It Happened One Night
Academy Award × 5·AFI #46·National Film Registry
Rent/Purchase
A runaway heiress makes a deal with the rogue reporter trailing her but the mismatched pair end up stuck with each other when their bus leaves them behind.
What critics thought
Near-universally embraced today, the film was already mostly well-received on release — though it started slowly at the box office before word of mouth turned it into a phenomenon. The one notable dissent at the time came from the highbrow press, with at least one major critic dismissing the whole enterprise as lightweight nonsense, a view that has been thoroughly buried by history.
“a good piece of fiction, which, with all its feverish stunts, is blessed with bright dialogue and a good quota of relatively restrained scenes”
Mordaunt Hall·The New York Times
“without a particularly strong plot”
Variety
“a lively yarn, fast-moving, plenty humorous, racy enough to be tantalizing, and yet perfectly decorous”
Film Daily
“pretty much nonsense and quite dreary”
John Mosher·The New Yorker
Genres
Comedy, Romance
Cast & Crew
DirectorFrank Capra
StarringClark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, Jameson Thomas
ComposerHoward Jackson
It Happened One Night
Academy Award × 5·AFI #46·National Film Registry
A runaway heiress makes a deal with the rogue reporter trailing her but the mismatched pair end up stuck with each other when their bus leaves them behind.
What critics thought
Near-universally embraced today, the film was already mostly well-received on release — though it started slowly at the box office before word of mouth turned it into a phenomenon. The one notable dissent at the time came from the highbrow press, with at least one major critic dismissing the whole enterprise as lightweight nonsense, a view that has been thoroughly buried by history.
“a good piece of fiction, which, with all its feverish stunts, is blessed with bright dialogue and a good quota of relatively restrained scenes”
Mordaunt Hall·The New York Times
“without a particularly strong plot”
Variety
“a lively yarn, fast-moving, plenty humorous, racy enough to be tantalizing, and yet perfectly decorous”
Film Daily
“pretty much nonsense and quite dreary”
John Mosher·The New Yorker
Genres
Comedy, Romance
Cast & Crew
DirectorFrank Capra
StarringClark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, Jameson Thomas
ComposerHoward Jackson
Rent/Purchase