Instead of the (very) mildly popular movie threads I’ve started lately, I am going to do a very biased and irrelevant series of threads on the 100 movies that in my baseless opinion are the greatest. This is the opposite of Libertarian’s awesome list of the 50 greatest.
So: It Happened One Night
Frank Capra’s first really major movie, and one of the most subtly influentia moves ever, It Happened One Night* is a landmark in American cinema.
The epitome of the screwball comedy, it was the first film to sweep the oscars in the major categories. It’s influence stretced from inspiration for at least three Looney Tunes (Bugs Bunny, Pepe Le Pew and Yosemite Sam) to future motion picture product placements. Solidifying the career of Clark Gable, it unfortunately did little for Claudette Colbert. However, her scene with the bared leg remains one of the most memorable in American cinema. Made right before the Hays code began exerting it’s influence on Hollywood to the great extent it would until the 50’s, it featured some racy scenes, such as a shirtless Gable.
Actually, Lady for a Day was his first really major movie. Was it as big as Night? No, but it cemented his reputation at Columbia, was a sizable hit, and earned him his first Oscar nomination.
Colbert was considered a reliable box office draw for another decade (at least) after Night came out. The fact that most of her films (with a few exceptions, like The Palm Beach Story) have not stood the test of the time well does not mean she wasn’t seen as a major star into the 50s. The film did enormous things for her career.
A fine, well-modulated movie, before Capra started to believe his own hype and laid on the Everyman shtick with a trowel. Still, I’ll take It’s a Gift, Twentieth Century or The Thin Man (both also from 1934) over this any day. Props to Walter Connolly and Roscoe Carns in important supporting roles.