It Has Happened Only Thrice

What is common between ‘It Happened One Night’ (1934), ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ (1975) and ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ (1991)? These three films, despite being as different as movies can be, share a unique similarity. And that is more than they being ‘inspirations’ for, respectively, ‘Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahin’, ‘Kyun Ki’ and ‘Sangharsh’.

Well, these are the only three films in the history of Academy Awards to have won the Big Five: awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay. I just watched ‘It Happened One Night’ and was tempted to share this trivia here.

• ‘It Happened One Night’ was directed by Frank Capra and written by Robert Riskin, based on a short story by Samuel Hopkins Adams. Clark Gable (the star of ‘Gone With the Wind’) and Claudette Colbert starred in this film that has been remade several times.

• ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ was directed by Milos Forman. The screenplay by Laurence Hauben and Bo Goldman was based on the novel by Ken Kesey. Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher played the lead roles.

• ‘The Silence of the Lambs’ was directed by Jonathan Demme and written by Ted Tally based on the novel by Thomas Harris. Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins starred in this brilliant thriller.

P.S. Three Hindi films have similar achievement in the history of the Filmfare Awards. ‘Guide’ won awards for Best Film, Actor, Actress, Director, Story, and Dialogue (back then there was no award for Screenplay). ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’ won Best Film, Actor, Actress, Director, Screenplay, and Dialogue (but lost Best Story to ‘Rangeela’). And ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’ won Best Film, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay (but lost Best Story to ‘Zakhm’ and Best Dialogue to ‘Chinagate’).