It Happened One Night (1934)
TOMATOMETER
AUDIENCE SCORE
Critic Consensus: Capturing its stars and director at their finest, It Happened One Night remains unsurpassed by the countless romantic comedies it has inspired.
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Cast
as Ellie Andrews
as Pete Warne
as Alexander Andrews
as King Westley
as King Westley
as Shapeley
as Danker
as Bus Driver
as Drunk Boy
as Mother
as Zeke
as Zeke's Wife
as Lovington
as Reporter
as Reporter
as Bus Driver
as Detective
as Detective
as Detective
as Detective
as Drunk
as Newsboy
as Reporter
as Vender
as Joe Gordon
as Boy
as Policeman
as Policeman
as Dykes
as Secretary
as Butler
as Maid of Honor
as Best Man
as Reporter
as Minister
as Society Woman
as Radio Announcer
as Manager Auto Camp
as Prissy Old Man
as Manager's Wife
as Station Attendant
as Tony
as Henderson
as Flag Man
as Bus Passenger
as Bus Passenger
as Bus Passenger
as Bus Passenger
as Bus Passenger
as Bus Passenger
News & Interviews for It Happened One Night
Critic Reviews for It Happened One Night
All Critics (52) | Top Critics (8) | Fresh (51) | Rotten (1) | DVD (4)
It's probably more historically important than it is a masterpiece (the last 20 minutes take the missed conections and misunderstandings an inch too far), but it's still very easy to fall in love with.
The direction is excellent. Frank Capra never lets his picture lag for a moment. It is never very exciting, but it moves along snappily and it is full of amusing situations.
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.
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.
This is Capra at his best, very funny and very light, with a minimum of populist posturing.
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.
Audience Reviews for It Happened One Night
This charming classic may be the very first screwball comedy of Cinema, a funny, amusing and optimistic movie with a deliciously sharp dialogue and wonderful performances from Gable and Colbert, who have a great onscreen chemistry together.
Super Reviewer
Frank Capra's road trip from Miami to New York is actually a poem to everyday America and Americans (your unwashed masses) and laced throughout with vignettes of common people simply enjoying life ... practically the blueprint for Hollywood gold. Remember James Cameron's Titanic? Well, here is where he stole the central theme. Gable and Colbert are great as the surrogates for us in this tale, he as the jack-of-all-trades everyman, and she as the princess who finds her Prince Charming is closer than she thinks. It never gets old, the scene in the bedroom still laced with agonizingly palpable tension, even after all these years.
Super Reviewer
Colbert and Gable hated making it and it ended up being one of Hitler's favorite films, but Capra's perfectly scripted romantic comedy has a stamp of glorious old-Hollywood quality.
Super Reviewer
It Happened One Night Quotes
| Alexander Andrews: | I asked you a simple question! Do you love her? |
| Peter Warne: | Oh, he flies through the air with the greatest of ease, the daring young man on the flying trapeze... |
| Ellie Andrews: | We'll get on a merry-go-round and never get off. Promise me we'll never get off. |
| Peter Warne: | I want to see what love looks like when it's triumphant. I haven't had a good laugh in a week. |
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