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Best and Most Memorable Part 3 |
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Best and Most Memorable Part 3 |
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Note:
The films that are marked with a yellow star |
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Film Title
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Description of Kiss in Movie Scene
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Random Harvest (1942)
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Charles "Smithie" (Ronald Colman) approached their familiar-looking old cottage after going through the squeaky gate and blossoming bough - he used a long-treasured key to open the door; behind him at the gate, Paula (Greer Garson) (with tear-stained cheeks) softly called out to him, "Smithie, oh Smithie, oh darling" -- he recognized the voice - and his former life with her - he turned around, noticed her, softly responded "Paula!", and they came together to embrace and kiss as the music built to a crescendo -- and a fade to black brought "The End" to the screen |
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The studio originally shot two different conclusions to the film -- one where Cary Grant (as wrongly-convicted arsonist-fugitive and ex-boyfriend Leopold Dilg) got the girl, and one where Ronald Colman (as law professor, Supreme Court nominee and fellow boarder Professor Michael Lightcap) won Jean Arthur's (as schoolteacher Nora Shelley) affections; the film ended with both Dilg and Nora in Washington, to see Lightcap take his rightful place on the judicial bench - although Nora winked at the judge, she raced after Dilg for a film-ending embrace in the hallway of the US Supreme Court building |
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For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943)
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This film has the famous scene in a sleeping bag under the stars between expatriate American demolition expert and mercenary Robert Jordan (Gary Cooper) fighting on the side of the Republicans in Spain and blue-eyed, short-haired, innocent Maria (Ingrid Bergman), with their subsequent kissing scene ("I'd like - I don't know how to kiss, or I would kiss you. Where do the noses go?") | 
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This wartime comedy film has a sexually-exciting apartment front steps kissing scene on a summer night in wartime Washington DC, that occurred between single working woman Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur) and young Air Force sergeant Joe Carter (Joel McCrea), as she vainly pretended to ignore his attempts to make out - she fended off his nuzzling and roaming hands exploring her body (both in and out of view of the audience), and tried to conceal her growing desire by incessant talking |
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In his apartment, a kiss sealed the murderous pact between Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) and blonde femme fatale Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck), to kill her husband and collect double indemnity accident insurance; as he grabbed her tightly and dug his fingers into her arm, Neff asserted: "There's not going to be any slip up. Nothing sloppy, nothing weak, it's got to be perfect" |
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Murder, My Sweet (1944)
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After being temporarily blinded by a gun being fired near his face, Philip Marlowe (Dick Powell) was escorted to a cab by Detective Nulty (Paul Phillips), with beautiful redhead Ann Grayle (Anne Shirley) silently following behind; unaware that she was present, she listened into Marlowe's praise of her to Nulty ("She had more than a figure too...She had a face like a Sunday School picnic"); when Marlowe climbed into the cab, she silently joined him without his knowledge; when she brushed against him as the taxi lurched, he sniffed the air, and detected her perfume; after realizing that it wasn't Nulty who had entered the cab with him, Marlowe blandly asked: "Nulty, I haven't kissed anybody in a long time. Would it be alright if I kissed you, Nulty?" Grinning, Ann eagerly kissed him without saying a word as the film faded to black -- but not before Marlowe prudently removed his gun from his holster |
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Romance brewed between slender and vagabond nightclub American singer, Marie Browning (19 year old Lauren Bacall), nicknamed "Slim", and charter-boat captain Harry Morgan (44 year old Humphrey Bogart), nicknamed "Steve"; their on-screen and off-screen affair sizzled during the film, and they ended up getting married and living together until Bogart's death in 1957; Morgan first met young, sultry, and stranded Marie in the doorway of his room in the hotel/nightclub's upstairs hallway - she had appeared from her rented room across the hall from his; in her first husky, sexy lines to him as she leaned in, she made a simple, deadpan request for a match, but it sounded like an erotic challenge: "Anybody got a match?"; then later, at the beginning of one of the screen's most famous seductions, Slim sat on his lap; before kissing the seated man for the first time, she acted the aggressor role and then before a second kiss, recommended: "It's even better when you help"; she then suggested as she left his room: "Okay. You know you don't have to act with me, Steve. You don't have to say anything and you don't have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together - and blow" |
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In the dark, shadowy underground subway tunnel-passage of the train station, housewife Laura Jesson (Celia Johnson) succumbed to doctor Alec Harvey's (Trevor Howard) first kiss (after he told her: "I love you so") - as they passionately kissed for the first time, two large, long shadows of approaching passengers darkened the tunnel's wall behind them, a newspaper swirled in front of them, and the roar of the approaching train was heard; the forceful speed of the noisy train represented their passion rising and crashing through the silence; later, in a memorable scene on their last day together - their seventh and final Thursday meeting - Alec and Laura finished with another ride into the country, a second visit to the stone bridge, and a final cup of tea and a brief and painful parting to end their clandestine affair; the tea room scene was played out a second time (the first time was at the beginning of the film), but this time from the perspective of Laura's subjective memory; they sat at a table - the camera closely centered on them as they had their last intimate conversation together, but were interrupted by matronly gossip Dolly Messiter's (Everley Gregg) loud voice - when Alec's train arrived, although they longed to kiss each other, Alec stated: "I must go. Goodbye"; he rose and shook hands with Dolly and then rested his hand lightly on Laura's right shoulder for a moment, before his final departure; Dolly spoiled their final few, painful moments together, forcing their farewell to be brief and offhandedly deceptive - WITHOUT a farewell kiss |
 
