It Happened One Night
It Happened One Night movie poster
Frank Capra's devices for audience interaction are:
| DEVICE | EXAMPLE | ANALYSIS |
| ASIDES | (not applicable) | The characters interact with each other rather than directing words or action toward the audience. |
| MONOLOGUE | (not applicable) | The comedy occurs because of the convesations and dynamics between the main characters,and not because of any individual's speeches. |
| EAVESDROPPING | Peter listens to Shapely try to seduce Ellie on the other side of the bus. | The audience is aware that Peter is listening in on this conversation, but Shapely is not--the audience is given the upper hand, listening to Peter listen to them. When the audience sees Peter step in and pry Shapely away from Ellie by claiming she is his wife, they take their cue to react with disgust equal to Peter's. |
| IMPROVISATION |
1) "The daring young man on the flying trapeze" 2) Peter's talk with Shapely after their bus gets stuck in the mud 3) Peter and Ellie's playacting experience in their motel cabin |
The spontaneous singing of a song by passengers on a bus, provides a connection to the audience, because they may sing in unusual places too. In the second example, Peter concocts a story on the spur of the moment explaining that he's kidnapping Ellie so that Shapely will leave them alone. It seems as though Peter really does make this up on the spot. The third example is taken from a scene in which Peter and Ellie act like a tempestuous married couple to avoid being recognized by the detectives her father has sent. All of these seemingly spontaneous occurences draw the audience into the action, re-emphasizing their feeling that this plot is unfolding new before their eyes. |
| PARABASIS | (not applicable) | This film is meant to be shown as a whole without any pauses taken to give direct speech to the audience. |
| CHORUS | (not applicable) | This film does not utilize a chorus. |
| ALLUSION | Ellie and Peter are surviving rather well in what is (for the rest of the country) the Depression. | By setting the plot during the Depression, any (and probably every) audience member who felt at all affected by the Depression could feel connected to the action on the stage. Audience members would probably take more interest in what happens with these characters because Peter and Ellie are experiencing the same hardships that they themselves had so recently experienced. |
It Happened One Night movie poster
| Aristophanes' Birds | Charlie Chaplin |
| Menander's Old Cantankerous | |
| Plautus' Pseudolus | Alexander Mackendrick's Whiskey Galore! |
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