Reporter Clark Gable chases spoiled heiress Claudette Colbert across most of the eastern seaboard, pausing long enough between wisecracks to set the definitive tone of 30s screwball comedy. It Happened One Night was the first film to sweep the five major categories - Best Film, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay - a feat only equaled twice since then, by One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest in 1975 and Silence of the Lambs in 1991. Neither Gable nor Colbert were first choices to play their roles and neither was terribly happy about making the picture. Director Frank Capra and screenwriter Robert Riskin collaborated on a number of classics and yet were political opposites (Capra was a conservative Republican and Riskin a dyed-in-the-wool liberal). Still, eight decades after the fact, everything about the movie clicks like clockwork. Sexy and hilarious as ever, the time is now to savor this wonderfully improbable gem in its sparkling 4K restoration.
Her mother was King Kong’s love interest and her father, the Oscar-winning screenwriter of It Happened One Night. Victoria Riskin, author of Fay Wray and Robert Riskin: A Hollywood Memoir, will introduce two evergreen American classics and take questions from the audience.
