Year: 1934

Runtime: 105 minutes

Director: Frank Capra

Writer: Robert Riskin, Samuel Hopkins Adams (based on his short story)

Actors: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Jameson Thomas, Charles C. Wilson

By Joan Amenn

This film is the stuff of Hollywood legend. It was shot in just a few weeks with lead actors who did not even want to be on set. One of them was bribed with twice their normal salary and the other was loaned out by another (and much larger) studio as “punishment” for being indiscreet with an actress. Columbia Pictures quietly released it with little press and then it became a phenomenal money maker for the second-tier studio. It went on to be the first film to win five Academy Awards for all the major categories. “It Happened One Night” is a trailblazing film that never would have been made under the Hays Code. Fortunately, it was filmed just under the wire previous to when that onerous rule of law took effect.

Clark Gable plays street savvy reporter Peter Warne and Claudette Colbert is rich heiress on the run Ellie Andrews. It might take more than one watch for a viewer to realize that these two very attractive actors never kiss in the entire film. However, they set the screen on fire with their chemistry and define what a romantic comedy should be for decades to come. Poor Will Hays would have thrown apoplectic fits at some of the scenes in “It Happened One Night” and of course, those are exactly the ones that are now considered classic cinematic moments. There surely must have been a collective surge of feminine ardor in cinemas when Gable took off his button down shirt to reveal his bare chest and not surprisingly, Judy Garland had a hit singing how he made her love him a few years after the film’s release. Her and most of the female population of America, apparently.

But director Frank Capra knew a thing or two on how to make the actresses in his films sparkle and he gave the full star treatment to Colbert, even if he did have to offer her a lot more money than she was usually paid to take the role. Colbert glowed with a petite elegance that left the door open for other actresses such as Audrey Hepburn to follow her lead. Of course, the film’s famous hitchhiking scene had her show more leg than was ever going to be permitted under the Hays Code. She certainly did “prove once and for all that the limb is mightier than the thumb.”

Of course, the film’s famous hitchhiking scene had her show more leg than was ever going to be permitted under the Hays Code. She certainly did “prove once and for all that the limb is mightier than the thumb.”

All of this sexual tension is played with a light and comedic touch that really makes it a head scratcher why so many other actors turned the script down. The plot moves along at a lively pace to keep up with our two protagonists on the lam as they evade Ellie’s frantic father who is trying to locate is runaway daughter. Walter Connolly did an excellent job in a supporting role as the frustrated and increasingly desperate dad trying to bring Ellie back to her husband who he does not approve of. Yes, Ellie is married but not to “Mr. Right.” Again, this would have set off alarms at the Hays Office so it is with profound thankfulness that we have “It Happened One Night” in all of its screwball glory unfettered of any threatened censorship. It is a testament to creative freedom that the stars aligned to give us two actors at the peak of their magnetism, a director who was a genius of comedic timing and a razor sharp script coming all together and gifting us a film that is one of the all-time greats.