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 film underwent an extensive restoration. Spoiled heiress Ellen "Ellie" Andrews has eloped with pilot and fortune-hunter King Westley against the wishes of her extremely wealthy father, Alexander Andrews. Andrews wants to have the marriage annulled because he knows Westley is really only interested in her money. Jumping ship in Florida, she runs away and boards a Greyhound bus to New York City to reunite with her husband. She meets fellow bus passenger Peter Warne, a freshly out-of-work newspaper reporter. Soon Peter recognizes her and gives her a choice: If she will give him an exclusive on her story, he will