Best and Most Memorable
Film Kisses of All Time
in Cinematic History
Part 8
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Best and Most Memorable Part 8 |
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.  are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 100 Greatest Films |
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(in chronological order by film title) Introduction | Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 |
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Pickup on South Street (1953)
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Ex-con pick-pocket Skip McCoy (Richard Widmark) kissed prostitute Candy (Jean Peters) for the first time, as he remarked: "You look for oil, sometimes you hit a gusher" | 
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In this Cinderella tale in reverse, runaway Princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn) rebelled against her royal obligations and escaped the insulated confines of her royal prison to find a 'Prince Charming' commoner - a street-smart American reporter named Joe Bradley (Gregory Peck) who was covering the royal tour in Rome. After their long day together in Rome, Princess Ann admitted that she had a tiring, but "wonderful day." Although they both dreamt of becoming closer to each other, Ann also knew she would inevitably have to part and return to her other life and duties as a monarch. In a memorable goodbye scene, she gave Joe difficult-to-hear directions after he drove her to the Embassy gate: "I have to leave you now. I'm going to that corner there and turn. You must stay in the car and drive away. Promise not to watch me go beyond the corner. Just drive away and leave me as I leave you... I don't know how to say goodbye. I can't think of any words" - Joe suggested: "Don't try" - and they sadly hugged and kissed each other for the last time |
  
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Carmen Jones (1954)
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The carnal, red-hot, free-spirited, radiantly-beautiful parachute making-factory worker Carmen Jones (Dorothy Dandridge, the first black female to be nominated as Best Actress), enticed handsome, honorable military corporal Joe (Harry Belafonte) to satisfy her own lustful purposes; during a brief encounter at Billy Pastor's jive cafe after he was court-martialed for a previous incident related to her, he told her that he had to attend flying school 400 miles away instead of staying the night with her; angry about his offer of "love on a pass," the fiercely-independent Carmen demanded that he demonstrate his love for her, so he took out from his left-breast uniform pocket a dried up rose that she had sent him, telling her: "That's been with me all the time. Right here, where you are"; when she questioned his sincerity: "That don't ring so true," he took her in his arms and kissed her: "I swear it's true"; then she enticed him: "If you loved me truly...you'd come to Chicago...I want to go someplace where you're the last thing I see at night, first thing I see in the morning"; angered by his reluctance, she rebuffed him: "Boy, if you ain't a lover red-hot for Carmen. You just burnin' up with passion. You sizzle like a fish on ice...You too chicken for me to waste my time on!"; instead, Carmen decided to accept an offer to accompany Joe's Sergeant Brown (Brock Peters) for the evening, inciting Joe's angry and jealous lust for her; after a fatal fistfight with Brown, Joe deserted his regiment and went AWOL to avoid the MPs and took off with the sultry Carmen on the train to Chicago |  
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Terry Malloy (Marlon Brando) knocked numerous times and pleaded with white slip-wearing Edie (Eva Marie Saint) to unlock her door, but she refused -- she begged: "Stay away from me," but he insisted fiercely: "Come on, please open the door please"; she believed he was linked in some way for the death of her brother; he finally broke the door down, and as she huddled in bed, she drew back the covers over herself: "I want you to stay away from me." After he told her: "Edie, you love me...I want you to say it to me," she responded: "I didn't say I didn't love you. I said, 'STAY AWAY FROM ME." But he put his arms around her anyway, and they ended up embracing in a kiss against the wall | 
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During a reddish Manhattan sunset as incapacitated photographer Jeff (James Stewart) dozed, the courtyard outside his rear window buzzed with activity. A shadow slowly rose up Jeff's face as Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) (in close-up) approached, bent over, and then lovingly kissed him. She roused and awakened him from his sleep. She was a stylish vision of beauty - an elegant, lovely, affluent, blonde, fashion-model-designer girlfriend; they whispered to each other, as she suggestively asked him about his "leg", his stomach, and his "love life" |  
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Sabrina (1954)
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In this Billy Wilder romantic comedy, two brothers in a rich Long Island society family: stuffy and uptight businessman and older brother Linus Larrabee (54 year-old Humphrey Bogart) and blonde, playboyish David Larrabee (William Holden), became interested in their chauffeur's daughter Sabrina Fairchild (Audrey Hepburn), especially after she returned from Paris as a refined and cultured 22 year-old woman with a new hairdo; her "crush" and romance with David was jeopardized by his impending marriage of convenience (and $20 million business deal) to wealthy heiress Elizabeth (Martha Hyer), so Linus was called upon to pretend to romance Sabrina, distract her from David, and save the marriage and deal; in the indoor tennis court scene, Linus offered Sabrina a kiss: "Here's a kiss from David," he told her - "It's all in the family" after which they danced; it was a foregone conclusion that by film's end, Linus would end up with Sabrina - on a cruise liner to Paris |
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All That Heaven Allows (1955)
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As free-spirited younger gardener Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson) talked to older, more-uptight, well-to-do, fortyish widow Cary Scott (Jane Wyman) in this May/December romantic melodramatic, soap-operish tale from director Douglas Sirk, set in a small New England town, he told her that he had fixed up the farmhouse to "make the place livable" for the two of them, away from the town's malicious gossipers; he boldly declared his intentions to marry her: "I'm asking you to marry me. I love you, Cary"; although she had doubts that it was "impossible," he proved his steadfast love with "This is the only thing that matters" - a kiss | 
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The Big Combo (1955)
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This film noir contained the notorious scene of mobster hood-kingpin Mr. Brown's (Richard Conte) kissing of weak-willed, abused, and unwilling society blonde girlfriend Susan Lowell (Jean Wallace) - first on the ear, cheek, then neck, and then traveling behind her body and out of sight, as the camera dollied in for a stunning erotic close-up - leaving the rest up to the audience's imagination |  
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In the Ferris wheel-carnival scene, vulnerable Cal (James Dean) struggled to express his longing for his sensible twin brother Aron's (Richard Davalos) girlfriend Abra (Julie Harris) and she confessed her conflicted-in-love feelings for him - but after a kiss pulled back ("I love Aron, I do, really I do") | 
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Guys and Dolls (1955)
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In this Samuel Goldwyn production (by director Joseph L. Mankiewicz) developed from a story by Damon Runyon, slick big-city gambler Sky Masterson (a slightly miscast Marlon Brando) made a $1,000 bet that he could romance/seduce Salvation Army 'doll' Sarah Brown (Jean Simmons); during a scene over drinks, she came closer and closer to his lips before their intimate kiss -- telling the "full time sinner" that she wanted to be with him and that he wouldn't be fighting sin alone anymore because she was on a mission to save him: "Whatever you do, wherever you go...I want to be with you...anytime, anywhere..." |
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Near the film's end, an avaricious and determined Lily (Gaby Rodgers) greeted hard-boiled detective Mike Hammer (Ralph Meeker) with a wide smile and a gun: "Hello, Mike. Come in. Come in." Seductively, she commanded sexual favors from him: "Kiss me, Mike. I want you to kiss me. Kiss me. The liar's kiss that says 'I love you' means something else. You're good at giving such kisses. Kiss me." With the femme fatale's destructive sexuality and promise of the kiss of death, she fired point-blank into the midsection of the misogynistic hero before he reached her, and he fell to the floor - wounded |
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Lady and the Tramp (1955)
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At an outdoor Italian restaurant, cocker spaniel Lady, and mongrel Tramp shared a spaghetti dinner, while being serenaded by a waiter singing the love song ''Belle Notte''; they each started chewing on opposite ends of a spaghetti strand and were startled to meet in the middle - where they kissed; Lady blushed charmingly, as he nudged a meatball toward her as a symbol of his affection |    
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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. 