I hadn’t seen the film classic It Happened One Night until recently, but I knew one piece of trivia about it:
The scene in which Clark Gable removes his shirt is credited as the number-one cause for not only the decrease in undershirt sales for the following two years, but the implementation of product placement in movies to come.
In some ways, the film is very 1934, but in others, it’s way ahead of its time. I highly recommend it. Technically, Frank Capra made use of crane shots, back-projection, and wipes — cutting-edge filmmaking for the 1930s — but the humor is also cutting-edge for the 1930s.
The film is immensely important in terms of cultural literacy and its amazing influence on other works. In one scene, Clark Gable pulls out some raw carrots and starts chomping on them while talking:
Friz Freleng’s unpublished memoirs mention that this was one of his favorite films, and that it contains at least three things upon which the character “Bugs Bunny” was based:
- The character Oscar Shapely’s (Roscoe Karns) personality
- The manner in which Peter Warren (Clark Gable) was eating carrots and talking quickly at the same time
- An imaginary character mentioned once to frighten Oscar Shapely named “Bugs Dooley”.
You may also have seen any number of movies (or cartoons) where a young lady hitchhikes by showing some leg. I believe that Claudette Colbert did it first.
No one making the movie had high expections, but it ended being the first film to win the Oscar “grand slam” (Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director and Screenplay).
One last thing: it briefly features an autogyro. You have to like that.