As you’re settling in to enjoy this Valentine’s Day with your best beloved, we invite you to explore these romantic favorites suggested by our residents at Bethany Village. Happy Valentine’s Day!
City Lights (1931): As one would expect from an early romantic comedy, this one stars Hollywood legend Charlie Chaplin, who also wrote and directed the film. Virginia Cherrill plays the sightless flower girl who has captured the attention of a tramp. Enlisting the aid of a wealthy tippler, the tramp goes on a mission to collect money to help her.- Holiday (1938): Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant star in this romantic comedy about a young man who falls for a girl from a rich family. This was the third of four movies that would star Hepburn and Grant due to their great chemistry.
- Gone with the Wind (1939): Yes, it was 1939 when Gone with the Wind blew into theaters and captured our collective imaginations. Vivien Leigh and Clark Gable give breathtaking performances in a love affair as tumultuous as the Civil War that serves as this story’s backdrop.
- Waterloo Bridge (1940): Fresh off her run in Gone with the Wind, Vivien Leigh stars as an out of work ballerina who – believing her fiancé to be dead in the war – turns to alternative means of survival. Leigh often said that of the 19 films she starred in during her 30-year career, this wartime romance-drama was her favorite.
- Casablanca (1942): What’s a list of spectacular romance films without Casablanca? Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman give knock-out performances in this wartime drama. Fun fact: the “letters of transit” that motivate so many characters in this film are purely fictional. Screenwriter Joan Alison made them up for the film – they never existed in Vichy-controlled France.
- Brief Encounter (1945): Celia Johnson and Trevor Howard star in this classic romantic drama about a woman who meets and falls in love with a man at a railway station café. They continue to meet at the café throughout their lives, even knowing that their love can never be.
- Calendar Girl (1947): If you’re looking for a lesser-known film that’s also a good change of pace from doomed wartime romantic dramas, try Calendar Girl. This musical comedy features two young male friends who arrive in Greenwich Village in 1900 seeking their artistic fortunes. One falls for the girl next door, but she is much more interested in his best friend.
