Hollywood Gamechangers Part 3/3: It Happened One Night (1934)

Award-winning author and documentarian Steven C. Smith takes us inside the battles and breakthroughs behind three screen classics. All of them defied the rules…advanced the art of filmmaking…and remain among the most entertaining movies ever made.
Steven C. Smith is an award-winning biographer, four-time Emmy-nominated producer, and 16-time Telly Award winner. His over-200 documentaries include collaborations with Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Martin Scorsese, Julie Andrews, Stephen Sondheim, Harrison Ford and Sidney Poitier.
IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT (1934)
The first movie to win all top Oscars-Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Director-this irresistible road trip romance, directed by Frank Capra, helped invent a new movie genre: the “screwball comedy.” Taking romantic comedies a step further, It Happened One Night employed snappy, fast-paced dialogue, a strong female character who stood up to the male, and physical comedy, to tell a new kind of love story.
It also elevated Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert-neither of whom wanted to make the film--into top box office stars. And after Gable took off his shirt onscreen, revealing that he wore nothing underneath, undershirt sales plummeted!