Valentine’s Day is coming soon. Besides the roses, candy, and dinner, you need some warm fuzzy movies to watch while snuggling with your honey. Good love stories deliver comedy, romance, and in many cases a good cry at the expense of someone else’s relationship.
Have a great date night chilling out, while enjoying quality time with your loved one watching these beloved Top Ten Tales of Amour:
10. In the golden pond – Witnessing love transcending decades is a glorious spectacle. Whether we see it within our own families or in a movie like here, it holds promise for our own relationships. Not only relationships with our spouses, but also with our children. Two movie powerhouses, Katharine Hepburn and Henry Fonda, gave us grace, humor, and reason to believe in lifelong love. Seeing the love and admiration between Fonda and her daughter Jane lends more credence to this great and wonderful love story.
9. Love is a splendid thing – Determination to be with the person you love: here the basic theme of the love story abounds, spun in a fascinating way between two great actors. Jennifer Jones graces the screen with everything she plays, but watching her with William Holden is fascinating. Crossing racial barriers and adultery, this story finds you wishing this couple would get through everything to be together. I saw it recently and actually cried a lot, just as I had before when I first saw it. Highly recommended. It’s a good hugs and handkerchief movie.
8. Pillow talk – A fabulous love story doesn’t have to make you cry. This movie with Rock Hudson and Doris Day is the classic wacky comedy full of mistaken identity, love, and outright hilarity. Swell soundtrack, especially the little ditty that reigns throughout the film in various versions. Also with Tony Randall and Thelma Ritter.
7. The store around the corner – James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. This was the inspiration for “Got a Mail” with Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. That was fine, but in regards to that, as in many cases, nothing is better than the original. There’s no internet here, just good letter writing and pen pal life in a quaint little town in Budapest at Christmas. You will cry in your hot chocolate.
6. The history of Philadelphia – Stellar comedy that put Katharine Hepburn back on top after stalling early in her career. Impossible to see how he would not have done it. This mini-soap opera tells the intertwined story of one of Philadelphia’s wealthiest families and the tabloid-filled lives they lead. The splendid dialogue and a great deal of delightful chemistry throughout the cast provide a piece of “very indebted” entertainment. With Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart (his Oscar award) and Ruth Hussey.
5. Love in the afternoon – Romance from May to December takes the stage here along with fast-paced life, shenanigans, and misplaced identities. Even a case of deception cannot prevent Gary Cooper from falling in love with the young and beautiful Audrey Hepburn. Captivating music also helps spin this fascinating story. This movie’s train station scene features a classic moment that many other romantic movies have tried to duplicate. There has been no other to reach the emotion that this movie evokes.
Four. It happened one night – What do you get with an heiress fleeing an engagement and a hungry reporter trying to capture the story of the year? One of the best romantic comedies to ever hit the screen. Filled with risky, yet now classic, moments for the 1930s, this film warms the heart while laughing. Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert were a great couple.
3. White House – Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. This is the story that has it all for everyone. War, intrigue, suspense, game, song, romance and, of course, Paris.
2. Madison County Bridges – Clint Eastwood and Meryl Streep. I didn’t think the movie would make me cry as much as the book, but it does. It is a love that you must hold in your heart for the rest of your life, but as you pass on the legacy of this love to your children after your death, it makes understanding its power that much easier, somehow.
1. Wuthering Heights – Sir Lawrence Olivier and Merle Oberon. The story of Heathcliff, Cathy and the Wind of the Moors. Classic story of the heavy heart and, literally, everlasting love. The supreme pull of tears. I still remember many years ago in college when some of my classmates and I went to an old movie theater in town with this movie. After the lights went on at the end of the movie, almost all of us in the audience continued to whine. (We also laugh in embarrassment.) It’s lovely and perfect for snuggling on Valentine’s Day. It will give you the gratitude of knowing the love in your life, always.
The original list of my best options that I had compiled was very long, but I also want to mention a few more for you to consider:
Desk – Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy’s lovely chemistry throughout the movie, especially in the library loft, gives me the creeps every time I see it. They couldn’t have hidden it even if they had tried.
Brief encounter – Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson. Considered the love story of all love stories. Obviously, there is something that pulls on the heartstrings when watching stories of unrequited love or, in this case, seeing love flourish between those who have already been expressed. Written by Noel Coward and moving throughout the glorious Rachmaninoff soundtrack, there’s no way to stay tear-free at the end of this movie.
Legends of the Fall – Brad Pitt, West, war and unrequited love. Take at least two boxes of tissues.
When harry met sally – one of my all-time favorites … Women and men can be friends. However, these two were only meant for love, period.
gone With the Wind – my best movie … but at four hours, it seemed a bit long to mention it in the top 10. However, don’t miss it … romance, war, passion, Scarlett and Rhett …
Titanic – Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. It is also quite long, but it is the quintessential romantic tragedy. We all know the story, but no other movie version captured the romance and despair like this one. Along with Celine Dion’s crescendo on the title track and the never-ending story that continues (excuse me) through the necklace, you’ll still cry about it the next day when the song plays on the radio. It is always broadcast at this time of year!
Be sure to receive them in time for your Valentine’s Day celebration or anytime you want to spend a glorious evening with your beloved!
