Day #13 - It Happened One Night

IMDB Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0025316/

It Happened One Night, a 1934 Frank Capra movie starring Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable, was the first movie to ever sweep Oscars' "Big Five" - Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress, Best Actor and Best Screenplay :) So naturally, it had to be on my list :)

It Happened One Night is about Ellie Andrews, a socialite who runs away from her life of people telling her "what to do and how to do it" and on her way to New York City meets Peter Warren, a newspaper man looking for a good story. Like any good romantic comedy, they can't stand each other at first - he's just in for the good story and she just doesn't want him to tell her Dad where she is. By the time the end rolls around, they discover they are in love! It Happened One Night was one of the first romantic "screwball" comedies ever filmed - paving the way for all the Sleepless in Seattles and When Harry Met Sallys of the world :) I love all the old sets and lighting, so classic. Clark Gable is witty and handsome, of course - and I was very curious about Claudette Colbert. She has a kind of manly (?) voice...or maybe just deeper, kind of sultry. I thought she was really cute (not pretty though, actually kind of odd looking haha) until I read that she demanded double her usual salary to do this movie for a guarantee that it would only last four weeks - AND, she hated the movie so much she didn't even attend the Oscars where she won Best Actress! Clark Gable himself walked on the set first day and said, "Let's get this over with." Hahaha! Back to the movie though....I really enjoyed watching it and am glad to be able to check it off my list :)

Turner Classic Movies named It Happened One Night as one of their top 15 most influential films of all time - see below for excerpt:
(http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/tcm-unveils-their-list-of-top-15-most-influential-films-of-all-time)

"The surprise success of It Happened One Night made Frank Capra one of the screen’s top directors and provided the prototype for a decade of screwball comedies. Romantic comedies like When Harry Met Sally and The Sure Thing draw on the rapid banter, outrageous comic situations and sexy road trip of It Happened One Night. The movie even provided inspiration for one of the screen’s most enduring characters, Bugs Bunny."

I love learning about "old" Hollywood during the days of the studios contracting out and "owning" actors...here is a tidbit about it from IMDB....

"Columbia Pictures was considered a Poverty Row studio at the time of the film's release. Both MGM and Warner Brothers would loan out temperamental actors to Columbia as a 'humbling experience.' Studio boss 'Harry Cohn', who was loathe to pay for his own roster of contract stars during the early 30's, would invariably assign them to work on Frank Capra's films. Although the studio had received Oscar nominations prior to this picture, it's success virtually single-handedly lifted Columbia out of the ranks of poverty row."