 |
Best and Most Memorable Part 2 |
|
|
Best and Most Memorable Part 2 |
|
Note:
The films that are marked with a yellow star |
||
| Film Title |
Description
of Kiss in Movie Scene |
|
| Hold Your Man (1933)
|
This was the third of six films co-starring Jean Harlow (as good-hearted working-class charmer Ruby Adams) and Clark Gable (as flirtatious small-time con man Eddie Hall); in one scene, Eddie gave Ruby a crushing, body-clenching kiss and they experienced one night of pre-marital sex (leading to her subsequent pregnancy) - the censorial Hays Code forced her wicked ways to be punished with a two year sentence in a woman's reformatory for 'bad girls' as an unwed criminal mother; she was able to be reunited with Eddie and hastily marry him in the reformatory chapel to make her an honest and respectable woman |  |
|
|
In a pre-Code film, with lesbian leanings regarding the real-life bi-sexual 17th century Queen Christina of Sweden (portrayed by Greta Garbo), the monarch expressed her romantic attraction to her own lady-in-waiting Countess Ebba Sparre (Elizabeth Young) whom she affectionately kissed on the lips, and then professed her desire to remain a bachelor: (Chancellor: "But your Majesty, you cannot die an old maid," Christina: "I have no intention to, Chancellor. I shall die a bachelor!") |  |
The Painted Veil (1934)
|
MGM's soap-opera drama was based upon W. Somerset Maugham's 1925 novel of the same name and set in colonial China; early in the film, Greta Garbo (as Austrian spinster Katrin Koerber) and Cecilia Parker (as younger sister Olga Koerber) shared a lesbian kiss - although it was disguised, due to restrictive Hays Code rules just put into effect, as an intense series of multiple kisses between sisters on Olga's wedding day | 
|
| The Scarlet Empress (1934)
|
This stylish, unorthodox biopic starred Marlene Dietrich as Russia's Sophia Fredericka (renamed Catherine the Great) in a frank and suggestive way by director Josef von Sternberg (the sixth of their seven collaborations); the film was filled with erotic images and motifs, and portrayed the fur-hatted queen ruler as a sexually-depraved, dominatrix ruler; in one scene of adulterous seduction, she appeared with a gauzy veil over herself before allowing Russian emissary Count Alexei (John Lodge) to vow his love for her ("Catherine, I love you, worship you") before he leaned down to kiss her behind the veil - when they kissed, she gripped the veil with her fist and drew it aside to reveal their affectionate kiss, and then asked for sexual favors; in an earlier scene, she had clandestinely met Alexei in a haybarn, where she seductively kept replacing a piece of straw between her lips and warned: "If you come closer, I'll scream" - he removed every strand and then coyly answered: "It is easier for you to scream without a straw in your mouth" - before kissing her |
   |
|
|
Alice Adams (Katharine Hepburn) walked back out to her front porch for fresh air after a disastrous dinner party for her beau Arthur (Fred MacMurray) and to gaze into the stars. The camera rested on her as she heard an off-camera voice: "A penny for your thoughts. A poor little dead rose for your thoughts, Alice Adams." Arthur had remained behind on the porch swing, although he had overheard everything about her lowly status. Despite logic and through her sheer determination, even though he knew the whole truth and in spite of everything, he professed his love for her on the front porch at the end of the evening, bringing the film to a close with a kiss |  |
|
|
In dying courtesan Marguerite Gautier's (Greta Garbo) candle-lit boudoir - a scene filmed with delicate lighting and shadows, lover Armand Duvall (Robert Taylor) followed her - she was dressed in a beautiful strapless white gown; when he professed his love, she offered him a key so that he could return later: ("There. You can let yourself in when you come back"), and he replied: "You're an angel. I won't go, I can't" - then she showered his entire face with delicate kisses; they kissed one final time before he left - she swooned backwards, and revived herself with the smell of one of her camellias |  |
|
|
