It Happened One Night It Happened One Night It Happened One Night is a 1934 pre-Code American romantic comedy film with elements of screwball comedy directed and co-produced by Frank Capra, in collaboration with Harry Cohn, in which a pampered socialite (Claudette Colbert) tries to get out from under her father's thumb and falls in love with a roguish reporter (Clark Gable). The plot is based on the August 1933 short story "Night Bus" by Samuel Hopkins Adams, which provided the shooting title. Classified as a "pre-Code" production, the film is among the last romantic comedies created before the MPAA began rigidly enforcing the
It Happened One Night particularly strong plot", but "manages to come through in a big way, due to the acting, dialog, situations and directing." "Film Daily" praised it as "a lively yarn, fast-moving, plenty humorous, racy enough to be tantalizing, and yet perfectly decorous." The "New York Herald Tribune" called it "lively and amusing." John Mosher of "The New Yorker", however, panned it as "pretty much nonsense and quite dreary," which was probably the review Capra had in mind when he recalled in his autobiography that "sophisticated" critics had dismissed the film. Despite the positive reviews, the film only did so-so business in its