It Happened One Night

"Your ego is absolutely Colossal." Ellie Andrews

"Your ego is absolutely Colossal." Ellie Andrews

☆ Masterpiece 


It Happened One Night (1934) is the definitive classic screwball comedy.

Directed by Frank Capra.

Starring Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert and Walter Connolly among many others.


It Happened One Night is one of my favorite Capra films. Frank takes me back to a time and place before I was born. The bus interior night scenes are directed artistically. There was a sharp increase in Greyhound bus travel after the films release. Capra created the screwball comedy with his rapid fire dialogue, and hilarious comedic situations, such as the roadside hitchhiking scene. It's basically a road picture gone absurd. Countless directors and even the animators for Bugs Bunny were influenced by Capra's mad genius. It's no wonder it was the first film to sweep the five main Oscar categories (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress and Screenplay).

Clark and Claudette have incredible chemistry in this film. Frank had Clark play practical jokes on Claudette to build a rapport between the two. The scene below is one of my favorites. Gable and Colbert play off each other brilliantly, while Capra edits the film to add even more humor to the scene.






Trivia - Frank Capra first used a chorus girl's legs for the hitchhiking scene when Claudette refused to do the scene, because according to her, it was an unladylike gesture. When Colbert saw the chorus girls legs she exclaimed, "Get her out of here, I'll do it. That's not my leg!" and the rest is history.





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