Spend Friday Night At the Flicks with Elizabeth Ellen Carter
It is a lazy trick by bored journalists in the so called silly season to compile lists – the top 10 this, the top 10 that – whatever it takes to fill the gaps between the ads.
Harsh? Not really. I did it often enough when I worked as a print journalist, so I don’t begrudge any working journo the luxury of making up text.
And making it up it is – when the four of the top 10 most romantic on-screen couples represent a troubled dynamic hardly conducive to living happily ever after:
- De Caprio and Winslet as the doomed couple aboard the Titanic. Let’s face it, if the ship hadn’t sunk, the relationship would have been cuddling Davy Jones’ locker within six months of port.
- Clark and Leigh as the Civil War lovers in Gone With The Wind. Dear ole Scarlett, the little narcissist, never really gave a damn about anyone but herself. Rhett the rogue, was well out of that ill-fated debacle.
- Gere and Roberts as the business man and the prostitute in Pretty Woman. Yeah, right – as if the relationship truly lasted longer than an unmaxed Amex.
- Bogart and Bergman in Casablanca. Clinging to comfort in war torn Paris, this relationship was frayed at the edges from the beginning.
This is not to criticise the films themselves – Gone With The Wind and Casablanca are two of my favourite films of all time (as are anything with Hepburn and Tracy) – but it is to point out that one has to feel that the love lasts long than the closing credits.
Hmm let’s check the score card on these top four:
- Dead
- Divorced, well separated
- A happy ending
- Departure
Hmm, not great track record really.
Six films in 14 years as Nick and Nora Charles. Most real life Hollywood marriages don’t last that long
To my mind, one of the most successful and long lived Hollywood romantic couples is played by William Powell and Myrna Loy as the very happily married couple – Nick and Nora Charles in 1934’s Dashiel Hammet penned story, The Thin Man.
Even if you have never seen the film, you have no doubt been familiar with one of the many spin offs – The Thin Man TV series, Mr and Mrs North, McMillan & Wife and Hart To Hart.
To my mind, what makes Nick and Nora Charles the perfect on-screen couple is the solidity of their relationship, that no matter what external forces are set against against them – and the romance is how they work together as a couple.
And how the security of that relationship creates an effortless banter that is as charming as it is amusing:
Nora Charles: I suppose we ought to decide where we’re going.
Nick Charles: Why, do you care?
Nora Charles: No, but I haven’t any clothes.
Nick Charles: Well, what’s the difference? Saves you the trouble of packing. And I don’t need anything in the world, darling, but you… and a toothbrush.
Those who have read the books will discover that their relationship (apparently modelled by Hammet’s own relationship with lover and muse Lillian Hellman) was softened for the big screen but it no less witty as this compile shows:
The Thin Man spawned five sequels over 14 years blending both mystery, romance and humour.
There appears to be a trope in romance – perhaps born from childhood stories of the prince and Cinderella, the prince and Snow White, the prince and Sleeping Beauty, the prince and Belle, the prince and the Little Mermaid – that the most interesting part of a romantic relationship is the courtship.
I would argue that the courtship and the wedding between our hero and heroine is the prologue to an epic story – a grand adventure that becomes even more passionate and interesting with time and maturity.
And on that basis, I’d like to especially thank my darling husband for 19 glorious years of married life together this week and end with a favourite song of ours – Love’s Great Adventure by Ultravox.