It Happened One Night (1934)

The people who drive you craziest are sometimes the ones you can't live without. Frank Capra's "It Happened One Night," adapted by Robert Riskin from Samuel Hopkins Adams' story "Night Bus," stars Claudette Colbert as Ellie Andrews, a pampered heiress who defies her wealthy father (Walter Connolly) by eloping with fortune-hunting aviator King Westley (Jameson Thomas). Held on her father's yacht off Miami, Ellie dives overboard and catches a bus to New York, where she meets out-of-work reporter Peter Warne (Clark Gable), who has just been fired. He agrees to help her reach her new husband in exchange for the exclusive story of the year. As her father offers a reward for her return, the mismatched pair dodge detectives, a pushy bus passenger (Roscoe Karns) and a thief who makes off with their luggage, while Peter teaches the spoiled heiress how to dunk a doughnut and live on a shoestring. In one famous scene, Ellie proves that a little leg works better than Peter's thumb for hitching a ride. But somewhere between the hitchhiking and the "Walls of Jericho," neither of them sees what's coming. It became the first film to win all five major Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor and Actress.