Movies at Mechanics' Presents: It Happened One Night (1934)

Movies at Mechanics’ has welcomed film enthusiasts for classic cinema screenings and salons on Friday evenings for over 20 years. This October is 1930s Screwball Comedies Month!

A spoiled heiress runs away from home when her father doesn’t approve of her marriage. She boards a bus to avoid her father’s detectives, but finds that she needs help surviving on her own. A caustic newspaper reporter aids her escape in order to get the story, but the two soon realize that they each want something different.

Directed by the great Frank Capra, It Happened One Night is widely regarded as one of the best films ever made. Its success shocked everyone involved. It Happened One Night was slated as a low budget production, assigned to Clark Gable as punishment for rejecting roles at his home studio of MGM. Ironically, it won Gable his first and only Academy Award, and became the first film to sweep all five major categories at the Oscars (Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Picture). That distinction is shared by only two other films in history: One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest and Silence of The Lambs. It Happened One Night has also had a profound influence on popular culture, later directly influencing the persona of a beloved cartoon character.

Join us for an in-depth presentation on It Happened One Night with film historian Lara Gabrielle and special guest, Los Angeles-based film critic Kristen Lopez. Come early for popcorn, snacks, and a pre-show of vintage clips, newsreels, and commercials! 

“Author Gabrielle has given us a gift: an honest biography of a woman whose life and career have long been misunderstood. . . . In short, this is the book Marion Davies has always deserved.”-Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian