The Silver Screen Oasis

ha ha! I agree on Jean Arthur!

For later movies, I would say the weird combination of Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton - it sounds ridiculous when you think about it, but in Reds, they are really great together.

"ha ha! I agree on Jean Arthur!" - <<< (( Jackaaaaaay Favell )) >>>

Ha! You know why I think that's funny.

You bet!

So who are your favorite romantic duos?

I forgot Farley Granger and Cathy O'Donnell.

Myrna Loy and Fredric March
Dana Andrews and Teresa Wright
Harold Russell and Cathy O'Donnell

I only discovered The Best Years of Our Lives recently and it is sooo romantic.

Oh, it's a GREAT movie! One thing I love is the way Dana Andrews' character falls between the cracks - he's about to be lost forever, one more vet out of a job, on the street. All the players are great, but for me, Dana really makes the movie - if this particular character didn't work or felt false the structure would crumble - well, I guess that's true of all of them really.

I like the little touches in this film, I see something new every time- March pouring his bromo into the wrong glass, Andrews blowing the curtain on Wright's frou frou bed, the way Wright wipes under Andrews' nose after he's had the nightmare, so gently.

Sometime, take a look at the way Wyler shot the scene in the bar when March tell Andrews not to see his daughter again. It's worth watching closely to see how it's all framed...the way the camera follows March to the piano, bringing Russell into the shot, but there is forlorn Andrews in the background making his phone call, as March nervously tries not to watch. Brilliant, brilliant.

So who are your favorite romantic duos?

I've been trying to give that some thought, Jackaaaaaaaaaay. My mind is racing with other things so I haven't given it serious thought. But ones that come to mind is Ingrid Bergman and Cary Grant in "NOTORIOUS." I also think of "A PLACE IN THE SUN" too and those swoooooooning close-ups Liz and Monty were given. Even though they were funny, I think Cary with Irene Dunne was a romantic pairing in "THE AWFUL TRUTH." If you're talking about serious romance, then besides Roddy McDowall with Lassie, I'd go with the great GARBO and boyish ROBERT TAYLOR in "CAMILLE." Some folks (to me) are romantic all by themselves like Ingrid Bergman and Jennifer Jones. Their wanting their man is so palpable to me it makes me kinda dizzy at times. Jen in "LOVE LETTERS" or Ingrid in "FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS."

I'm sure there are others...I know there are...but I can't think right now. I don't want to confuse romance with whom looks good together. And THAT is so very easy for me to do. Sadly, I'm such a shallow M'Ava. Just look at my avatar on the right.

Has anyone mentioned David Niven and Kim Hunter (A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH)?

But the greatest of them all: John Dall and Peggy Cummins (and their guns).

But the greatest of them all: John Dall and Peggy Cummins (and their guns).

You must be a barrel of laughs on Valentines' Day...and NO, CHIO, it is NOT just the anniversary of a little get together in a garage in Chicago....

I think they count as a great romantic duo. And their guns.

JackFavell wrote:Oh, it's a GREAT movie! One thing I love is the way Dana Andrews' character falls between the cracks - he's about to be lost forever, one more vet out of a job, on the street. All the players are great, but for me, Dana really makes the movie - if this particular character didn't work or felt false the structure would crumble - well, I guess that's true of all of them really.

I like the little touches in this film, I see something new every time- March pouring his bromo into the wrong glass, Andrews blowing the curtain on Wright's frou frou bed, the way Wright wipes under Andrews' nose after he's had the nightmare, so gently.

Sometime, take a look at the way Wyler shot the scene in the bar when March tell Andrews not to see his daughter again. It's worth watching closely to see how it's all framed...the way the camera follows March to the piano, bringing Russell into the shot, but there is forlorn Andrews in the background making his phone call, as March nervously tries not to watch. Brilliant, brilliant.

I've only seen it once but I know there is so much to discover in this wonderful movie. I find Myrna and Fredric so touching, the way he isn't ready, too nervous to be with his wife, so he gets tight. Such wonderful human romances in the midst of a very human and probably definitve tale about returning soldiers.

I love how you see something there in March that I never really got words to describe - I didn't quite realize those underlying feelings before - thank you for clarifying it for me! He IS nervous - it's like he doesn't know his family anymore, he wants to treat his boy as a child, but he's not. They are going on with their lives without him, he feels useless outside of the military - that's such a complex thing to make a movie about... how these men - who were most important, came home to find they had no more place in their families lives.

"...that's such a complex thing to make a movie about... how these men - who were most important, came home to find they had no more place in their families lives."

What a perfectly cast film. The maturity of March and Loy; the youth of Dana and Teresa...Dana clearly has seen too much; the boy & girl next door...the boy paying such a high high price. And overcoming. A heavy weighty masterpiece done by one of the Masters.

I have on "The Last of the Mohicans" on now in the background...and I must say Madeleine Stowe and Daniel Day Lewis make a pretty romantic duo...ha! All that hair. And just Daniel by himself...

"I WILL FOIND YOU!!!"

Look no further Danny boy. I'm right here!!! Woooohooo! Over here!

CineMaven wrote: I have on "The Last of the Mohicans" on now in the background...and I must say Madeleine Stowe and Daniel Day Lewis make a pretty romantic duo...ha! All that hair. And just Daniel by himself...

"I WILL FOIND YOU!!!"

Look no further Danny boy. I'm right here!!! Woooohooo! Over here!

Just as a related aside, CM, you must admit that the main theme song, the instrumental "The Gael", by Scots composer Dougie MacLean, sure helps set that mood!
It's one of my personal favorites - and it peeves me sumpin fierce that on many Mohicans DVD's & CD soundtracks, MacLean is given no credit for it, the piece being simply described as "Main Theme", and credited to arranger/composer Trevor Jones.
Och, Dougie, gotta tighten up on those contracts, Laddie!

I hear ya Klondike. You told me something that I didn't. As for the music...oh yes, MOOD MUSIC is EVERYTHING...Barry White, Luther Vandross, Marvin Gaye, John Barry (I love "THe Tamarind Seed" "Out of Africa").

And tight contracts are everything.

Great choice, CineMava! But you've reminded me of another romantic duo....except it's a trio:

Daniel Day Lewis, Juliette Binoche, and Lena Olin in The Unbearable Lightness of Being