Frank Capra’s screwball comedy was the first film to receive Oscars for Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Directing and Writing – a feat not repeated until One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest four decades later. After they cross paths on a raucous interstate bus trip, spoiled runaway heiress Claudette Colbert and rogue newspaperman Clark Gable become a reluctant hitchhiking duo, and Gable's iconic performance may have inspired not only Bugs Bunny's carrot-eating routine but also a sartorial shift that made undershirts suddenly passé. Crackling with whip-smart dialogue about everything from doughnuts to “The Walls of Jericho,” Capra’s film delights in the charismatic rapport between Colbert and Gable. Throw in incomparable performances by a host of well-known character actors, and It Happened One Night remains fresh, funny and full of life some eighty years after it first delighted audiences.
Digital restoration in 4K by Sony Pictures Entertainment at Colorworks.
1934, 105 minutes, black and white, DCP | Directed by Frank Capra; written by Robert Riskin, based on the short story "Night Bus" by Samuel Hopkins Adams; with Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, Jameson Thomas and Alan Hale.