Actors - It Happened One Night

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	Actors - It Happened One Night

It Happened One Night is a 1934 romantic comedy in which an elite socialite (Claudette Colbert) tries to get out from under her father's thumb, and falls in with a rogue reporter (Clark Gable). As in most Frank Capra films, everything turns out all right in the end; the film fits very well with the upbeat view of the world that Capra repeatedly tried to portray. One oddity is the title: the movie takes place over several nights and none is particularly key to the plot.

Awards

The film was nominated for five Oscars (all the major ones) and won all five. This feat would not be repeated again until One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
. it was also accomplished by Silence of the Lambs.

Best Picture - Harry Cohn
, producer
Best Actor in a Leading Role
- Clark Gable
Best Actress in a Leading Role
- Claudette Colbert
Best Director - Frank Capra
Best Writing, Adaptation - Robert Riskin

The film has also been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry.

Influence

It Happened One Night is considered to be the first of the great "screwball comedies" of the 1930s, which usually centered around a couple getting into hapless situations, and falling in love as a result.

The unpublished memoirs of animator Friz Freleng's mention that this was one of his favorite films, and it has been claimed that it helped inspire the cartoon character Bugs Bunny. Three things in the film may have coalesced to create Bugs Bunny: the personality of the minor character Oscar Shapely, an imaginary character named "Bugs Dooley" mentioned once to frighten Shapely, and most of all, the scene in which Clark Gable eats carrots while talking quickly at the same time.

Legend has it that Gable had a profound effect on men's fashion, thanks to a scene in this movie. As he is undressing for bed, he takes off his shirt to reveal that he is bare-chested. Sales of men's undershirts across the country allegedly suffered a noticeable decline for a period following this movie.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for It Happened One Night ]

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