Romantic Comedies happen to be one of my favorite genres and yet I had a fair amount of difficulty creating a list of my top ten romantic comedies. First, I own every one of these films whether on DVD or VHS plus a number of additional titles that did not make the list. One of the biggest problems is how much the genre has changed. There are a number of older films on my list and the thing is that many of the older films are Academy Award winners or nominees in a number of categories including acting and directing. Nowadays romantic comedies are considered fluff films, date movies or chick flicks, and so they are not approached with the same level of seriousness from studios and directors that perhaps they once were.
A romantic comedy is a film that it both a comedy and a romance, hence the name. There are usually two leads who are attracted to each other but are prevented from becoming romantically involved because of some contrived barrier. Eventually one or both of them realize that they are perfect for each other and get together after some sort of grand gesture brings them to an understanding. Thus romantic comedies depend on just the right mixture of likeable leads and plausible and witty dialogue. Here is my list of the top ten romantic comedies of all time.
It Happened One Night (1934)
This Frank Capra film defined the genre romantic comedy and it is still the best example of how it should be done. The witty barbs between Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert are priceless. The tale is simple, two mismatched people, an heiress and a reporter, have to travel from Miami to New York so that she can marry a man her father doesn’t approve of. This film swept the Oscars winning Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Actor and Best Actress. If you just can’t handle watching a film in black and white it was remade in the 80s as The Sure Thing with John Cusack and Daphne Zuniga.
Bringing Up Baby (1938)
This one technically defined the screwball comedy, but that is just a subdivision of romantic comedy, a romantic comedy on goofy gas. Another mismatched pair, this time a flighty heiress and a paleontologist, run around New York and Connecticut after a leopard. Starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, there never were two more likeable characters at a complete lack of agreement. This film also was remade as the also charming What’s Up Doc with Barbra Streisand upping the zany quotient.
Some Like it Hot (1959)
Not only one of the greatest romantic comedies, Some Like it Hot is arguably the greatest comedy of any kind ever made. Directed by Billy Wilder, this film about two cross dressing musicians on the run from the mob is a romantic comedy at its core. It is a magnificently done film starring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon, and Marilyn Monroe that has a great love story complete with Tony Curtis channeling Cary Grant.
Sleepless in Seattle (1993)
The first of the newer films on the list, in Sleepless in Seattle Nora Ephron succeeds not only in creating a magical film but in placing it into a real context where film characters discuss their emotions in relation to other films. Though the plot about a woman in Baltimore and a man in Seattle is improbable, it is well executed by modern romantic comedy darlings Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. This film airs the quiet anxieties of every woman over 30 still looking for love.
The Philadelphia Story (1940)
The story revolves around Katharine Hepburn’s rich girl Tracy on the eve of her marriage, her second marriage. Into her orbit comes her ex-husband, Cary Grant, and a reporter, James Stewart, who turn the stoic girl’s world on its ear. Another film up for multiple awards it won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Stewart. This is a smartly written play turned into a sarcastic and often biting film with about as good an ensemble cast as one is ever to find.
While You Were Sleeping (1995)
Sandra Bullock became a top tier star with this film about a sweet girl who is mistaken for the fiancee of a man in a coma. His sweet family takes her in and makes her a part of the family just in time for the holidays. Bill Pullman plays the fiancee’s cute brother Jack and Pullman and Bullock have wonderful chemistry.
Moonstruck (1987)
One of the few recent comedies that was actually noticed at awards time, but not as much as Cher’s hair and dress when she received her Best Actress Oscar. The film stars Cher and Nicholas Cage as two unlucky at love New Yorkers with Italian families from whose grips they cannot escape. The film is funny, the accents are funny, and the supporting cast is perfect.
The Goodbye Girl (1977)
Based on a Neil Simon play, The Goodbye Girl stars Marla Mason and Richard Dreyfus as a jilted woman and her new tenant. Nearly all of the scenes occur in their small two bedroom apartment which just doesn’t seem big enough for two such combative personalities. Dreyfus won a Best Actor Oscar for his work as off off-Broadway actor trying to make his name and the rent.
When Harry Met Sally (1989)
Starring Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal, When Harry Met Sally is the story of two adults who meet, hate each other, become friends, and then fall in love. Featuring one of the best loved scenes in filmmaking history in the deli, this is a film that bristles with the polar-opposite personalities of its two leads.
The Wedding Singer (1998)
A little coarser and a little grosser than most of the films on this list Adam Sandler’s The Wedding Singer is nonetheless an endearing romantic comedy. With a soundtrack straight out of the 80s and a sweet Drew Barrymore as his love interest, Sandler tones down his annoying tendencies to deliver a bumblingly likeable everyman.
Others:
The Apartment, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Gentleman Prefer Blondes, His Girl Friday, My Man Godfrey, Sixteen Candles, There’s Something About Mary, What’s Up Doc
Related posts:
- 20 Romantic Movies
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