Get Your Reps In: Nearly 100 Years Ago, “It Happened One Night” Won the Oscars’ Quintuple Crown

It Happened One Night (1934)

Despite Claudette Colbert famously dissing the film’s quality, it’s not hard to imagine a moviegoing public in the throes of the Great Depression connecting with It Happened One Night on a deeper level than just Clark Gable and Colbert’s screwball comedy chops.

Arguably Frank Capra’s first classic, the film hinges on an impossibly wealthy heiress, Ellie Andrews (Colbert), suddenly humbled by her circumstances. Fleeing her controlling father, she attempts an undercover bus trip from Miami to New York with four dollars to her name.

Out of her depth, Ellie needs a guide to living as a civilian on a budget. Enter silver-tongued, half-drunk newspaperman Peter Warne (Gable), whose only hope at future employment is the scoop on his traveling companion’s wild attempts to emancipate herself.

Winner of the rare Oscar quintuple crown (Picture, Actor, Actress, Director, Screenplay), It Happened One Night screens as the final installment in Cinema 21 programmer Elliot Lavine’s latest series on 1930s classics. Cinema 21, March 29.

Also Playing:

Academy: The Return of the King (2003), March 26. Maniac (1980), March 27. Paris Is Burning (1990), March 26 and 27. Cinema 21: RoboCop (1987), March 28, 30 and 31. Dune (1984), March 28 and 29. Inland Empire (2006), March 29 and 30 and April 1. Starship Troopers (1997), March 29 and 30, April 2. Cinemagic: Enter the Dragon (1973), March 27. Police Story (1985), March 26. Rouge (1987), March 26. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990), March 27. 300 (2006), March 28, 30 and 31. Moulin Rouge! (2001), March 29, April 1 and 2. Speed Racer (2008), March 30 and 31. Waterworld (1995), March 29, April 1 and 2. Clinton: The Magic Toyshop (1987), March 26. The Love Witch (2016), March 27. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975), March 29. Night of the Living Dead (1968) with live score, April 1. Hollywood: The Slayer (1982), March 28. Barbarella (1968), March 29. Stop Making Sense (1984), March 29. RRR (2022), March 30. Revenge (2017), March 30. American Hunter (1989), April 1. Tomorrow: Charlie’s Angels (2000), March 28. But I’m a Cheerleader (1999), March 30.