In the third of MGM's popular and profitable Jeanette MacDonald/Nelson Eddy films, unrequited lovers Paul Allison (Nelson Eddy) and Marcia (Jeanette MacDonald) sang the film's magnificent Will You Remember? ("Sweetheart, Sweetheart, Sweetheart, Though our paths may sever, To life's last faint ember, we will remember, Springtime, love time, May") on a path showered with flower blossoms; they kissed after he confessed: "I love you. I always loved you. And I always will" |  |
|
|
There were two memorable kisses in this delightful Disney animation: Snow White's delivery of a goodbye kiss to each of the dwarfs, as they left for work (Dopey came back more than once!) - and the Prince's gentle kiss of Snow White's cold red lips for farewell, not knowing that his Love's First Kiss would reawaken her from her deathlike slumber, induced by a bite of the Queen/Hag's poisonous apple; with great joy and cheering in the forest, Snow White went off with the Prince (voice of Harry Stockwell) on his horse - "and they lived happily ever after," but not before she kissed each of the dwarfs goodbye |  |
|
|
Robin (Errol Flynn) climbed up the ivy on the steep Nottingham castle wall to the chamber window of his beautiful lady love Marian (Olivia de Havilland), to express his gratitude for her daring part in his rescue. She was surprised when he entered through the chamber window, high in the castle wall. She was embarrassed to realize that he had overheard her confession of love to her maid Bess. Denying her feelings of love, she excused her thoughts as a "game." In an amorous conversation exhibiting one-upmanship, the two bantered and jested with each other. They shared a tender, innocent, storybook romantic scene on the open balcony - they were equally in love with each other, and shared an embrace and kiss |  |
|
|
Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) and Scarlett O'Hara (Vivien Leigh) embraced and kissed a number of times in this film, but oftentimes, she would rebuff him; however, after Scarlett was made a widow early in the war, Rhett visited her and decided that he wouldn't kiss the receptive Scarlett: "Open your eyes and look at me. 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"; on the road out of Atlanta against a fiery red sky, Rhett re-enacted the scene of a sweetheart kissing a soldier goodbye as he returned to the war: "Here's a soldier of the South who loves you, Scarlett, wants to feel your arms around him, wants to carry the memory of your kisses into battle with him. Never mind about loving me. You're a woman sending a soldier to his death with a beautiful memory. Scarlett, kiss me. Kiss me, once" - but she rebuffed him; and then at the foot of the stairs in the "Conjugal Rape" scene, a frustrated, lonely and angry Rhett appealed to her and threatened her - he suddenly and fiercely kissed her, and then carried her protestingly up a long flight of stairs to the bedroom, two steps at a time, and asserted: "It's not that easy, Scarlett. You've turned me out while you chased Ashley Wilkes, while you dreamed of Ashley Wilkes. This is one night you're not turning me out." Scarlett's smiling, purring, happy face when she awakened the morning after betrayed her pleasure enjoyed during their previous night's sexual experience when he overcame her resistance |
   |
|
|
During a private conversation with rich and privileged Tracy (Katharine Hepburn), Mike (James Stewart) argued with her about her impending marriage to Kittredge. In another exchange, he called her arrogant and snobbish, but then he told her that she was magnificent, brilliant and "full of life and warmth" - a real human being "made out of flesh and blood." With their emotions sweeping them away, he impulsively and forcefully kissed her mid-sentence. She took the melodramatic kiss and returned it. Afterwards, she exclaimed softly: "Golly." She took a breath and kissed him a second time. Then, she stood in his arms, her cheek against his chest, overwhelmed and amazed at herself and starting to shake: "Golly Moses" |  |
|
|
