It Happened One Night (1934)

All Critics (40) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (42) | Rotten (1) | DVD (10)

Instead of attempting a journalistic study of bus-travel, regularly punctuated by comic touches, Director Frank Capra and Robert Riskin who adapted Samuel Hopkins Adams' story, fused the two.

February 4, 2009 Full Review

TIME Magazine

Top Critic

One of those stories that without a particularly strong plot manages to come through in a big way, due to the acting, dialog, situations and direction.

February 19, 2008 Full Review

Variety Staff

Variety

Top Critic

This is Capra at his best, very funny and very light, with a minimum of populist posturing.

December 12, 2006 Full Review

Dave Kehr

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

Capra's sense of humour is a little like that of Preston Sturges, though less caustic; and the film shows its stars at their best, Colbert as one of Hollywood's fresher comediennes, Gable as dumb-but-loveable hunk.

February 9, 2006 Full Review

Geoff Andrew

Time Out

Top Critic

It Happened One Night is a good piece of fiction, which, with all its feverish stunts, is blessed with bright dialogue and a good quota of relatively restrained scenes.

May 20, 2003 Full Review

Mordaunt Hall

New York Times

Top Critic

Its opposites-attract melding of screwball comedy and the road trip elements has become one of about a half-dozen standard love story formulas. Most years, there's at least one theatrical release that owes a debt to this film.

February 22, 1934 Full Review

James Berardinelli

ReelViews

Top Critic

Gable and Colbert have charm to spare, and even though the tropes are well-worn and have been mishandled poorly by every by-the-book chick flick of the last 15 years, it still isn't enough to keep this from working like gangbusters.

February 12, 2013 Full Review

Eric Melin

Lawrence.com

Among the more gratifying phenomena of the current season has been the growing recognition of It Happened One Night, the Frank Capra production of last year, as one of the few potential classics of the recent cinema.

January 15, 2013 Full Review

William Troy

The Nation

Still one of the best screwball comedies.

January 2, 2011 Full Review

Scott G. Mignola

Common Sense Media

A screwball comedy with charm and sass it established a template that countless films have followed down the decades.

November 1, 2010 Full Review

Allan Hunter

Daily Express

It Happened One Night is pure delight.

October 28, 2010 Full Review

Sukhdev Sandhu

Daily Telegraph

As classy and charming a romantic comedy as you're ever likely to see...

October 28, 2010 Full Review

Tony Sloman

Radio Times

Both stars loathed the experience yet turned in two of their most enduring performances.

October 27, 2010 Full Review

Neil Smith

Total Film

An old school classic.

February 20, 2008 Full Review

David Parkinson

Empire Magazine

With Gable and Colbert on top form this is a charming and memorable comedy.

February 19, 2008 Full Review

Film4

The story of a runaway heiress falling in with a devilish, wise-cracking reporter on a cross-country roadtrip now seems like a cliché only because so many other films have copied its structure.

December 30, 2006 Full Review

James Kendrick

Q Network Film Desk

This charming romantic comedy, while grounded in the context of the Depression, offered light fare that's uncharacteristic of Capra. It might have been the first true sleeper since no one involved anticipated such critical and commercial success.

December 25, 2006 Full Review

Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

Only minorly dated, this film would play well for modern audiences despite being more than 70 years old.

October 10, 2006 Full Review

Wesley Lovell

Cinema Sight

Who can resist a movie where the girl's father provides his daughter with a getaway car from her own wedding?

December 6, 2005 Full Review

Brad Laidman

Film Threat

It Happened One Night is a true classic in every sense of the word, one that withstands the test of time and indeed defies it completely.

September 30, 2005 Full Review

Scott Nash

Three Movie Buffs

The romantic comedy that all others draw from, few imitate effectively, and none have been able to replicate.

September 26, 2004 Full Review

Phil Villarreal

Arizona Daily Star

• 1. Peter Warne: Oh, he flies through the air with the greatest of ease, the daring young man on the flying trapeze...
  – Submitted by Stan D (5 months ago)
• 1. Ellie Andrews: We'll get on a merry-go-round and never get off. Promise me we'll never get off.
  – Submitted by Andy A (16 months ago)
• 1. Peter Warne: I want to see what love looks like when it's triumphant. I haven't had a good laugh in a week.
  – Submitted by Andy A (16 months ago)
• 1. Peter Warne: Why didn't you take off all your clothes? You could have stopped forty cars.
  – Submitted by Andy A (16 months ago)
• 1. Ellie Andrews: Well, I proved once and for all that the limb is mightier than the thumb.
  – Submitted by Chris P (2 years ago)

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