“If you can paint, I can walk”: My Love Affair to Remember with Ten Classic Movies

Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr as Nicky Ferranti and Terri McKay in An Affair to Remember. They just don’t make movies like that anymore…though Sleepless in Seattle was a fairly good tribute.

In keeping with my theme for the last two Fridays, I give you my Top Ten favorite movies that are so old you might not have ever heard of them.

1. An Affair to Remember (1957), Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. “We ought to take advantage of every moment…Don’t you think that life should be gay and bright and bubbly, like champagne?…Is there any reason why this trip shouldn’t be pink champagne?”
2. To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Gregory Peck, Robert Duvall, and Mary Bedham. “Neighbors bring food with death, and flowers with sickness, and little things in between. Boo was our neighbor. He gave us two soap dolls, a broken watch and chain, a knife, and our lives.”
3. Gone with the Wind (1939), Clark Gable and Vivian Leigh. “There’s one thing I do know… and that is that I love you, Scarlett. In spite of you and me and the whole silly world going to pieces around us, I love you. Because we’re alike. Bad lots, both of us. Selfish and shrewd. But able to look things in the eyes as we call them by their right names.”
4. Waterloo Bridge (1940), Robert Taylor and Vivian Leigh. Vivian Leigh is the ultimate underdog, and the tragic ending to her love story still breaks my heart.
   
5. Casablanca (1942), Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. “Of all the gin joints in all the towns, in all the world, she had to walk into mine.”  Yes, she did, and here’s lookin’ at you, Rick. I think this movie was the beginning of a beautiful infatuation.
6. Random Harvest (1942), Ronald Coleman and Greer Garson. A WWI veteran with no memory of his past and a singer fall in love, but are separated by an unhappy accident. It’s my favorite kind of tear-jerking love story.
7. All this and Heaven Too (1940), Charles Boyer and Bette Davis.  Doomed love set against the deadly backdrop of French royal politics, need I say more?
8. Separate Tables (1958), Rita Hayworth and Deborah Kerr.  Several characters’ stories are woven together when they are guests at a hotel at the same time. Deborah Kerr is amazing as a simpleton.
9. Backstreet (1961), John Gavin and Susan Hayword. One of my mother’s favorite movies of all time.  It makes me bawl every time we watch it, but I don’t mind because I get to look at John Gavin.
10. Where the Boys Are (1960), George Hamilton and Dolores Hart. This is another of the movies I grew up watching with my mother, and I have no problem with a young George Hamilton in short, black swim trunks.

Honorable Mentions:

• Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961)
• Indiscreet (1958)
• To Catch a Theif (1955)
• Light in the Piazza (1962)
• Woman of the Year (1942)
• Pat & Mike (1952)

I could keep going–I love how glamorous and well-done films used to be, from the writing to the acting to the sets and costumes–but maybe I’ll save the other titles for a future Friday’s post.