Discussion of "It Happened One Night"

It Happened One Night (1934) is an American romantic comedy directed by Frank Capra and starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. The supporting cast includes Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns, and Alan Hale. The film was produced by Capra and Columbia Pictures studio head Harry Cohn. The script was written by Robert Riskin. The cinematography was by Joseph Walker (The Awful Truth, It’s a Wonderful Life, Born Yesterday).

Heiress Ellen “Ellie” Andrews (Colbert) has eloped with King Westley (Jameson Thomas), a fortune-hunting pilot against her rich industrialist father Alexander Andrews (Walter Connolly). Ellie’s father wants to have the wedding annulled but Ellie has other plans. Ellie runs away from her father and takes a bus to New York City to reunite with Wesley. On the bus, Ellie meets Peter Warne (Gable), a newspaper reporter who just lost his job. When he realizes that he’s traveling with the runaway heiress, Warne makes a deal with Ellie that he will keep quiet and not expose her identity if she gives him an exclusive on her love story with Wesley. If she doesn’t agree, Peter will tell her father where she is.

As the two traveling companions escape from several difficult situations, they begin to fall in love.

Will Peter and Ellie be able to sustain their love or will Ellie’s father and King Wesley have something to say about it?

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