It’s 1934. It Happened One Night, a film nobody thought would do particularly well, sneaks in just before the Hays Code is enforced. The movie, directed by Frank Capra, follows pampered heiress Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert) as she tries to escape her controlling father and join her fiancé. She meets with ex-reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable) on the bus to New York. Hijinks ensue, and love blossoms. It’s a romantic comedy that influenced many, many afterward, and one of three movies to win all five major Academy Awards.
What It Happens One Night offers casual movie fans who have always meant to watch classic movies: an early and quintessential example of a romantic comedy, Colbert and Gable’s pitch-perfect onscreen chemistry, witty dialogue and colorful characters, and an iconic hitchhiking scene.