Facts > Films > It Happened One Night
It Happened One Night (1934) Facts
| Director(s) | Frank Capra |
| Producer(s) | Frank Capra (uncredited), Harry Cohn (uncredited) |
| Featured Cast | Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, Jameson Thomas |
| Total Facts | 39 |
"Lux Radio Theater" broadcast a 60 minute radio adaptation of the movie on
March 20, 1939 with Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable reprising their film roles.
Friz Freleng's unpublished memoirs mention that this was one of his favorite films, and that it contains at least three things upon which the character "Bugs Bunny" was based: - The character Oscar Shapely's (Roscoe Karns) personality - The manner in which Peter Warne (Clark Gable) was eating carrots and talking quickly at the same time - An imaginary character mentioned once to frighten Oscar Shapely named "Bugs Dooley." Other mentions of "Looney Tunes" characters from the film include Alexander Andrews (Walter Connolly) and King Westley (Jameson Thomas) being the inspirations for Yosemite Sam and Pepé LePew, respectively.
Clark Gable gave his Oscar for It Happened One Night to a child who admired it, telling him it was the winning of the statue that had mattered, not owning it. The child returned the Oscar to the Gable family after Clark's death.
Constance Bennett and Myrna Loy, among others, turned the script down. Claudette Colbert only accepted because Capra promised he would double her salary and she would be done in four weeks. She disliked the film so much she didn't even attend the Oscars; when she won for Best Actress she was found about to leave on a trip and was rushed to the ceremony, where she made her acceptance speech in a traveling suit.
Claudette Colbert only wears four different outfits throughout the course of the film: a flimsy nightgown at the beginning, her traveling suit, Clark Gable's pajamas, and her wedding dress.
Myrna Loy turned down the role of Ellie Andrews because a recent film set on a bus had failed, and she didn't think that this one would succeed.
Robert Montgomery turned down the male lead, saying the script was the worst thing he had ever read.
According to Frank Capra, Claudette Colbert was the sixth actress that was offered the lead role. Colbert reluctantly accepted the role turned down by the other five actresses when Capra agreed to double her salary and guarantee that Colbert only had to work for four weeks or less.
At the Miami bus station, friends of Peter Warne (Clark Gable) refer to him as "the King" - Gable's nickname in real life.
Claudette Colbert complained nearly every day during the making of the film. On the last day of shooting, she told a friend "I just finished making the worst picture I've ever made".
Columbia Pictures was considered a Poverty Row studio at the time of the film's release. Both MGM and Warner Brothers would lend out temperamental actors to Columbia as a 'humbling experience.' Studio boss Harry Cohn, who was loath to pay for his own roster of contract stars during the early 30's, would invariably assign them to work on Frank Capra's films. Although the studio had received Oscar nominations prior to this picture, its success virtually single-handedly lifted Columbia out of the ranks of poverty row.
Director Frank Capra came up with the idea about "the walls of Jericho" because Claudette Colbert refused to undress in front of the camera.
Holds the record along with The Last Emperor and The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003) of winning all the awards in every single category in which was nominated at the Academy Awards including best picture.
Is often credited as the very first screwball comedy.
It is widely believed that MGM ensured their contracted star Clark Gable received the Best Actor Oscar to promote his career at the studio. Only three actors were nominated that year, and it was widely believed Charles Laughton would have easily won for his highly acclaimed performance as the tyrannical father in The Barretts of Wimpole Street had he received a nomination.
June 2008 Ranked #3 on the American Film Institute's list of the 10 greatest films in the genre "Romantic Comedy".
Premiere voted this movie as one of "The 50 Greatest Comedies Of All Time" in 2006.
Several actors in studio records/casting call lists did not appear or were not identifiable in this movie. These were (with their character names): Henry Wadsworth (Drunk Boy), Eddie Kane (Radio Announcer), Charlie Hall (Reporter) and Tom Ricketts (Prissy Old Man).
