is enough to send her fleeing to her side of the room. Yet the sexual tension created by Peter's antics makes the film sizzle without any actual indication of sex or sexual arousal: everything is suggested and mildly hinted at.

The curtain represents the Production Code that was meant to preserve the innocence of the viewing audience — as absurd as that might seem on the face of it. Yet the curtain clearly functions, however flimsily. It does serve to keep Ellie and Peter separated, and it is only at the end of the film that the curtain finally falls and the trumpet sounds, humorously indicating that the "walls of Jericho" have collapsed and Ellie has surrendered herself to Peter, sexually speaking. The permission for all this to happen comes directly from Ellie's own father, who states in a telegram after she runs off from her betrothed, "Let them fall." The sexual relations that follow are thus viewed as permissible and licit — even if they cannot be shown on screen. The humorous way in which sex is implied is part of a running gag, sophomoric in its own way, but characteristic of screwball comedies during the Production Code era, as Jane Greene explains.

Screwball Comedy and the Production Code

Greene makes the case that "the antagonistic nature of the romantic relationship and the emphasis on physical comedy are generally seen as an outcome of the suppression of explicit sexuality under the Production Code Administration (PCA) after 1934" (45). From this perspective, the curtain erected by Clark Gable's Peter in Capra's film serves as a symbol of the Production Code itself. Gable, with his ever-present wolfish grin, clad in his robe on his side of the curtain, says to the apprehensive Ellie on her side: "You've got nothing to worry about: the 'walls of Jericho' will protect you from the big bad wolf." The walls of Jericho refer to the curtain, and the big bad wolf refers to himself — or at least to the male sexual appetite. In any case, the scene is an embodiment of the entire Production Code era, and Capra is subtly making fun of it in a roundabout way, never actually referring to the Code or to the sexual behavior it was meant to prevent films from showcasing.

The fact of the matter is that in any romantic comedy, sex must form some part of the story, because at the root of romance is sex. Sexual tension is a fact of life, and if it is not accurately reflected on screen, the characters and plot become divorced from reality. The style of the screwball comedy was meant to compensate for the fact that sex could not be depicted on screen — so instead the characters made outrageous faces, engaged in outrageous physical humor, and acted unhinged. As Andrew Sarris notes, "Here we have all these beautiful people with nothing to do. Let us invent some substitutes for sex. The wisecracks multiply beyond measure, and when audiences tire of verbal sublimation, the performers do cartwheels and pratfalls and make funny expressions" (13). Thus, in place of sex on screen, the characters had to engage in outrageous behavior to blow off steam — or so ran Sarris's argument.

Capra's Visual Strategy

In It Happened One Night, however, the sexual tension arises specifically from the fact that Ellie is fleeing marriage and that Peter is an outsider who somewhat disdainfully and scornfully respects the rules of matrimony — even if his respect is expressed mockingly. He does not violate the curtain. And neither does Capra. One of the rules of the Production Code was that there should be no licentious or implied nudity. Gable's bare chest is shown, but Capra does not risk violating the Code by suggesting a bare-chested Ellie. He shoots her from behind as she begins to undress in a scene near the film's end, when she wonders whether she will ever see Peter again as they speak to one another once more through the curtain. She is wearing a thin negligee and turns so that the audience sees her profile — but she is not nude from the waist up, so there is no violation of the Code. Capra cuts away before she can remove her skirt. Thus, he remains true to the Code, neither suggesting nudity through silhouette nor showing any directly.

Capra's approach to the Code mirrors Peter's approach to sexual morality: he will respect it by keeping to his side of the curtain — but he will not once deny the fact that sex is a real motivation between a man and a woman. Capra likewise refuses to deny what the audience wants: the audience wants to see the walls of Jericho fall, and he plays into that gag at the film's end by showing the curtain fall — but, again, the sex that follows is only implied.

Thus, Capra circumvents the restrictive nature of the Code by making a film about sexual tension without ever explicitly showing sex or nudity. There is no rape or attempted rape shown in the film — although the fear of such an event certainly appears to enter Ellie's mind as she flees to her side of the curtain that first night. She thinks about escaping through the window, but the rain prevents her.

Conclusion: Ribbing the Spirit of the Code

As Greene explains, "the producers of romantic comedies could not explicitly represent a sexual union or reunion and therefore found alternative ways to demonstrate a couple's suitability and desire" (45) — and that is precisely what Capra does at the end of It Happened One Night. What happened one night? The two characters finally had sex. That is the great gag at the heart of the film, which slyly thumbs its nose at the Code while respecting its letter all the while. Essentially, this is what every Capra-era screwball comedy ended up doing by the late 1930s: respecting the letter of the Code while ribbing its spirit as much as possible.

Works Cited

Greene, Jane. "A Proper Dash of Spice: Screwball Comedy and the Production Code." Journal of Film and Video, vol. 63, no. 3, 2011, pp. 45–63.

Sarris, Andrew. "The Sex Comedy without Sex." American Film, vol. 3, 1978, pp. 8–15.