PG

Clark Gable scandalized audiences by appearing shirtless in the film's first cabin scene, when he undresses. In other ways, too, It Happened One Night may strike you as surprisingly frank about sex.

But the film's frankness is offset by its modesty. Capra's always saving his leading lady from being too roughly handled, and the film's leading man does the same thing by keeping watch over Ellie and pretending to be her husband so that no one will take any liberties with her or get too close.

The thing that prevents IHON (as we like to call it) from being too much of a shocker, though, is this: The film's determined to make Peter wait until he really is Ellie's husband—and has the papers to prove it—before he and Ellie can get down and dirty. In this sense, Capra insists on modesty and sides with traditional values that say a bride should be virginal and a groom respectful of her purity.