Trivia / It Happened One Night

• Contractual Obligation Project: Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert thought the film would flop and were only in the film to fulfill contractual obligations. Both would go on to win Oscars for the movie which also won for Best Picture.
• Hostility on the Set:
  • Director Frank Capra and Clark Gable were on edge with other at first, since Gable was only doing it for contractual reasons; Capra's original choice, Robert Montgomery, had not only turned the film down but said the script was awful, and after many other stars of the era turned it down Gable was imposed on Capra by the studio. However, they soon came to like each other.^note Capra said years later that this was Gable's only performance that reflected who he was off camera
  • On other hand, Capra and Colbert never warmed to each other, possibly because her terms for making the movie had included a strict four-week schedule so as not to disrupt a vacation she had planned afterwards.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: Clark Gable's Shirtless Scene is popularly rumored to have caused undershirts to fall out of fashion, prompting him to wear one in a later film to save the industry. No actual evidence about this has been found.
• Sleeper Hit: Arguably the original example. The film was made on a low budget by a small studio and a director that had yet to make a name for himself. Columbia had little faith in the film, and spent almost nothing on advertising, while both of its stars wanted to distance themselves from the project. The film was originally released to average box office, but positive word-of-mouth eventually spread, and the film amassed a huge cult following, especially in rural areas. It later went on to sweep the Oscars that year, unheard of at the time for a smaller movie.
• Throw It In!: The at-the-time shocking Shirtless Scene came about because Clark Gable had trouble removing his undershirt to keep the flow of the scene going—so he went without it.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Robert Montgomery turned down the male lead, saying the script was the worst thing he had ever read. Fredric March also refused the part.
  • Constance Bennett, Miriam Hopkins, Carole Lombard^note  Who later married Clark Gable and Myrna Loy all turned the lead down for various reasons. Warner Bros. also refused to loan out Bette Davis, who was interested in the role, and amusingly would have an infamous Award Snub to Claudette Colbert for this very film.
  • Colbert initially refused to Show Some Leg for the famous hitchhiker scene. So they got a double to do it instead. When Claudette saw the take, she didn't like the double's leg, and ended up showing her own after all.
  • The aforementioned Myrna Loy stated that the original script of the film was very different from the final product, the quality of the script being why she and Robert Montgomery turned their offered roles down, one change being Ellie's motive for running away being that a rich life bored her.

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