It Happened One Night

It Happened One Night is a 1934 American Pre-Code romantic comedy film directed and co-produced by Frank Capra. It stars Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable as two people who are trying to get to New York for their own reasons, but along the way, they both become attached to one another.
== Plot ==
Spoiled heiress Ellen "Ellie" Andrews has eloped with pilot and fortune-hunter King Westley against the wishes of her extremely wealthy father, Alexander Andrews, who wants to have the marriage annulled because he knows that Westley is really interested only in Ellie's money. He ends up keeping her on the ship until she does end the marriage. Ellie goes on a hunger strike and after an argument ends up jumping ship in Florida, Ellie runs away and manages to escape, so her Father sends out an alert to all the police stations to find her a bring her back. After getting some new clothes she boards a Greyhound bus to New York City to reunite with her husband. She meets fellow passenger Peter Warne, a newspaper reporter who recently lost his job, although he was too drunk to know that. At first Ellie doesn't want anything from him but after her luggage gets stolen, she realizes she made need help, but won't acknowledge it. After the bus leaves them behind the next morning, (she didn't know the bus wouldn't wait for her) they both have to wait until 8:00 at night. Soon, Peter who shows Ellie she made the front page and gives her a choice: If she gives him an exclusive on her story, he will help her reunite with Westley. If not, he will tell her father where she is, not wanting to go back to her father Ellie agrees to help.
As they go through several adventures, Ellie loses her initial disdain for Peter and they begin to fall in love. When the bus breaks down, they spend the night at some cabins they end up sharing a cabin together, and he gets her a toothbrush. Ellie still has to learn that people who are rich can't afford everything, she has to wait in line for the shower. While eating breakfast, the police arrive and the two put on a fake couple image which sends the police away. Unfortunately while on the road one of the passengers recognizes Ellie but Peter tells him not to squeal. Not wanting Ellie to be taken away, they begin hitchhiking, they fail to secure a ride until Ellie displays a shapely leg to Danker, the next driver. When they stop en route, Danker tries to steal their luggage but Peter chases him down and seizes his Model T. Near the end of their journey, Ellie confesses her love to Peter. The owners of the motel in which they stay at notice that Peter's car is gone and then expel Ellie. Believing Peter has deserted her, Ellie telephones her father, who has agreed to let her marry Prince Westley. Meanwhile, Peter has obtained money from his editor to marry Ellie but he misses her on the road. Although Ellie now has no desire to be with Prince, she believes that Peter has betrayed her for the reward money and so agrees to have a second, formal wedding with Westley.
On the wedding day, she finally reveals the whole story to her father. When Peter comes to Ellie's home, Andrews offers him the reward money, but Peter insists on being paid only his expenses, a paltry $39.60 for items that he had been forced to sell to buy gasoline. When Andrews presses Peter for an explanation of his odd behavior and demands to know if he loves her, Peter first tries to dodge the questions but then admits that he loves Ellie and storms out. Westley arrives for his wedding via an autogyro, but at the ceremony, Andrews reveals to his daughter about Peter's refusal of the reward money and tells her that her car is waiting by the back gate in case she changes her mind. At the last minute, just before she says "I do," she decides not to go through with the wedding. Ellie dumps Westley at the altar, bolts for her car, and drives away as the newsreel cameras crank.
A few days later, Andrews is working at his desk when Westley calls to tell him that he will take the financial settlement and not contest the annulment. His executive assistant brings him a telegram from Peter: "What's holding up the annulment, you slowpoke? The walls of Jericho are toppling!" That is a reference to a makeshift wall made of a blanket hung over a rope that was tied across the rooms separating the beds they had slept in, in order to give them each privacy while traveling together. With the annulment in hand, Andrews sends the reply, "Let 'em topple."
The last scene has Peter's battered Model T parked in a motor court in Glen Falls, Michigan. The mom-and-pop owners talk and wonder why, on such a warm night, the newlyweds (he had seen the marriage license) wanted a clothesline, an extra blanket, and the little tin trumpet that he had gotten for them. As they look at the cabin, the toy trumpet sounds a fanfare, the blanket falls to the floor, and the lights in the cabin go out.
== Cast ==
Clark Gable 	Peter Warne, a recently fired newspaper reporter
Claudette Colbert	Ellen "Ellie" Andrews, a spoiled heiress of millions
Walter Connolly 	Alexander Andrews, Ellie's millionaire father
Roscoe Karns 	Oscar Shapeley, an annoying bus passenger who tries to pick up Ellie
Jameson Thomas 	"King" Westley, Ellie's fiancé (or husband); a pilot and fortune-hunter
Alan Hale 	Danker, the singing car driver who wants to steal the suitcase
Arthur Hoyt 	Zeke, a motel owner
Blanche Friderici	Zeke's wife
Charles C. Wilson	Joe Gordon, newspaper editor and Peter's boss
Category:1930s films
Category:Films
Category:Romantic films
Category:Comedy films
Category:1934 films
Category:English-language films
Category:1930s romantic comedy films
Category:1930s screwball comedy films
Category:American black-and-white films
Category:American films
Category:American road movies
Category:American romantic comedy films
Category:American screwball comedy films
Category:Screwball films
Category:Best Picture Academy Award winners
Category:Buses in fiction
Category:Comedy of remarriage films
Category:Films scored by Louis Silvers
Category:Films about journalists
Category:Films about runaways
Category:Films based on short fiction
Category:Films directed by Frank Capra
Category:Films distributed by Columbia Pictures
Category:Films featuring a Best Actor Academy Award winning performance
Category:Films featuring a Best Actress Academy Award-winning performance
Category:Films made before the MPAA Production Code
Category:Films set in country houses
Category:Films whose director won the Best Directing Academy Award
Category:Films whose writer won the Best Adapted Screenplay Academy Award
Category:Hitchhiking in film
Category:Screenplays by Robert Riskin
Category:United States National Film Registry films