History Film / ItHappenedOneNight

* GillianCut: At the train station Peter insists that he wasn't interested in Ellie's money. Cut to the next scene where he sends off a telegram to his boss with the attempt to cash in on the big story that fell into his lap.

* MeetCute: On the not so spacious backseat of a bus.
* NonIndicativeName: The story takes place over two nights and three days.

* RecycledInSpace: The plot of ''Film/Spaceballs (1987)'' closely resembles this film, down to Lone Star only accepting the $200-something travel expenses as pay, rather than the million space bucks.

* RomanticComedy

!!Tropes in the film:

* NonIndicativeName: It takes place over several nights and days.

* RoadTripRomance: The TropeMaker

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Peter Warne (Creator/ClarkGable) is a hard-bitten reporter. He loses his job, but finds a ticket back in when he stumbles on to a runaway heiress, Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert). He meets her on a cross-country night bus, and threatens to blow her cover unless she gives him the exclusive story about her escape. They hate each other at first; when they realize that they'll have to share a room, they invent the "Wall of Jericho," a blanket between their two beds to keep them apart. But they eventually fall in love...

This RomanticComedy from 1934 was directed by Creator/FrankCapra. It was the first film to win all five major Oscars in the same year (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress & Best Screenplay - a feat only repeated twice since with ''OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'' and ''SilenceOfTheLambs''), established ColumbiaPictures as a major film company, made Clark Gable a star, and let the world know that Frank Capra was a great director. Its title was the solution to the very first rebus on ''{{Concentration}}''.

!!Tropes In The Film:

** Also, Oscar Shapely wants to go 50/50 on a reward he sees in the newspaper of $5,000.

* CrowdSong: Though the bus's rendition of "The Flying Trapeze" is believable.

* LostInImitation: BugsBunny 's love of carrots was intended as an obvious ShoutOut to this movie, but it quickly became the StockAnimalDiet of fictional rabbits everywhere (In RealLife, carrots are unhealthy for rabbits in large amounts).

** Gable has one of his own, where he complains that women "don't know how to dunk" (donuts into coffee). Nike used that scene for a shoe ad in the 80s.

* JustForTheHeliOfIt: The groom arrives at the society wedding in a helicopter (called an "autogyro" in the terminology of the time, making this OlderThanTheyThink), apparently for the PR value. The bride and her father are not favorably impressed:

This RomanticComedy from 1934 was directed by FrankCapra. It was the first film to win all five major Oscars in the same year (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress & Best Screenplay - a feat only repeated twice since with ''OneFlewOverTheCuckoosNest'' and ''SilenceOfTheLambs''), established ColumbiaPictures as a major film company, made Clark Gable a star, and let the world know that Frank Capra was a great director. Its title was the solution to the very first rebus on ''{{Concentration}}''.

* ThisIsMySide: That bedsheet been homaged/used dozens of times by everything from ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' to ''[[BradyBunchSpinOffs A Very Brady Sequel]]''.

* AbhorrentAdmirer: A very obnoxious guy hits on Ellie on the bus and so Peter starts pretending to be her husband.

* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove: ''I love you. Nothing else matters. We can run away. Everything will take care of itself. Please, Peter, I can't let you out of my life now. I couldn't live without you.''
* BelligerentSexualTension

* BreakUpMakeUpScenario: one of the first in cinema.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Peter

* SpoiledBrat

* WorstNewsJudgmentEver: Ellie's love life makes the top story on the front page of every single New York newspaper. Evidently, not much else was going on in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity in 1934.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold

* ThisIsMySide: Having fun dancing around UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode with that bedsheet. Has been homaged/used dozens of times by everything from ''The Sure Thing'' to ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' to ''[[BradyBunchSpinOffs A Very Brady Sequel]]''.
** Eva, sure. But it's not surprising that they used it in ''The Sure Thing'' because that movie is a remake of ''It Happened One Night.''

::The bride ends up leaving before the ceremony to run away with Peter, a newspaper reporter.

* ThisIsMySide: Having fun dancing around the HaysCode with that bedsheet. Has been homaged/used dozens of times by everything from ''The Sure Thing'' to ''Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion'' to ''[[BradyBunchSpinOffs A Very Brady Sequel]]''.

* WorstNewsJudgmentEver: Ellie's love life makes the top story on the front page of every single New York newspaper. Evidently, not much else was going on in New York City in 1934.
** Considering that it was in the middle of the Great Depression, chances are that ''any'' more upbeat news would've been more than welcome.

* LostinImitation: BugsBunny 's love of carrots was intended as an obvious ShoutOut to this movie, but it quickly became the StockAnimalDiet of fictional rabbits everywhere (In RealLife, carrots are unhealthy for rabbits in large amounts).

* ThisIsMySide: Having fun dancing around the HaysCode with that bedsheet. Has been homaged/used dozens of times by everything from ''The Sure Thing'' to ''NeonGenesisEvangelion'' to ''[[BradyBunchSpinOffs A Very Brady Sequel]]''.

* LostinImitation: BugsBunny 's love of carrots was intended as an obvious ShoutOut to this movie, but it quickly became the StockAnimalDiet of rabbits everywhere (In RealLife, carrots are unhealthy for rabbits in large amounts).

* MoneyDearBoy: Both leads were only in this film because of contractual obligation with the studio.

Peter Warne (ClarkGable) is a hard-bitten reporter. He loses his job, but finds a ticket back in when he stumbles on to a runaway heiress, Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert). He meets her on a cross-country night bus, and threatens to blow her cover unless she gives him the exclusive story about her escape. They hate each other at first; when they realize that they'll have to share a room, they invent the "Wall of Jericho," a blanket between their two beds to keep them apart. But they eventually fall in love...