It Happened One Night
It Happened One Night is a 1934 pre-Code American romantic comedy film with elements of screwball comedy directed and co-produced by Frank Capra, in collaboration with Harry Cohn, in which a pampered socialite (Claudette Colbert) tries to get out from under her father's thumb and falls in love with a roguish reporter (Clark Gable). The plot is based on the August 1933 short story "Night Bus" by Samuel Hopkins Adams, which provided the shooting title. Classified as a "pre-Code" production, the film is among the last romantic comedies created before the MPPDA began rigidly enforcing the 1930 Motion Picture Production Code in July 1934. It Happened One Night was released just four months prior to that enforcement.
Plot
Spoiled heiress Ellen "Ellie" Andrews has eloped with pilot and fortune-hunter King Westley against the wishes of her extremely wealthy father, Alexander Andrews, who wants to have the marriage annulled because he knows that Westley is really interested only in Ellie's money. Jumping ship in Florida, Ellie runs away and boards a Greyhound bus to New York City to reunite with her husband. She meets fellow passenger Peter Warne, a newspaper reporter who recently lost his job. Soon, Peter recognizes her and gives her a choice. If she gives him an exclusive on her story, he will help her reunite with Westley. If not, he will tell her father where she is. Ellie agrees to the first option.
Awards
Cast
- Alan Hale
- Arthur Hoyt
- Bess Flowers
- Billy West
- Blanche Friderici
- Charles C. Wilson
- Claire McDowell
- Clark Gable
- Claudette Colbert
- Dolores Fuller
- Eddy Chandler
- Emma Tansey
- Ernie Adams
- Fred Walton
- George Breakston
- Harry C. Bradley
- Harry Holman
- Harry Todd
- Irving Bacon
- Jack Curtis
- James Burke
- Jameson Thomas
- Joseph Crehan
- Roscoe Karns
- Wallis Clark
- Walter Connolly
- Ward Bond
- William Bailey
- William Irving
- William McCall
- William Wagner