Personally, I love this movie, which is really saying something because rom-coms are not usually my particular cup of tea. Don’t get me wrong. I can tolerate some of them, and I like others, but there are only a couple romantic comedies that I truly love (While You Were Sleeping and My Big Fat Greek Wedding being pretty much the only two that come to mind right now). My problem with them most of the time—if the acting isn’t completely atrocious—is that they are unrealistic. Not that films of other genres are always realistic, but there’s just something about romantic comedies that usually bothers me. I think it’s that in my own life there’s never been any smidgen of evidence that loving someone (or being funny, for that matter) solves all of one’s problems, which is what seems to typically happen at the end of rom-coms.

Anyhow, this week’s film is It Happened One Night (1934, Columbia), the first rom-com to win Best Picture—a pretty rare occurrence in Oscar history. I mean, really, can anyone name any other straight-up romantic comedies to win BP? Furthermore, not only did It Happened One Night win BP, it also took home every other award for which it was nominated for a total of five Oscar wins. And those five wins were huge. This is the first Best Picture to sweep all five of the major categories of the Academy Awards: Outstanding Production, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Screenplay (Adaptation)—a feat that has only happened two other times in Academy history (Can anyone name those two films? Hint: It was more than 40 years after It Happened One Night that another film finally won the “Big Five.”). It Happened One Night is also the first BP to win any acting awards, which is rather shocking, I think.

Now let’s put some names to those stats. Clark Gable. Claudette Colbert. Frank Capra. What is super funny about It Happened One Night—other than the film itself, which has some absolutely hilarious sequences—is that it almost didn’t happen. Clark Gable, who was under contract with MGM, refused to accept an assignment the studio had for him and was “loaned out” to Columbia, a sub-par studio at the time, in order to gain some humility and gratitude toward MGM apparently. Instead, Gable won his only Oscar—and started a trend of men not wearing undershirts due to Gable’s not having one on during his undressing scene (it’s not that scandalous, don’t worry).

Claudette Colbert was not the first actress considered for the role of Ellie Andrews, yet the remarkable on-screen chemistry between Gable and Colbert earned her an Oscar as well—an award she was convinced she would not win and was not present to receive when it was announced. About that event, Colbert stated: “I really had no idea I would get [the Oscar]. In fact, I was ready to leave for New York the night they called to tell me about it. Dressed in a mousy brown suit, I was escorted into the banquet hall full of diamonds and tail coats. It was especially embarrassing because I imagined they thought I was putting on an act, making an entrance.”

Frank Capra was an Italian immigrant who fell in love with education and the burgeoning movie industry, despite his family’s insistence that he drop out of school and get a job to help support the family. Capra did work a number of odd jobs before he realized his calling as a film director. After It Happened One Night, Capra would go on to direct a score of successful movies, including another Best Picture winner, You Can’t Take It with You (1938), as well as the iconic It’s a Wonderful Life (1946).

Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert in Frank Capra’s It Happened One Night

Released in 1934, It Happened One Night joins the ranks of Depression-era films and doesn’t neglect to include frequent references to money, its desirability, its scarcity, and its power. Hunger is also a prevalent motif. But, the film does more than just embrace pecuniary allusions and the concept of deprivation. It Happened One Night portrays the differences in social classes and concludes that love is more vital than money or even food. Perhaps this message was encouraging to those millions suffering through the 1930s.

To close then on a funny note in honor of this groundbreaking rom-com, one more interesting fact about this film. According to Friz Freleng, an Oscar-winning animation expert who worked for Warner Brothers and helped to develop some of animation’s most recognizable cartoons, the characters of Bugs Bunny, Yosemite Sam, and Pepe LePew were all partially inspired by characters from It Happened One Night. Bugs Bunny’s character borrowed the fast-talking dialogue of Oscar Shapeley, the womanizing fellow bus passenger, along with the carrot-eating technique of Peter Warne, Gable’s character. Yosemite Sam was based on Alexander Andrews, the overbearing father figure. Pepe LePew took his cue from King Westley, the wealthy, snobbish playboy. And I will take my cue from Gus, the patriarch of My Big Fat Greek Wedding, and say, “There you go.”

For more detailed thoughts on It Happened One Night and its significance, please check out the full post this weekend!