It Happened One Night (1934)

It Happened One Night (1934)

7/10

Starring
Clarke Gable
Claudette Colbert


Directed by Frank Capra

It Happened One Night is one of only three movies in Academy Awards history to have won all five major Oscars—Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. This feat wouldn’t be matched until One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest in 1975, and later in 1991 when Anthony Hopkins’ The Silence of the Lambs followed suit.

This is a romantic comedy at its rawest, giving you a thrill as you watch two mismatched people find a way to fall in love while touring America on their way to New York. The funny thing about the title, It Happened One Night, is that the story actually takes place over more than just one night.

The plot follows Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert), who has been whisked away by her father on his yacht to keep her away from her new husband, King Westley. Determined to reunite with him, Ellie jumps ship, swims to shore, and sets off for New York. Along the way, she meets a reporter, Peter Warne (Clark Gable), and though they start off as an unlikely pair, their journey brings them together in unexpected ways.

Both Colbert and Gable initially believed the movie wouldn’t amount to much and gave director Frank Capra a hard time. Even the film’s iconic hitchhiking scene, where Colbert lifts her skirt to stop a car, wasn’t easy to shoot—she originally refused, saying it wasn’t ladylike. However, after seeing a body double perform the scene, she changed her mind and did it herself.

Although it started off slow, the movie went on to become one of the studio’s biggest hits. And in the end, it swept the Academy Awards, proving worthwhile for both Gable and Colbert. In fact, Colbert once told a friend, “I just finished the worst picture in the world.” Convinced she wouldn’t win, she even skipped the Oscars, only to be called back to collect her award.

This is a film that makes you smile all the way through. Like the actors themselves, you might be skeptical at first, thinking it’s going nowhere—but be patient. Many of the familiar scenes we see in romantic comedies today were inspired by this classic. It Happened One Night is ranked the 46th greatest film in the last 100 years in AFI’s 100 Years… 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition).

Nice film to see, may not jump out at you as one of the best you have seen, but it is good enough.