It Happened One Night

1
It Happened One Night

• 1934
• Director Frank Capra
• 2008 American Film Institute -3 best Romantic
  Comedy( 1998 it was 35)

2
Screwball Comedy 1930sa sex comedy without the
sex

• juxtapositions rich and poor, educated and
  uneducated, male and female, intelligent and
  stupid, honest and dishonest
• wit and sophistication
• love battles
• reverse class snobbery-poor is better

3

• Sophisticated and slapstick
• barbed dialog-well written script
• elegant clothes, cars, furniture
• - mise-en-scene
• hero lives by wits alone
• first-rate actors
• Means to present a romantic comedy
• within restraints of Production Code
• lead to semi-violent frustrations/interactions

4
Two areas of interest

• Internalized Hayes Code All about desire, but
  cant show passion, physical reality
• Politics of Depression area-wealth, womens
  rights, class conflict

5
Only three films have one these five awards (One
Flew over the Cukoos Nest and Silence of the
Lambs)

• Best Picture
• Best Actor (Clark Gable),
• Best Actress (Claudette Colbert),
• Best Director (Frank Capra),
• Best Adaptation (Robert Riskin).

6
Famous scenes

• mostly a road trip
• (by bus, car, foot, and by thumb) by the
  unmatched couple,
• contains some of the most classic scenes ever
  made
• the "Walls of Jericho" scene in an auto-camp
  bungalow
• the doughnuts-dunking lesson,
• the hitchhiking scene
• the night-time scene on a haystack in a deserted
  barn
• dramatic wedding scene

7
No Undershirt!