S.W.’s Scores
Continuity
+5
Entertainment
+4
Rewatchability
+4
CastClark Gable, Claudette Colbert, Walter Connolly
StreamingCriterion Channel, Prime Video (rent)
S.W.’s Verdict
A runaway heiress and a reporter share a bus ride and invent the romantic comedy. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert have chemistry that most modern films spend entire franchises trying to manufacture. The hitchhiking scene, the walls of Jericho, the carrot — these became templates. The pacing is sharp for 1934, and the comedy lands without trying too hard. First film to sweep the Big Five at the Oscars, and you can see why.