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As detective Philip Marlowe (Humphrey Bogart) drove away from Mars' casino with Vivian Rutledge (Lauren Bacall), they had an opportunity to kiss each other amidst the intrigue: (Marlowe: "Remember I told you I was beginning to like another one of the Sternwoods?" Vivian: I wish you'd show it." Marlowe: "I should be awful easy." (He kisses her.) Vivian: (breathily) "I like that. I'd like more." (They kiss a second time.) "That's even better.") |
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A final notorious, and infamous show-down scene at the film's end was the climax of all the confrontations between "bad" Lewt (Gregory Peck) and half-breed Pearl (Jennifer Jones); when Lewt appeared in the rocks at a long distance from her, Pearl took aim and shot her lover to end their passionate love-hate affair, and then crawled forward as she re-cocked her gun, while he shot back and seriously wounded her; as the ex-lovers continued their bloody shoot-out in the hot desert sun, she cried out for him: "Lewt, hold on, Lewt, Hold on. Wait for me, Lewt," and lustfully crawled toward him; they stretched their hands out toward each other, as Pearl requested: "Just hold me. Hold me once more", and Lewt replied: "Little bob-cat" - he died mid-kiss, and she died shortly thereafter in a bloody embrace in his arms in the dust; earlier scenes showed Lewt forcefully kissing a resistant Pearl when he told her: "Don't you pretend nobody ever did that before!", a passionate love-making scene accompanied by thunder and bolts of lightning, and kisses for the "bob-tailed little treecat" |
   
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During a phone conversation with Sam, Mary (Donna Reed) and George Bailey (James Stewart) were squeezed together to share the same earpiece extension, listening and talking on the same phone; he was romantically attracted and couldn't deny that he loved her with this close proximity, but such an admission would mean remaining in Bedford Falls, where he had been forced to stay against his will and give up his other dreams; in a long closeup of them ear to ear, they listened to Sam Wainwright while George squirmed and tried to contain himself, standing so close that he could smell Mary's hair; she looked upward at him and with her lips almost on his lips reinforced what Sam has said in a whisper, but she was almost unable to say the words: "He says it's the chance of a lifetime"; the phone suddenly dropped to the floor, and instead of grabbing and embracing Mary with a kiss, George held her fiercely by the shoulders and violently started shaking her, passionately protesting that he didn't want to get married: "Now, you listen to me! I don't want any plastics, and I don't want any ground floors, and I don't want to get married - ever - to anyone! You understand that? I want to do what I want to do. And you're...and you're" - then, he ran out of words; she responded by crying helplessly, silently, and then George all of a sudden reversed himself and pulled Mary to himself in a fierce embrace - he overcame his resistance to her and started to kiss her, passionately, all over her face, holding her intensely; their undeclared love for each other overwhelmed both of them; after a quick cut, the next scene was in the hallway of the Bailey house and the sound of the Wedding March |
 
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The film has been known for having at the time of its production 'the longest kiss in film history' (but to circumvent censorship was composed of lots of pecks and necking, interspersed with whispers of discussion); the famous marathon kissing scene between Devlin (Cary Grant) and Alicia Huberman (Ingrid Bergman) in her apartment lasted almost three minutes, beginning on a scenic Rio balcony, entirely shot in a tight closeup of their faces; they rapidly alternated passionate, clinging kisses and whispered endearments, first on the balcony over the beach, and then continuing with nibbling bites and nuzzling hugs as they walked from the balcony to the telephone and then to the front door |
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The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946)
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After Cora's (Lana Turner) dramatic entrance into the cafe, she and hired worker Frank (John Garfield) officially met and spoke for the first time. She began bossing and sizing him up while he made suggestive advances towards the untouchable yet glamorous woman. Suddenly, Frank grabbed her and planted a kiss on her lips. She reacted with great poise - she pulled out her vanity mirror, cleaned up the smudged lipstick on her lips, and then reapplied the lipstick before leaving - without a word. Soon, after a moonlight swim, they would be sharing more furtive, passionate and intimate kisses In this film noir's finale, as the star-crossed lovers were driving along the highway and near their home, Frank (John Garfield) asked for a long-awaited kiss. Cora (Lana Turner), who was painting her lips with lipstick, promised: "When we get home, Frank, then there'll be kisses, kisses with dreams in them. Kisses that come from life, not death." He responded: "I hope I don't wait." She replied lovingly: "Darling" and then they kissed, but she soon cried out frantically: "Look out, Frank!" Distracted during a 'kiss that comes from life' while he was driving, he ran off the road, killing Cora ('with a kiss that comes from death') in a fatal auto accident |
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When leaving the wagon train, Tom Dunson (John Wayne) decided to abandon his young, pretty sweetheart Fen (Coleen Gray) with plans to send for her later. Before they parted, Fen begged Tom to let her come along so she wouldn't be deserted: "I know you have work to do, Tom, but I want to be part of it. I love you. I want to be with you." But Tom stubbornly refused her pleas, thinking that the arduous drive would be "too much for a woman." When she kissed him, she asked him if she really appeared weak, and then pleaded with him to balance his human actions by listening with his heart as well as his head: ("Oh, you'll need me. You'll need a woman. You need what a woman can give you to do what you have to do. Oh listen to me, Tom."), but his mind was made up; shortly afterwards, she died in an Indian attack on her wagon train |
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After three fantasy scenarios (to the music of Rossini, Wagner, and Tchaikovsky) in which self-assured but jealous orchestra conductor/husband Sir Alfred De Carter (Rex Harrison) proposed to murder his American wife Daphne (Linda Darnell) while he conducted a symphony, he at last realized how deliriously silly he'd been - he embraced and kissed his loving wife, who had never been unfaithful, and had no idea that he had been plotting against her, while he spoke: "A thousand poets dreamed a thousand years. Then you were born, my love" |
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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 
Remembering Her Voice Kiss