Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Bea Swanson This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Candida It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

George Taylor I finally got around to watching this and didn't find it funny at all. I may have laughed twice in the whole movie. It's quite clear that the leads, Gable and Colbert, didn't care for being in it, and neither character is very sympathetic at all. It seems very paint by numbers, and just ambles along. I have to agree with Claudette Colbert, who couldn't understand why it was and remained so popular. I found it quite overrated and can't hold a candle to many other comedies to come out of the 30's. Also to call it screwball - well let's just not.

Anssi Vartiainen A young woman from a wealthy background cracks under the pressure of her demanding lifestyle and runs away. On her way she meets a struggling reporter, who decides to stick with her with a story in mind. Together they experience the joys of life. If this sounds vaguely familiar, it might be because you've seen the 1953 classic, Roman Holiday, the plot of which fits the exact same description. This came first, however.The are also differences. Whereas Roman Holiday is a pretty clear romantic city comedy, this movie can best be described as a road trip movie. It's also a bit more dramatic, or at least not as clearly a comedy. Overall I find Roman Holiday to be the superior film, but that's mainly due to the strength of its main leads. It Happened One Night certainly has star power going for it, with Clark Gable proving himself Gregory Peck's equal in all ways that matter. But if you were to tell me Claudette Colbert was just as good in this as Audrey Hepburn was in Roman Holiday, I'd punch you. Not that Colbert is bad, mind you, but her character is written pretty passive. I blame mostly the era, but the problem still exists.Nevertheless, I do like this film. Frank Capra's light, idealistic world view is evident throughout and it's just such a joy to experience. In his world people still believe is basic goodness and there are no true villains. Or if there are, there are also plenty of people to laugh at them or to thwart their evil schemes. What can I say, they don't make movies like these anymore. An attempt to make a movie such as this nowadays just wouldn't fly. It would be seen as too naive. Its dialogue as too corny, its characters as lacking humane flaws. But in denying ourselves films such as these, we're losing something. Whether its simple honesty or something else. But we're losing it.And that's a shame.

brodyeto The dialog is witty, the characters are delightful, and the story is timeless. The way it managed to weave together a story of conflicing interests and miscommunicated interests was so good, it became a cliché in romantic comedies, even to this day. However, unlike some other formulaic cash grabs you might see today, nothing about the misunderstanding felt forced or overly coincidental. The acting was great, and Clark Gabels performance was charming, smooth, and reluctant, akin to Bogart in Casablanca.

bigverybadtom This may be but a wish-fulfillment farce, but well-crafted all the same. It is never dull, and the story keeps you off-balance so the viewer never can really be sure how things will turn out.A spoiled daughter of a very rich father, tiring of his gilded cage, finally runs off to elope with a daredevil aviator, who is in New York. The father hires a slew of detectives to locate her, but she manages to get on a bus with a reporter who has heard about her situation and wants a big story to boost his career. With that purpose, he helps the daughter on her way to New York, but plenty of things go wrong along the way. And to make matters worse, the father decides to allow the marriage to take place-but complications ensue from that.Great character interaction and acting not only between the two leads, but between each of them as well as side characters make the story exciting, and the atmosphere of a dull, irritating bus ride and later running through the countryside is perfectly conveyed. Arguably one of the greatest of Frank Capra's movies.