It Happened One Night at the Corrie Film Club

No shenanigans at Corrie Hall, we hasten to assure you – just a showing on Sunday January 8th of one of the all-time great romantic comedies, directed by Frank Capra and starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert. Made in 1934, this romantic comedy tells a wacky story of a pampered socialite (Claudette Colbert) who is having a dust-up with her wealthy father over her choice of husband. In search of her gold-digging new husband sent packing by her dad, she falls in with an on-the-ball reporter who sees the story as a promising one. Since the reporter in question is played by Clark Gable, you can guess the rest – but it unfolds through a zany comic plot that is as funny today as it ever was.

Like last month’s film, Soft Top, Hard Shoulder, this is a classic road movie, full of mildly disastrous events, including a hitch-hiking sequence that sees a villanous driver trying to make off with their luggage. Misunderstandings abound, but the virtuous reporter triumphs in the end, and even super-rich Dad is pleased.

It Happened One Night was the first film to win all five major Academy Awards (Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay), a feat that would not be matched until One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) and later by The Silence of the Lambs (1991). While in no way as serious as its illustrious successors, it remains a perfect example of the great romantic comedy genre that made American cinema what it is, highly professional in both acting and direction and beautifully timed. Made in black and white, it is full of its own kind of colour.

The showing starts at 8.00 pm on Sunday, 8th January. Admission is free and open to all, though a small donation to the running costs of Corrie Hall would be welcomed.