Film Worksheet – It Happened One Night

Film details:

  • It Happened One Night
  • Dir. Frank Capra, 1934, USA, 105 mins.
  • Columbia Pictures
  • Starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert

Cast/Characters

  • Ellie Andrews (Claudette Colbert). The Wall Street heiress
  • Her father Alexander Andrews
  • King Westley. The glamorous pilot
  • Peter Warne (Clarke Gable). The unemployed journalist
  • Oscar Shapeley, an annoying bus passenger who tries to pick up Ellie
  • Danker, a singing car driver
  • Zeke, motel owner
  • Joe Gordon, newspaper editor

Key terms:

  • Screwball comedy, star system, shot/reverse shot, gender roles, class roles

Worksheet questions:

  1. Story – what features of the screwball comedy do you see?
  2. Dialogue – how does dialogue carry off the story?
  3. Film techniques – what does the cinematography do here?
  4. History – how is this a story of the Great Depression?