Introduction: 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)! Other discussions of notable romantic or sexual scenes (with more examples of great kissing scenes) may be found elsewhere in this site: Romance Films Genre, or Erotic/Sexual Films Genre, or the History of Sex in Cinema.

Note: The films that are marked with a yellow star are the films that
"The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100 Greatest Films

Alice Adams (1935)

"A Penny For Your Thoughts," and "Gee Whiz!" Kiss

Small-town girl Alice Adams (Katharine Hepburn) walked back out to her front porch for fresh air after a disastrous dinner party for her wealthy 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. No, a poor little dead rose for your thoughts, Alice Adams." Arthur had remained behind on the porch swing waiting for her at the end of th evening, 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: "And I found out one thing. I love you, Alice", bringing the film to a close with her exclamation: "Gee Whiz!", his response of "I love you," and a shared kiss

Camille (1936)

A Shower of Kisses

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

Maytime (1937)

Unrequited Love's Kiss

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"

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

Love's First Kiss

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

The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938)

Storybook Balcony Kiss

Sir Robin of Locksley (Errol Flynn) climbed up the ivy on the steep Nottingham Castle wall to the chamber window of his beautiful love Lady Marian Fitzwalter (or Maid 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, late at night. She was embarrassed to realize that he had overheard her confession of love to her maid Bess (Una O'Connor) about a "prickly feeling". 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 as he talked about leaving and breaking his fall on enemy guards below. They shared a tender, innocent, storybook romantic scene on the open balcony as she called him back - they were equally in love with each other; when he questioned: "Then you do love me, don't you?", she replied affirmatively: "You know I do" - and after his next answer: "Well, that's different", he returned into her room and took her into his arms for an embrace and kiss; afterwards she told him that he was "very impudent"

Gone With the Wind (1939)

"Kiss Me, Scarlett," "This is What You Were Meant For," and "Conjugal Rape" Kiss

Rogue Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) and cunning Southern belle 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." Later, 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 misinterpreted his idea and was furious at his vulgar and outrageous proposal - she violently slapped him in the face.

After the funeral of her second husband following the war, the virile Rhett antagonistically proposed to twice-widowed Scarlett with mock sincerity, and with a hint of sexual seductiveness; he suggested that she marry him for fun: "You've been married to a boy and an old man. Why not try a husband of the right age, with a way with women? - she taunted him: "You're a fool, Rhett Butler, when you know I shall always love another man"; but he grabbed her and forcefully said: "Stop it. No more of that talk" and bullied her into kissing him; when she vowed she was fainting, he responded before kissing her again: "I want you to faint. This is what you were meant for. None of the fools you've ever known have kissed you like this, have they? Your Charles or your Frank or your stupid Ashley"; she then agreed to marry him without any real love for him - mostly for his money.

Later, at the foot of the stairs in the "Conjugal Rape" scene, a frustrated, lonely and angry husband 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.

Ninotchka (1939)

A "Restful" Kiss

Only Angels Have Wings (1939)

A Non "Tie You Down" Kiss

Steely, embittered and misogynist Latin American pilots' boss Geoff Carter (Cary Grant), often in charge of dangerous missions, revealed to American showgirl Bonnie Lee (Jean Arthur) that his hard nature was due to a failed romance in his past to his ex-wife Judy (co-star Rita Hayworth), the wife of pilot Bat MacPherson (Richard Barthelmess); later, after sticking around for another week to get better acquainted, Bonnie encountered Geoff in his quarters on the upstairs balcony, where she invited herself to take a bath; after he scooped her into his arms and called her a "queer duck," they kissed each other; she then confessed that she was in love and that she was no longer demanding and vulnerable about his profession - and accepting of undertainty, just like his friendship with older daredevil pilot Kid Dabb (Thomas Mitchell): "Geoff, you don't have to be afraid of me anymore. I'm not trying to tie you down. I don't want to plan. I don't want to look ahead. I don't want you to change anything. I love you, Geoff. There's nothing I can do about it. I just love you, that's all. I feel the same way about you that Kid does. Anything you do is all right with me"; he replied: "The Kid?" and she responded: "Yes, he doesn't ask you for anything, or get in your way, or bother you, does he?"; surprisingly, he admitted: "Drives me nuts" - although he still kissed her

The Rules of the Game (1939, Fr.)

Forbidden Class Kiss

The idyllic scene in a dark and secluded greenhouse in which upper-class heiress Christine de la Chesnaye (Nora Gregor) comforted her close friend - the clownish, middle-aged, low-brow Mr. Octave (director Jean Renoir), and admitted she loved him: "You know, it's you I love. Do you love me?...Then kiss me" -- when Octave gave her a warm peck on the cheek, Christine protested: "On the mouth, like a lover"; Octave admitted his secret love (although he knew that she was unsuited for him in terms of class), and they kissed each other passionately, impulsively deciding to romantically run off together; this was an impossibility when he was soon brought back to reality

The Philadelphia Story (1940)

"Golly, Moses" Kiss

During a private, outdoor conversation with rich, icy and privileged Philadelphian socialite Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn), tabloid magazine writer Macaulay "Mike" Connor (James Stewart) argued with her about her impending marriage to stuffed shirt George Kittredge (John Howard). In an earlier exchange, he had called her arrogant and snobbish, but then he told her that she was wonderful and magnificent: "A magnificence that comes out of your eyes and your voice, and the way you stand there and the way you walk. You're lit from within, Tracy. You've got fires banked down in you. Hearth fires and holocausts" - she doubted what he said: "I don't seem to you made of bronze?" - he took her in his arms: "No, you're made out of flesh and blood. That's the blank, unholy surprise of it. Why, you're the golden girl, Tracy, full of life and warmth and delight. Well, what goes on? You've got tears in your eyes"; enjoying what she was hearing, she told him: "Shut up, shut up. Oh, Mike, keep talking, keep talking. Talk, will you?"; he stopped and loosened his hold on her, but then after calling him "Professor," with their emotions sweeping them away, he impulsively and forcefully kissed her mid-sentence - and she happily took his melodramatic kiss and afterwards 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, exclaiming: "Golly, Moses"

Rebecca (1940)

A Matured Kiss

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"