It Happened One Night

UPC: 043396039490

Studio: Columbia TriStar

MPAA Rating: NR   Contains:[Adult Situations]

Summary: Frank Capra's seminal screwball comedy, which won all five major Academy Awards for 1934, is still as breezy and beguiling today. Claudette Colbert plays Ellie Andrews, a spoiled heiress who has married fortune-hunting aviator King Westley (Jameson Thomas), despite her father (Walter Connolly)'s objections. To keep Ellie from marrying this lothario, her father has been holding her prisoner aboard his yacht. But Ellie bolts from the yacht, swims ashore in her clothes, and eventually slips onto a Greyhound bus bound for New York. Aboard the bus is newspaper reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable), who has recently been fired for drinking on the job. Peter gets the last seat on the bus -- but when he gets up to argue with the bus driver, Ellie takes his seat. Since it is the last seat on the bus, they have to share it. When Ellie has her purse stolen and she refuses to report it, Peter begins to suspect something. The next morning, they both miss the bus after a leisurely breakfast, and Peter reveals that he knows her identity. She makes a deal with him: if he helps her get to New York, he can write a scoop about her for his paper. Peter thinks she is a spoiled brat, however, and refuses a monetary bribe: "I'm not interested in your money or your problem. You, King Westley, your father -- you're all a lot of hooey to me!" But as they travel northward and engage in a series of misadventures, the gruff newspaperman and the spoiled rich girl, thrown together by circumstances, fall in love with each other. This movie set the pace for the "screwball" comedy, the witty and romantic clash of temperaments between a man and a woman mismatched in both personality and social position, a type of movie often associated with Katherine Hepburn in such classics as Bringing Up Baby (1938), The Philadelphia Story (1940), and, with Spencer Tracy, Adam's Rib (1949), Pat and Mike (1952), and Desk Set (1957), among others. The only other movies to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay) were One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and The Silence of the Lambs (1991). ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Category: Comedy

Awards: U.S. National Film Registry – Library of Congress 100 Greatest American Movies – American Film Institute Best Actor – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Actress – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Adapted Screenplay – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Director – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Best Picture – National Board of Review 10 Best Films – New York Times 10 Best Films – Film Daily

Features: Frank Capra, Jr. remembers "It Happened One Night"
Frank Capra, Jr. audio commentary
Digitally remastered audio & video
Original live radio broadcast
Languages: English, Spanish
Subtitles: English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean, Thai
Talent files
Vintage advertising
Original theatrical trailer
Bonus trailers

It Happened One Night

Format: DVD

Release Date: 12/28/1999

Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1 Pre-1954 Standard

Audio: DD Dolby Digital

Runtime: 105 Minutes

Sides: 1

Number of Discs: 1

Language(s) Spanish,English

Subtitles: English,Spanish,Portuguese

Region: USA & territories, Canada

Chapters: Side #1 --
0. Scene Selections
1. Start [1:02]
2. Hunger Strike [2:32]
3. History in the Making [2:25]
4. Last Seats [3:08]
5. Stolen Luggage [3:47]
6. "Wait for Me." [1:39]
7. Missed Connections [3:11]
8. Collect Telegram [:50]
9. "My Name's Shapely." [4:38]
10. Dyke's Auto Camp [3:49]
11. Walls of Jericho [7:31]
12. Ladies' Shower [1:31]
13. Art of Dunking [2:31]
14. "Quit Bawlin'!" [4:51]
15. "The Man on the Flying Trapeze" [4:31]
16. "Machine Gun" Shapely [6:09]
17. Haystacks for Two [5:14]
18. Hitchhiker's Guide [4:30]
19. Road Thief [4:54]
20. Cabin for the Night [1:00]
21. On the Level [9:16]
22. "You'll Have to Get." [1:35]
23. Ellie goes home [3:18]
24. "What's the matter?" [4:28]
25. $39.60 [7:02]
26. The Wedding [4:28]
27. Runaway Bride [2:26]
28. "Let 'em Topple." [:35]

Lucia Bozzola

Scripted by Capra's frequent collaborator Robert Riskin, Frank Capra's It Happened One Night (1934) became the prototypical screwball comedy and elevated Columbia Pictures from Poverty Row status to respectable "major minor" studio. Starring Clark Gable, on loan from MGM as punishment, and Claudette Colbert, on loan from Paramount for twice her usual pay, Capra's and Riskin's comic romance between a down-to-earth newspaper reporter and a spoiled runaway heiress set the standard for screwball. Its fast-paced repartee, kooky heroine, witty gags, and class-crossing love story became hallmarks of the genre in such later films as My Man Godfrey (1936) and Bringing Up Baby (1938); the overt lustiness barred by the 1934 Production Code was transmuted into clever banter and the romance conveyed an ideal Depression-era fantasy. A critical and commercial hit, It Happened One Night was the first film to sweep the top five Oscars, rewarding Capra, Riskin, Gable, and Colbert, and fulfilling Columbia impresario Harry Cohn's desire to turn his B-studio into a class act. Undershirt sales reportedly plummeted when Gable revealed on screen that he wasn't wearing one. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Cast and Crew: James Burke  Actor 
Mickey Daniels  Actor 
Claire McDowell  Actor 
Charles Wilson  Actor 
Ky Robinson  Actor 
Harry C. Bradley  Actor 
Blanche Frederici  Actor 
Maidel Turner  Actor 
Earl Pingree  Actor 
Douglas Carter  Actor 
Rev. Neal Dodd  Actor 
Frank Holliday  Actor 
Tom Ricketts  Actor 
George Breakston  Actor 
Irving Bacon  Actor 
Wallis Clark  Actor 
Billy Engle  Actor 
Arthur Hoyt  Actor 
Bert Starkey  Actor 
Ernie S. Adams  Actor 
Eddy Chandler  Actor 
Oliver Eckhardt  Actor 
Harry Holman  Actor 
Matty Roubert  Actor 
Fred Walton  Actor 
Ward Bond  Actor 
Bess Flowers  Actor 
Eddie Kane  Actor 
Harry Todd  Actor 
Edmund Burns  Actor 
Eva Dennison  Actor 
Sherry Hall  Actor 
Hal Price  Actor 
Frank Yaconelli  Actor 
Ethel Sykes  Actor 
Charles D. Brown  Actor 
Joseph Crehan  Actor 
Kit Guard  Actor 
Milt Kibbee  Actor 
Henry Wadsworth  Actor 
Dave Wengren  Actor 
Frank Capra  Director 
Frank Capra  Producer 
Harry Cohn  Producer 
Robert Riskin  Screenwriter 
Clark Gable  Actor 
Claudette Colbert  Actor 
Walter Connolly  Actor 
Roscoe Karns  Actor 
Jameson Thomas  Actor 
Alan Hale  Actor 

Country: USA