It Happened One Night (1934)

USA 105m, B&W
Director: Frank Capra; Cast: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly

This is a romantic comedy about an impulsive young woman who objects to her father’s threatened annulment of her marriage to an opportunist character known as “King” Westley. In an attempt to escape her father’s controlling ways, she makes a cross-country escape from their family yacht only to fall in love with a washed-up newspaper man, played by Clark Gable. It Happened One Night is essentially a reverse Cinderella story, with the rich young princess wanting to give up her fortune for her true love. In this regard, the plot is clever, although somewhat predictable. Set among a good number of comedic situations, largely on-board a bus to New York, Colbert and Gable’s performances are highly entertaining in this lighthearted feel-good Capra production (Klaus Ming May 2009).