It Happened One Night | |
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Original theatrical release poster
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Directed by | Frank Capra |
Produced by | Frank Capra Harry Cohn |
Screenplay by | Robert Riskin |
Story by | Samuel Hopkins Adams |
Based on |
Night Bus by Samuel Hopkins Adams |
Starring |
Clark Gable Claudette Colbert |
Music by |
Howard Jackson Louis Silvers |
Cinematography | Joseph Walker |
Edited by | Gene Havlick |
Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
Release date
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Running time
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105 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $325,000 |
Box office | $2,500,000 $2,000,000 (theatrical rentals) |
It Happened One Night is a 1934 American Pre-Code 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. One of the last romantic comedies created before the MPAA began enforcing the 1930 production code in 1934, the film was released on February 22, 1934.
It Happened One Night was the first movie to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay), a feat that would not be matched until One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and later by The Silence of the Lambs (1991). In 1993, It Happened One Night was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress, being deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". In 2013, the film underwent an extensive restoration.
Spoiled heiress Ellen "Ellie" Andrews has eloped with pilot and fortune-hunter "King" Westley against the wishes of her extremely wealthy father, Alexander. Alexander wants to have the marriage annulled because he knows that Westley is really only interested in her money. Jumping ship in Florida, she runs away boarding a bus to New York City to reunite with her new spouse. She meets fellow bus passenger Peter Warne, a freshly out-of-work newspaper reporter. Soon Warne recognizes her and gives her a choice: If she will give 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 choice.