It Happened One Night

1934.

#35 / #46

Winner of 5 Academy Awards.

Ellie (Claudette Colbert) runs away from her rich home with plans to elope. Peter (Clark Gable) is a newspaper man who helps her out with hopes of getting the biggest scoop of the year. Their plan is perfect, except they begin to fall in love.

Sarah: This is my favorite of the Frank Capra films on the list, and one of my favorites ever. You know it's good because it didn't win just any five Academy Awards. It was the first film to win the Big Five (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Adapted Screenplay).

Capra's films are always charming, but I think this is the funniest. Colbert and Gable have great chemistry and banter. Have I mentioned I love Clark Gable?

Eddie: The only Clark Gable movie I had seen before this was GONE WITH THE WIND, which I've already made clear I despise. When Sarah and I watched this one, I was blown away once again by Gable's performance. How he manages to exude such coolness at twenty-four frames per second is unfathomable. I'd put his performance in IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT in a category with Cary Grant in NORTH BY NORTHWEST and Brando in ON THE WATERFRONT. Too much cool, too little time.

The movie is, by now, a standard romantic comedy. The formula has been copied and imitated ad nauseam, but Gable and Colbert did it right in this 1934 classic. And, like Sarah said, you know you're getting your money's worth when you're watching a movie that's won the Big Five.

Why You Should See It: Gable and Colbert pretend to be a bickering couple so her father's men won't find her. Their improvised repartee is hilarious.