The night before the coroner's inquest into Rebecca's drowning death, Mrs. de Winter (Joan Fontaine) was worried about how her husband Maxim (Laurence Olivier) might lose his temper at the hearing. She lovingly asked to be there at his side, as they stood in front of the huge fireplace: "I must be near you so that no matter what happens, we won't be separated for a moment." Maxim noticed how his new wife had lost her youth and matured in spite of his wishes, and they shared a very mature, heart-felt embrace and some kisses after he confessed to her: "I can't forget what it's done to you. I've been thinking of nothing else since it happened. It's gone forever, that funny young, lost look I loved won't ever come back. I killed that when I told you about Rebecca. It's gone. In a few hours, you've grown so much older" |
 |
| Waterloo Bridge (1940)
|
The first kiss - between Capt. Roy Cronin (Robert Taylor) and Myra Lester (Vivien Leigh) - was in the romantic light of the Candlelight Club, to the orchestral sounds of "Auld Lang Syne," as they waltzed together and discovered their fresh new love for each other |  |
|
|
Hard-boiled detective Sam Spade (Humphrey Bogart) revisited duplicitous, vulnerable-acting femme fatale Brigid O'Shaughnessy (Mary Astor) in her hotel room. Spade wasn't interested in her tantalizing, innocent act and tried to pry more information out of her, although he was intrigued by her play-acting: ("You're good. You're very good!") - when she quivered: "What else is there I can buy you with?", Spade brutally took her face in his hands and kissed her roughly - he dug his thumbs into her cheeks - and she accepted his lingering kiss |  |
| They Died With Their Boots On (1941)
|
In the film's poignant ending, infamous cavalry officer General George Armstrong Custer (Errol Flynn) gave a heart-rending farewell goodbye to his wife Elizabeth "Libby" Bacon (Olivia de Havilland) - Note: it was the stars' final screen pairing also! - she sensed disaster and had written about her fears in her diary (he reacted with astonishment to her written words) - the couple shared a few extended looks and kisses - and then after he left, she stood and watched him go - and then collapsed to the floor | 
|
| You're in the Army Now (1941)
|
This comedy film has reportedly the longest kiss in film history - just over three minutes, between Regis Toomey (as Capt. Joe Radcliffe) and Jane Wyman (as Bliss Dobson) | |
|
|
During the Paris interlude scene - a flashback - at La Belle Aurore, Sam (Dooley Wilson) played As Time Goes By ("a kiss is just a kiss") as Rick (Humphrey Bogart) poured a glass of champagne for lover Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) and then offered his familiar toast: "Here's looking at you, kid"; as they embraced and kissed at the open window, artillery fire was heard off in the distance as the Germans approached, and Ilsa was startled and looked toward the street: "Was that cannon fire or is it my heart pounding?"; she was emotionally overwhelmed and expressed her love for him in the midst of the "crazy world": "I love you so much. And I hate this war so much. Oh, it's a crazy world. Anything can happen. If you shouldn't get away, I mean, if something should keep us apart, wherever they put you and wherever I'll be, I want you to know that..."; an emotionally-intoxicated Ilsa initiated a kiss, moving up to meet Rick's lips as they sat together - she abandoned herself to him in a kiss - specially requested: "Kiss me. Kiss me as if it were the last time" - and ironically, it was!; also Rick and Ilsa's encounter in the shadows of his dark, upstairs apartment, when she pulled a gun on him to demand the visas, but then fell into his arms and suddenly realized how much she had always loved Rick and still loved him - ending her tender words with a passionate, authentic kiss: "The day you left Paris, if you knew what I went through. If you knew how much I loved you, how much I still love you" |   |
Created in 1996-2008 © by Tim Dirks. All rights reserved.
What
makes a memorable screen kiss? Is it the passion, the circumstances,
the buildup, the dialogue, the unpredictability, the awkwardness, the
sexiness or eroticism, the cinematography, the unique quality...? Although
any list of the best, most romantic, and most indelible kisses through
film history is difficult to create, there are a number of kissing scenes
in movies that are unforgettable and deserve special mention. Most of
these scenes come from vintage, classic Hollywood films, rather than
more recent films, and even stretch back to the scandalous The Kiss
(1896)! 
are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 
A Deep and Forceful Kiss