It Happened One Night
was
the first movie to win all five major Academy
Awards: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay.
Not bad for a film that initially didn’t
fare well when it first hit the theaters. It was when it began its round at
second-run theaters
and small theaters out in the sticks that audiences started attending en mass.
There’s a theory that folks who lived in rural
areas identified with the settings of bus travel and pop-up roadside cottage
inns. It’s said that tickets on Greyhound buses had
a bump in sales as a result of the film. But what I want to talk about
is how It Happened One Night influenced popular culture. Clark
Gable’s character, Peter Warren, talks while
filling up his mouth with carrots. Another character who addresses Warren as “Doc” is then asked by
Warren if he’s heard of Bugs Dooley. Six years
later, these various tidbits would flow into a cartoon character called Bugs
Bunny. Moments, lines and scenarios from It Happened One Night
have
been paid homage in a slew of films and cartoons. It Happened One Night is a fun romp that audiences went crazy for
back in the ‘30s, and it’s well worth your time to watch and see how it became the
source of so much material used later in film.
