It Happened One Night (1934)

Director:

Frank Capra

Writers:

Robert Riskin (screenplay)
Samuel Hopkins Adams (short story)

Release Date:

23 February 1934 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Romance

Tagline:

Two great lovers of the screen in the grandest of romantic comedies !

Plot:

A spoiled heiress, running away from her family, is helped by a man who's actually a reporter looking for a story. But then he falls for her...

Plot Keywords:

Reporter | Bus | Yacht | Running Away | Love

Awards:

Won 5 Oscars. Another 3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Clark Gable	...	Peter
Claudette Colbert	...	Ellie
Walter Connolly	...	Andrews
Roscoe Karns	...	Shapeley
Jameson Thomas	...	Westley
Alan Hale	...	Danker
Arthur Hoyt	...	Zeke
Blanche Friderici	...	Zeke's Wife
Charles C. Wilson	...	Gordon

Also Known As:

Night Bus (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Noiseless Recording)

Certification:

Canada:G (Nova Scotia/Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Iceland:L | Portugal:M/12 | Norway:16 (1934) | Brazil:Livre | USA:Approved (PCA #4311-R: 11 May 1938 for re-release) | Argentina:Atp | Germany:o.Al. | Sweden:15 | UK:U | South Korea:15 (DVD rating)

Filming Locations:

Busch Gardens - S. Grove Avenue, Pasadena, California, USA

Company:

Columbia Pictures Corporation

Trivia:

Robert Montgomery turned down the male lead, saying the script was the worst thing he had ever read.

Goofs:

Continuity: In the exterior view of the bus running off the road (after the "flying trapeze" song), the driver is a different person and the curtain that is behind him in the interior view is missing.

Quotes:

Ellie Andrews: Have you ever been in love, Peter?
Peter Warne: Me?
Ellie Andrews: Yes. Haven't you ever thought about it at all? It seems to me you, you could make some girl wonderfully happy.
Peter Warne: Sure I've thought about it. Who hasn't? If I could ever meet the right sort of girl. Aw, where you gonna find her? Somebody that's real. Somebody that's alive. They don't come that way anymore. Have I ever thought about it? I've even been sucker enough to make plans. You know, I saw an island in the Pacific once. I've never been able to forget it. That's where I'd like to take her. She'd have to be the sort of a girl who'd... well, who'd jump in the surf with me and love it as much as I did. You know, nights when you and the moon and the water all become one. You feel you're part of something big and marvelous. That's the only place to live... where the stars are so close over your head you feel you could reach up and stir them around. Certainly, I've been thinking about it. Boy, if I could ever find a girl who was hungry for those things...
[she comes around the blanket "Walls of Jericho" and kneels by his bed]
Ellie Andrews: Take me with you, Peter. Take me to your island. I want to do all those things you talked about.
Peter Warne: You'd better go back to your bed.
Ellie Andrews: I love you. Nothing else matters. We can run away. Everything will take care of itself. Please, Peter, I can't let you out of my life now. I couldn't live without you.
[she cries in his arms]
Peter Warne: [firmly] You'd better go back to your bed.
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Remington Steele: Red Holt Steele (#2.3)" (1983)

Soundtrack:

Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf

It happened one night...I fell in love with this film!

IHON rightly earns it's place as one of the greatest romantic comedies in film history. A pioneer of the screwball comedy genre, it holds up very well 71 years after it was made.

It's a classic tale of the battle of sexes- something that is still so relevant today. We follow the story of spoiled heiress Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert), who jumps ship from her father's yacht (literally!) in Florida after an argument with said father (played by Walter Connolly) over her marrying wealthy playboy King Westley (Jameson Thomas) without her father's consent. Ellie is on a mission- to get to New York to King Westley. But how will she do it? That's how Peter Warne (played by a delightfully handsome Clark Gable) comes into the story. Recently fired from his newspaper job, Peter meets Ellie on the Night Bus to New York, and, realizing who she is (Her story is all over the news, after all!), offers to help her get to NY and Westley if she gives him an exclusive story- to win him back his job. And so the fun begins. Colbert and Gable have great chemistry as the mismatched couple thrown together after a series of unusual circumstances. The trip isn't a smooth one- and we are taken on a wild ride with Peter and Ellie, which gives us great scenes such as the doughnut-dunking lesson, Walls Of Jericho and the now-classic hitchhiking scene. The humour is still fresh and fast-paced over 70 years later. Oops, I almost forgot the classic 'no undershirt scene' where Gable sexily gives Colbert a lesson in how a man undresses, to reveal (shock horror!) no undershirt, but a bare chest! This had a bad effect on the sales of men's undershirts, which dropped dramatically after the film's release (One of the first examples of product placement in film). Great supporting characters, particularly the scene-stealing Oscar Shapeley (Roscoe Karns). Of course it has it's faults- all early talkies do. But any faults are outweighed by the great story. Technically, it was well-made for it's time.

IHON won 5 Oscars- Best Picture, Best Director (Frank Capra), Best Actress and Best Actor for Colbert and Gable and Best Adaptation. It deserved all of them. Funnily enough, both Colbert and Gable didn’t want any part in the film at first- I bet they changed their viewpoint after the surprise success and the prestigious Academy Awards they gained for it. It's been said that a number of Disney characters like Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam and Pepe LePew were inspired by characters in this film. A classic, a must-see, a great movie.