It Happened One Night isn’t just one of the greatest films ever made, but the template for every successful rom-com that followed it. The 1934 flick stars Claudette Colbert as Ellie Andrews, an heiress who gets into trouble with her father after she elopes with a gold-digging aviator named King Wesley. Ellie goes on the run to meet up with her man, but soon learns that Depression-era America isn’t exactly the friendliest place for a rich girl who ran away with no money. Ellie finds herself joined on her hellacious cross-country trip by Clark Gable’s Peter Warne, a down-on-his-luck reporter who recognizes his travel companion his chance to get his byline back in the papers. As they hitchhike their way up the East Coast, Ellie and Peter bicker, banter, and…fall in love?? It Happened One Night is smart, sexy, and the origin of so many of our favorite rom-com tropes.
Photo: Everett Collection
