peteg's blog - noise - movies - 2024 09 17 ItHappenedOneNight

It Happened One Night (1934)

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More screwball from Frank Capra, again prompted by that book review. Also adapted by Robert Riskin from a short/magazine story by Samuel Hopkins Adams. Starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. Oscars all round, including Best Picture. #247 in the IMDB top-250.

Impulsive scion Colbert jumps off her father Walter Connolly's boat near Florida after he puts up a fight about her continuing to be (chastely) married to flying Jameson Thomas (not Oscared). Needing to get back to her man in NYC while avoiding the private dicks etc. of the era, she opts for a bus where she encounters Gable. The rest is inevitable, including the need to beggar these rich beautiful people to garner audience sympathy during the Depression. Larceny is OK if its in the service of love. It's not that screwy and again the last 30 minutes gets far too serious. I'm not sure which night it happened on.

Mourdaunt Hall at the time.