She was so convinced that she would lose the Oscar competition in 1935 to write-in nominee Bette Davis, that Claudette Colbert decided not to attend the awards ceremony. When she, contrary to her belief, won that year for her performance in It Happened One Night she was summoned from a train station to pick up her Oscar.
The first Academy Award Best Picture nominee to win both Best Actor and Best Actress.
The first of only three films to win every major Academy Award, including Best Picture.
The locomotive that holds up Peter Warne, supposedly in New Jersey, is a Southern Pacific 2-6-0 Mogul, number 1662, class M-4, built by the Cooke Works of the American Locomotive Company, commonly known as ALCO.
This was the first film to win the Oscar "grand slam" (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Screenplay).
Was the first film to win both the Academy Award and National Board of Review Award for the Best Picture.
When Clark Gable showed up for work on the first day, he reportedly said grimly, "Let's get this over with."
When director Frank Capra asked Claudette Colbert to expose her leg for the hitchhiking scene, she at first refused. Later, after having seen the leg of her body double, she changed her mind insisting that "that is not my leg!"
While shooting the scene where he undresses, Clark Gable had trouble removing his undershirt while keeping his humorous flow going and took too long. As a result the undershirt was abandoned altogether. It then became cool to not wear an undershirt which resulted in a large drop in undershirt sales around the country. Legend has it that in response, some underwear manufacturers tried to sue Columbia.
A persistent legend has it that Gable had a profound effect on men's fashion, thanks to a scene in It Happened One Night. As he is preparing for bed, he takes off his shirt to reveal that he is bare-chested. Sales of men's undershirts across the country allegedly declined noticeably for a period following this movie.
Bugs Bunny's nonchalant carrot-chewing standing position, as explained by Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, and Bob Clampett, originated in a scene in the film It Happened One Night, in which Clark Gable's character leans against a fence, eating carrots rapidly and talking with his mouth full to Claudette Colbert's character. This scene was well known while the film was popular, and viewers at the time likely recognized Bugs Bunny's behavior as satire.
In Sex and the City 2, Carrie and Mr. Big watch It Happened One Night (specifically the taxi scene) in a hotel. Later in the film, in an attempt to get a taxi in Abu Dhabi, Carrie mimmicks Claudette Colbert by showing some leg to stop a taxi.
In the 2001 film Bandits, Joe Blake (Bruce Willis) erects a blanket partition between motel room beds out of respect for Kate Wheeler's (Cate Blanchett's) privacy. He remarks that he saw them do the same thing in an old movie (Clark Gable's character, Peter Warne, did this in It Happened One Night).
It Happened One Night was the first to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay), a feat that would not be matched until One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and later by The Silence of the Lambs (1991).
Loretta Young also turned down the role of Elle in It Happened One Night.
Margaret Sullavan turned down the part of Ellie in It Happened One Night.
Mel Brooks' 1987 film Spaceballs parodies the wedding scene from It Happened One Night. As she walks down the aisle to wed Prince Valium, Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) is told by her father, King Roland, that Lone Starr forsook the reward for the princess's return and only asked to be reimbursed for the cost of the trip.
Miriam Hopkins rejected the part of Ellie in It Happened One Night.
Robert Montgomery and Myrna Loy were offered the roles of Ellie and Peter in It Happened One Night, but each turned the script down, though Loy later noted that the final story as filmed bore little resemblance to the script that she and Montgomery and been offered for their perusal.
The 1937 Laurel and Hardy comedy Way Out West parodied the famous hitch-hiking scene from It Happened One Night, with Stan Laurel managing to stop a stage coach using the same technique.
The unpublished memoirs of animator Friz Freleng mention that It Happened One Night was one of his favorite films. It has been claimed that it helped inspire the cartoon character Bugs Bunny. Three things in the film may have coalesced to create Bugs: the personality of a minor character, Oscar Shapely, an imaginary character named "Bugs Dooley" mentioned once to frighten Shapely, and most of all, a scene in which Clark Gable eats carrots while talking quickly with his mouth full, as Bugs does.