Mobile Navigation
It Happened One Night (1934)
This Depression-era comedy was so successful that it catapulted Harry Cohn and Columbia Studios out of Poverty Row, and into the minor- majors league, winning five Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director, Writing, Actor (Clark Gable) and Actress (Claudette Colbert). Amazingly, the film failed at the box office in first run, despite receiving good reviews in the trades and national press, but picked up steam in second runs and in more rural territories, until it became a national hit. Colbert plays the heiress on the lam, meeting down-and-out reporter Gable, who soon recognizes a story. The “Walls of Jericho” scene is a classic, quoted in every Chuck Workman-like montage of classic Hollywood movies ever made. Screenwriter Robert Riskin won an Oscar for this film, and was nominated for four others between 1934 and 1952.
DCP, b/w, 105 min. Director: Frank Capra. Screenwriter: Robert Riskin, Samuel Hopkins Adams. Cast: Clark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly, Roscoe Karns.
The Richest Girl in the World (1934)
Extremely rich girl Dorothy Hunter (Miriam Hopkins), looking for love, doesn’t believe any man could be interested in her rather than her money, so she plays the poor secretary, and lets her friend and secretary (Fay Wray) pretend to be the millionairess. The character may have been based on Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton. Joel McCrea is the prize. Norman Krasna supplies an excellent comedy script, nominated for an Academy Award. In the late 1930s, Krasna would move to Universal, writing a string of hit Deanna Durbin comedies. The acting is first rate in this little programmer.
16mm, b/w, 75 min. Director: William A. Seiter. Screenwriter: Norman A. Krasna. Cast: Miriam Hopkins, Joel McCrea, Fay Wray, Reginald Denny.
