It Happened One Night (1934)

Why it's here:
Directed by Frank Capra, starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, this has to be one of the best and funniest movies of all time.

Specs:
1 hr and 45 minutes long. Black and white. A talkie that finally makes you glad that sound has arrived!

Family's average rating (on a scale of 1-10):
A whopping 9.0, which is our highest collective rating for any film in the festival (through 1941 anyway).

More about the film and our reaction to it:
I always knew it was a good idea to work forward in time through classic movies, but now, excuse my vanity, I really see the genius behind the plan. Watching It Happened One Night after several weeks of experience with silents and transition era films just blew us away . . . the way it should have. I can fully appreciate why this movie swept the Academy Awards and has gone down in history as the classic romantic comedy of all time, the first screwball comedy, a Frank Capra masterpiece and yet -- simultaneously had been the film no one expected to succeed.

Most involved in the project seemed to think it was a crummy waste of time (Claudette Colbert, at the end of filming, famously told a friend: "I just finished the worst picture of my life;" Clark Gable was given the assignment as punishment). To explain the paradox, you have to set yourself in 1934 when movies just weren't like this. People couldn't easily see the value of doing something like watching two people travel along the countryside taking little quips at each other and falling in love. It must have been hard to picture, until it all came together.

This film feels like a major leap forward in cinematic style, just swooping cleanly in with total understanding of the beauties of dialog. It is extremely effective at telling a smart, well-acted, and seamlessly audible story.

Gable, in an atypical role, and Colbert have wonderful chemistry. Although the film is regarded as the genesis of the "screwball" style of comedy, this might be better heralded as the birth of romantic comedy -- back before that meant "chick flick". The talents of Gable -- unquestionably a guy's guy -- keeps the film just a tiny bit rougher and gritty, very appealing to men. I can attest that all of the men at my house loved this film.

Iconic shot: