It Happened One Night

The movie that truly put Columbia on the map, this Frank Capra comedy was the first film to win all five major Oscars® for Best Picture, Actor, Actress, Director and Screenplay, and remains one of the crown jewels in the studio's library. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert were loaned from their respective studios (MGM and Paramount) as "punishment," only to return bigger stars than ever and Academy Award® winners to boot. Colbert plays an heiress who has taken flight to avoid a forced marriage. Gable is a newly-fired reporter who realizes who she is and smells an exclusive scoop that can return him to the big time.  By bus, auto and foot, they bicker, quarrel, and fall in love. Both stars quickly responded to Capra's intuitive direction, aided by Robert Riskin's canny script, and gave extraordinary performances in numerous sequences that have become classics, including the hitchhiking scene and the "Walls of Jericho" scene, in which Gable's lack of an undershirt caused sales to plummet.  Gable's distinctive carrot-munching was later rumored to be the inspiration for Bugs Bunny!  Also in the cast were such reliables as Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, Alan Hale, Arthur Hoyt, and Ward Bond.