Roy's Best Classic Movie Kisses

A Streetcar Named Desire

Recently I saw a cable show titled “Ten Best Kisses in the Movies,” or something like that. They showed a lot of examples of kissing scenes from theatrical films from Gone With the Wind to Casablanca, to Ghost. They ended up giving the No. 1 spot to a last scene in The Notebook between Rachel McAdams (who?) and Ryan Gosling (who?). I don't take issue with what anybody else picks, I just know mine would be a lot  different. I mentioned this to my sister and she is encouraging me to blog about it. First, I have seen some wonderful love scenes with great kisses in movies right up to the present day. The internet is full of them. I'm not familiar with a lot of these movies, though, and anyway, I prefer to concentrate on films made before 1960 (at least for the present blog entry). Even here, there are many, many movies I've never seen or don't remember clearly, so I'll stick to films with which I'm familiar, and, in general, enjoy watching. As the song says, "... a kiss is just a kiss. ..," but let's face it, a movie kiss doesn't stand on its own. It occurs within the larger context of the movie in which it appears. Even so, an intense and effective love scene or climactic kiss can leave a lasting impression on the viewer and, over time become what we call memorable. I don't have ten films selected yet, but I'm trying out a new approach, using video clips rather than a lot of words, since a love scene should be seen rather than just talked about. I've selected four scenes and video clips. I will write a brief review for each, just to set up the scene, you can watch for yourself why I picked them.

1. First Movie Kiss: "The Kiss," or "May Irwin Kiss"(1896), was a brief film released the first year the Edison "Vitascope" motion picture projector came into use. Filmed at Edison's "Black Maria" studio, in New Jersey, the film re-enacted a late scene in the May Irwin stage play "The Widow Jones,"and depicts a kiss between popular actress May Irwin and actor John Rice. This film was the most popular of the  "Vitaphone" productions of that year, but it was also wildly controversial, sparking condemnation by clergymen and other, using words like "disgusting," and "a lyric of the stockyards."Remember, this was the Victorian era. Let's see what all the fuss is about.

               "Hey, Stella!"

2. A Streetcar named Desire(1951) Marlon Brando,Kim Hunter, and Vivien Leigh.   Drama. Set in the French Quarter in New Orleans, a faded southern belle, named Blanche DuBois, down on her luck has come to stay with her sister Stella, now Mrs. Stanley Kowalski. Stella's husband Stanley, a working class, brute of a man, is in stark contrast to Blanche's pretension to genteel refinement. Stella is much more down-to earth and nice, but the animal attraction she and Stanley have for each other is unmistakable. The Kiss: The friction between Stanley and Blanche develops quickly and when Stanley gets violent, Blanche retreats to her room and Stella runs away from Stanley, rushing upstairs to be consoled by her friend and neighbor Eunice. What follows is my pick for "steamiest" kissing scene. Watch.

 
               Kissing Scene on the Beach

 3. From Here to Eternity(1953). Burt Lancaster Deborah Kerr, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra, Philip Ober. Military Drama. This is a complicated story, set in Oahu, Hawaii, at Schofield Army Barracks and various locations in and around Honolulu. The plot revolves around an Army private named Robert E. Lee Prewitt (Clift), His First Sergeant, Milton Warden (Lancaster), the callous, selfish Company Commander, Capt. Dana Holmes (Philip Ober), and Holmes' wife, Karen (Kerr). (Frank Sinatra won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his portrayal of Private Angelo Maggio, Prewitt's wise-cracking, non-conformist buddy). Conflicts are many, including cruelty, infidelity, unrequited love, and murder. One of these centers on an adulterous affair between Sgt. Warden and Karen Holmes. The Kiss: Having had to sneak around to avoid being seen together, Karen and Warden make a date to go to the beach. Their ardor grows as they cavort in the surf with careless abandon, finally able to express their love freely. The ensuing love scene is guaranteed to make anybody's Top Ten list. Watch. 



4. On the Waterfront (1954). Marlon Brando, Eva Marie Saint, Karl Malden, and   Lee J. Cobb. Drama.  Hard-hitting complex melodrama about dockworkers on New York's waterfront and their conflicts with "mobbed-up" labor bosses. in the opening scene, Marlon Brando, as  ex-prizefighter-turned- longshoreman Terry Malloy, is an unwitting participant in the mob murder of a fellow longshoreman who was set to testify before the Crime Commission. As it turns outs, the victim was the brother of Edie Doyle, played by Eva Marie Saint (her film debut). Terry and Edie meet and eventually fall in love. She later finds out about the part Terry played in her brother's death and runs away from him. The Kiss: Terry goes to a distraught Edie's apartment to try to straighten things out, but Edie. still upset, resists. Check it out.

 

5. Red Dust (1932) Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, Mary Astor, and Gene Raymond. Romance-Drama. Gable is the rough-cut manager of a rubber plantation in Indochina (now known as Vietnam) named Dennis Carson, whose routine is upset, first by the arrival of a tough, itinerant, lady of questionable repute named Vantine, played by Jean Harlow, and the subsequent arrival of a visiting engineer and his wife, Gary and Barbara Willis (Gene Raymond and Mary Astor). Dennis shares a mutual, obvious attraction to the sexy Vantine, and they play a little "slap-and-tickle," but his attention is quickly diverted to the beautiful, sophisticated Barbara. As for Barbara, she is trying to resist Dennis' animal magnetism for the sake of her nice-guy husband Gary (who seems oblivious to it all), but her resistance soon begins to crumble.This story was remade in 1953 by John Ford as Mogambo, set in Africa with (again) Clark Gable, Ava Gardner , and Grace Kelly in the starring roles. The Kiss:  Barbara wanders into the jungle and Dennis has gone after her, when they are caught in a sudden monsoon storm (Mary Astor looks great wet!). Look.