It Happened One Night (1934)

As of today, It Happened One Night is the earliest Best Picture winner I have seen. The movie follows a rich, young woman (Claudette Colbert) who marries a man and her father is extremely opposed to the marriage. Before the marriage is consummated, her father intervenes and she manages to run away. She boards a bus and there meets an out-of-work reporter (Clark Gable). He recognizes who she is and gives her the option to give him the "inside scoop" and he will return her to her new husband or he will call her father and collect the award he is offering for his daughter.

The title really has nothing to do with the story. It takes place over several days (and nights). The most famous scene of the film is when the two must resort to hitch-hiking. He has little luck in getting a car to stop and give them a ride so she hikes up her skirt, flashes a bit of leg, and the next car to pass by stops to give them a ride. This scene was recreated in the newest Sex and the City movie and makes me want to slap the writers.

It Happened One Night was the first film to win all of the Big Five Awards at the Oscars: Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Screenplay. Only two other films have been able to say the same in the 82 years of the Academy Awards - One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest and The Silence of the Lambs.

This movie is a real gem. It has a simple plot and is an enjoyment to watch. There is no over-thinking needed to watch It Happened One Night. It is a fun treasure from the early days of motion pictures.