It Happened One Night Themes
Love
It's a rom-com, folks—it's gonna be about love.Well, okay. It's a little more complicated than that: It Happened One Night's take on the L-word is distinctive, and that's why the film has endeare...
Marriage
First comes loves, then comes marriage—well, at least in most rom-coms, the marriage is the big culminating scene, and then everyone is supposed to live happily ever after. It Happened One Night...
Society and Class
When It Happened One Night was made, the Great Depression was in full swing, and viewers can catch glimpses of this fact in some of the film's darker scenes—for example, that scene on the bus whe...
Transformation
At the heart of It Happened One Night is the idea that without a real metamorphosis, encouraged by life experience and lots of adventure, Ellie wouldn't find love. She has to "jump into the surf,"...