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It Happened One Night Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress 1934 Sponsored by Modern Iron Works 1934 | Not Rated | Comedy, Romance | d. Frank Capra Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert 75th Anniversary Screening |
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| Frank Capra helms this charming tale of a cynical reporter (Clark Gable) who helps a spoiled heiress (Claudette Colbert) run away from her father and an arranged marriage in what many consider to have set the standard for romantic comedies ever since. She’s an overprotected socialite with no experience of the real world; he’s a savvy writer with a nose for a story, who has to teach her how to dunk a donut properly and wonders aloud “what makes dames like you so dizzy.” Together they survive a rollicking bus ride (you’ll love the passengers’ rendition of “The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze”), an awkwardly shared room in a motor court, a stint at hitchhiking, a ride in a stolen automobile, a night in a hayfield and furious misunderstandings of one another – all while managing to fall in love. Gable reportedly groused “Let’s get this over with” on the first day of shooting; Colbert initially refused to do a scene where she exposes her leg to hitch a ride, only to capitulate when she assessed that her body double’s legs were not equal to her own – but despite all the protests, the movie, like the relationship between the characters within it, happily kept going, the flawless final product earning cinema’s first Oscar “Grand Slam”: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Screenplay. - Tom Schmid | ||