There a movies - nice, entertaining, fun, a diversion in the day to day activities that life puts upon us. And once in a while there are movies that are more - jewels, gems, treasures. It happened in 1934 with the movie It Happened One Night. Though the movie is described as the original "screwball comedy" it is so skillfully executed to perfection that the movie is so much more and one of the greatest films ever made even though its now about 80 years old. It swept the Academy Awards winning for Best Picture, Best Director (Billy Wilder), Best Actor (Clark Gable), Best Actress (Claudette Colbert), and Best Screenplay plus many others.
I got to see It Happened One Night last weekend. It was the first time I had seen it in about 20 years or so (when I was so impressed with it that I went out and bought a copy for my VHS collection). Though the movie does show some drastic changes in values and morals from a different generation, the story remains fresh and vibrant and moves along at a wonderfully entertaining pace under Wilder's direction. Again, it is one of those rare movies that has no flaws in the story telling from beginning to end. The movie doesn't waste a moment of your time.
If you want to see movie making at its best - you can't go wrong with It Happened One Night. It shows up on the classic movie stations quite often for good reason.
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