It Happened One Night Reviews
Lawrence.com
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
The Nation
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.
Common Sense Media
Still one of the best screwball comedies.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
Daily Express
A screwball comedy with charm and sass it established a template that countless films have followed down the decades.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
Daily Telegraph
It Happened One Night is pure delight.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Radio Times
As classy and charming a romantic comedy as you're ever likely to see...
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
Total Film
Both stars loathed the experience yet turned in two of their most enduring performances.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
TIME Magazine
Top CriticInstead 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.
Empire Magazine
An old school classic.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
Film4
With Gable and Colbert on top form this is a charming and memorable comedy.
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.
Q Network Film Desk
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
EmanuelLevy.Com
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: A
This is Capra at his best, very funny and very light, with a minimum of populist posturing.
Cinema Sight
Only minorly dated, this film would play well for modern audiences despite being more than 70 years old.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
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.
Film Threat
Who can resist a movie where the girl's father provides his daughter with a getaway car from her own wedding?
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
Three Movie Buffs
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
Arizona Daily Star
The romantic comedy that all others draw from, few imitate effectively, and none have been able to replicate.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/4
