Tuesday, 14 September 2010

• Old Hollywood Romance: 5 Great Romances of the 1940s

  

  Previously, I wrote a blog about realistic movie romances, four films that portray dating and relationships like the kind that you and I might have. In case you missed it, you can read that list here.

  After reading a few of the comments left on that post, I got to thinking about films from the 1940s, in the heyday of studios, when movie stars shared movie star kisses with sweeping orchestration and melodramatic dialogue that somehow pieced together elegantly and remains somehow timeless and unaffected. These films had an uncanny way of keeping the characters relatable, while still blowing the audience away into an escapist, dream-like place of idyllic romance.

  If we lived at that time, what would our romance movie lists have looked like?

  So here, in my opinion, are the 5 greatest classic film romances of the 1940s...

   

   

  5. The Palm Beach Story (1942)

  Tom Jeffers: Seven hundred dollars! And sex didn't even enter into it, I suppose?
  Gerry Jeffers: Sex always has something to do with it, dear.

  
  

  Brash, crass, and at times downright naughty, this romantic comedy has so many sexually charged puns you'll be shocked your grandma saw it in theaters. This twisted money-driven love story about a greedy married couple looking to get their own piece of the wealthy pie at all costs will keep you laughing (in its 1940s humor kind of way), and remembering that like Gerry said above, sex has always had something to do with it.
  

  4. Notorious (1946)

  Alicia: Say it again, it keeps me awake.
  Devlin: I love you.

  
  

  How did an Alfred Hitchcock suspense film manage to make it on a romance list? Pretty easy, considering this film boasted (and as far as I know, still does) the longest on-screen kiss in the history of film. Brilliantly tying in the tumults of this extremely well written love story between Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman to a captivating plot concerning a Nazi spy mission, this is the movie you and your boyfriend both would have loved in 1946.

  3. The Philadelphia Story (1940)

  George Kittredge: Oh, it's grand, Tracy. It's what everybody feels about you. It's what I first worshipped you for from afar.
  Tracy Lord: I don't want to be worshipped. I want to be loved.

  
  

  If you're looking for one of the wittiest and best acted love triangles of all time, look no further than Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, and Jimmy Stewart. Watching this film, it is easy to see that romantic comedy heavyweights like Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts owe their careers to movies like this one; flicks that set the standard for how the romantic comedy can be watchable for everyone (even the manliest man) when done well.
  

  2. Gone With the Wind (1939)

  Rhett Butler: No, I don't think I will kiss you, although you need kissing badly. That's what's wrong with you. You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how.

  
  

  You don't think this deserves to be on the list? Frankly, my dear, I just don't give a damn. (Come on... I had to use that line somehow.) Alright, fine, so this movie isn't from the 1940's, but it's close enough. How can I create an Old Hollywood romance list and not include this Civil War Classic? Just the beauty of the costumes and landscapes alone make this film one of the most romantic epics of all time. Following Scarlett through the trials and tribulations of her love life, entwined with the loss of everything she knows and has, is one of the most entertaining and emotionally satisfying experiences you could ever dream to have with a movie. And if that doesn't get you, I mean, her dresses are incredible.
  

  1. Casablanca (1942)

  Ilsa: But what about us?
  Rick: We'll always have Paris. We didn't have, we, we lost it until you came to Casablanca. We got it back last night.
  Ilsa: When I said I would never leave you.
  Rick: And you never will. But I've got a job to do, too. Where I'm going, you can't follow. What I've got to do, you can't be any part of. Ilsa, I'm no good at being noble, but it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that.
  

  
  

   If I have to convince you to see Casablanca, that means you haven't already seen it, in which case you should be pretty bummed. I'm not one to be appalled by people who haven't seen movies (I've never seen a Star Wars movie in my life, so as far as my SO is concerned, I've barely lived), but this film is simply a must see. Everything about it, from the love triangle, to the relationships between love and war, to the timeless, quotable dialogue is the image of a perfect movie romance. Whether or not it meant to be, this film has set the standard for what true, epic romance is on film, and simply cannot be topped.
   

  
  So, I encourage you to take a trip back in time, to a place where movies had less nudity and more suggestion, and where words said everything that special effects could not.

  So enjoy these, folks. And as Humphrey Bogart famously told a teary Ingrid Bergman, Here's looking at you, kid.
  

  Do you prefer the film romances of today, or those more like the 1940s classics on this list?

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