It Happened One Night

A perfect movie of its era. The structure makes sense and never lags or dawdles. The leads are perfect, charming, and irresistibly attractive. It's witty, smart, and fun to watch. I love this movie.

What a gem this movie is.

It's 2025 and the relationship between those two still holds true. Beautiful thing to witness people, for the most part, are immutable.

The first to win all five major Oscars and it shows. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert are great together. The story is entertaining and funny.

Another one of director Frank Capra’s classics. This one stars the great Clark Gable opposite Claudette Colbert. Although neither of them might be considered superstars, this film was revolutionary as one of the earliest romantic comedies, setting the formula for all future romantic comedies in Hollywood, Bollywood, and beyond. Despite being filmed 90 years ago, “It Happened…” absolutely stands the test of time. Gable plays a renegade journalist, Peter, and Colbert plays Ellie, a runaway heiress to a wealthy father. Against her father’s wishes, she runs away to elope with some pilot she thought she loved. Peter and Ellie meet as strangers on a bus to New York. Ellie’s father sends detectives on her trail and a $10,000 reward ($233,000 today) for anyone with information about her. Issues along the way, such as a flooded bridge and the bus breaking down, cause them to share a hotel room and hitchhike. Both despised each other for different reasons - he saw her as a cowering, spoiled brat, and she saw him as an obnoxious, egoistic jerk. They soon realize in their conversations they have shared dreams of life. Through the journey, they mature by being around one another and fall in love. The chemistry is apparent between the two leads. Charming, charming, charming through and through.

The technicals are on point. Acting, directing, cinematography, editing, pacing, and timing on witty quips are sensational. At the 7th Oscar in 1935, “It Happened...” became the first of only three films in history to do a clean sweep - winning every major category. Best picture, best actor, best actress, best director, and best screenplay. No film replicated that until 1976 with “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” and 1992 with “The Silence of the Lambs.” Gable gave away the Oscar he won for this film (the only one he ever won) to a kid he met. The kid returned the Oscar years later after Gable died young in 1960 (another actor to die in his prime).

Some other tidbits. During the 1930s and 40s, actors were known for doing multiple films in a single year. Studios had high demands, and the pay was much lower. For instance, Gable did 40 films across the 1930s, and Colbert did 36. That’s about 4 movies per year (some years, 5-6 films in a single year). No other actor does that today. Studios also employed actors with exclusive rights - MGM employed Gable. For his scandalous affair with another MGM actress, Gable was loaned to Columbia Studio to do this film as punishment. The legendary Bugs Bunny was inspired by Gable in this film. One comedic scene has Gable removing his shirt. Undershirts dropped in popularity among men when they saw Gable didn’t wear one.

Would I recommend this? I believe this is a must-watch movie before you die. I rarely watch romantic comedies, but I pleasantly enjoyed it. It’s hard to not like. Like most old movies, the ending felt a bit rushed. Overall, the film is everlasting and a joy to watch.

8.5/10

It’s not the most funny thing I ever watched, but the story is nice, well paced and has some decent jokes at times, especially for the time! It’s a good movie overall and, although it feels a bit much by today’s standards, I kind of get why this was the first movie to win all 5 major Oscar categories.

very enjoyable, and a great peak into mid depression America...

how could they not give Clark Gable a final scene?! He leaves, upset, 5 minutes from the end, and before the wedding, but we never see him and his new girlfriend reunite! wtf?

On the run from her controlling father, a bratty young socialite tackles the highway between Miami and New York on her own. In the big city, she hopes, she’ll be free to run off with a famous treasure hunter and transition into a more exciting adult lifestyle. Dad isn’t ready to give up so easily, though, and when he flexes his financial muscle to spread her snapshot to all the major papers, her plans begin to come apart. Fortunate, then, that a capable (if down on his luck) reporter shares her seat during an early bus ride and takes an interest in her plight.

The bones of this plot were echoed in 1953’s _Roman Holiday_, though the particulars may differ. In both, a naïve young woman yearns for escape from a stifling private life, crosses paths with a charismatic, ignoble writer on the scent of a big story and shares a little adventure under the public’s nose. _It Happened One Night_ pairs Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in those roles, neither the studio’s first choice, and they find a certain degree of romance amidst all the near-misses and setbacks. She’s a wet blanket at first, all regal, reserved and snooty, but his spunky blend of carefree attitude and plucky, boyish charm gradually loosens her up. This is a grungy, relaxed role for Gable, one he freely embraces, and a surprising contrast to his debonair appearance in _Gone with the Wind_ a few years later. Colbert is able to keep pace, outmatching her more worldly accomplice in a memorable hitchhiking how-to scene, but she’s generally just sniffing a trail while Gable’s the one sprinkling breadcrumbs.

The pair’s exploits are light but engrossing. Much care is taken to keep things grounded and believable, which I appreciate. This story didn’t need to go over the top or make things complicated; the magic’s in that growing central rapport. Gable’s a cad and his pleasure in unsettling the prim, proper princess - particularly when she’s trying to voice a protest - is easy to share and appreciate. Together, they navigate some close calls, trade methods of transport, face the possibility of the road’s end, and grow more visibly attached by the minute. As they learn to enjoy being around each other, so do we. Even when pavement gives way to dirt and gravel, this ride’s a pleasant one.

Cinema Paco 1: image 3,25 / 5 and sound 2,5 / 5. I had not seen it before, his fame and his oscars are well deserved

This is a pleasant, funny classic that shows it age only slightly.