50BestDateMovies  

50 - 40 39 - 30 29 - 20 19 - 10 9 - 1

9. Double Indemnity / Body Heat
Fred MacMurray plays a jaded insurance agent who falls hard for scheming femme fatale Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) in this hardboiled film noir. The two characters have barely known each other ten minutes when they devise a plot to off Mr. Dietrichson and split the insurance money. But those ten minutes are filled with so many double entendres that it's a wonder they even wait so long. If you've got a long summer night to kill, watch this back-to-back with 1981's Body Heat, a neo-noir that replaces the double talk with actual sex (and a smokin' Kathleen Turner).
Best scene to make a move: Possibly the best flirtation ever captured in dialogue: it begins "There's a speed limit in this state, Mr. Neff. Forty-five miles an hour." — GW


8. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
This Charlie Kaufman-Michel Gondry collaboration manages to epitomize the happily-ever-after romance by being its polar opposite. The mind-bending plot centers around a fictional medical procedure that can erase any person from one's memory. When Joel, played by Jim Carrey, discovers that his ex-girlfriend Clementine, played by Kate Winslet, has "erased" him, he decides to undergo the procedure in retaliation. He realizes halfway through that he'd rather keep the painful memories than lose the good ones — but by that time, it's too late. Or is it?
Best scene to make a move: The one where Clementine and Joel are lying on the frozen Charles River. You'll recognize it from the poster. — GW
7. Raiders of the Lost Ark
We all know how this one goes: Harrison Ford (at the height of his young-Harrison hotness) plays a WWII-era college professor who moonlights as a globe-trotting archeologist. (The franchise roughly defines archeologist as "guy who runs through underground tunnels fending off bad guys while things explode.") In the first and best of the Indiana Jones films, Indiana must beat the Nazis in a race to locate the mythical Ark of the Covenant, which the Nazis plan to use as a war-winning weapon.
Best scene to make a move: During a brief respite from the action sequences, Indy and his feisty ex-girlfriend Marion find themselves in the cargo hold of a steamer. "You're not the man I knew ten years ago," says Marion. "It's not the years, honey," says Indy, "it's the mileage." Then she kisses him on the only part of his body that doesn't hurt: his left elbow. — GW

6. Swing Time
Basically anything with Fred & Ginger, one of the most chemistry-laden couples of all time, will do the trick, but this one has the incredibly relevant "Pick Yourself Up" dance number. In it, Astaire pretends not to know how to dance and submits to a lesson by the incredibly hot but schoolmarmish Rogers. Just when she's given up hope on him, she finds herself thrown all over the dance floor in a flurry of finesse. It's a nice lesson in how it's never too late for your date to surprise you.
Best time to make a move: During "The Way You Look Tonight" (the Jerome Kern version): "Some day, when I'm awfully low, When the world is cold, I will feel a glow just thinking of you... And the way you look tonight. / Yes you're lovely, with your smile so warm And your cheeks so soft, There is nothing for me but to love you, And the way you look tonight." — A. Calhoun

5. Barbarella
The odd thing about Barbarella is that while it's often thought of as a hilarious piece of camp — and it is — it's also a genuinely transporting, genuinely sexy fantasy. The credits sequence, featuring Jane Fonda (at her most spectacular) disrobing in zero gravity, is gorgeous, worth the price of admission by itself. And the whole thing has a high-energy silliness that could inspire you and your date to some fun-time impulsive behavior. By the time the mad scientist Durand Durand has Barbarella trapped in his orgasm machine, you may be too distracted to laugh.
Best scene to make a move: Probably during Barbarella's intimate encounter with Dildano. But you've got a lot of options. — PS

 
4. To Have and Have Not
Supposedly Howard Hawks bet Ernest Hemingway that he could make a hit movie out of his worst book. (Papa: "Which one is that?" Hawks: "To Have and Have Not, of course!") And so he did, though he fudged a little, dropping most of the book's plot and bringing in William Faulkner to write the screenplay. Much of the new story was shoehorned in from Casablanca, a recent hit at the time, and Humphey Bogart was again brought in to star, but his chemistry with nineteen-year-old Lauren Bacall, who he soon married, makes the film a pleasure all its own. From her first entrance ("Anybody got a match?"), Bacall is maddeningly sexy, and Bogart is Bogart, and that should be all you need.
Best scene to make a move: Any time the leads are on screen together, it's probably a safe bet. — PS

3. Say Anything
If you really need convincing, I can offer some personal testimony to the date-movie status of Say Anything. In my senior year of college, I was Lloyd Dobler for Halloween, and I had to beat off the ladies with my "In Your Eyes"-looping boom box. Actually, everyone at that party seemed to react to me just like people do to Lloyd on film. Girls cooed; guys high-fived ("Lloyd Dobler — all right!") The only risk is that Lloyd's gallantry — Pauline Kael noted that the movie is unabashedly romantic about his capacity for commitment, which might be part of his dreaminess to girls — will make you look like a schlub by comparison. (Chuck Klosterman has railed against this phenomenon.) Be warned.
Best scene to make a move: Right around "the light, the heat." — PS


2. Casablanca
True measure of Casablanca's date importance: after Dylan and Kelly watched it together on 90210, Dylan cheated on Brenda. Such is the potency of Casablanca — it can raise feelings to tornado-like levels of destruction.
Best scene to make a move: The Paris flashback. — PS

1. Some Like It Hot
Tony Curtis famously compared kissing Marilyn Monroe in Some Like It Hot's love scene to kissing Hitler. To quote Roger Ebert: "You remember what Curtis said but when you watch that scene, all you can think is that Hitler must have been a terrific kisser." The film centers around two down-on-their-luck Prohibition-era musicians, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, who accidentally witness the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. As a desperate attempt to evade both death-by-gangster and unemployment, they don dresses, assume unconvincing female identities and join an all-girl band. Curtis immediately complicates things by falling for the band's singer, played by Marilyn Monroe in her most effortlessly sensual performance.
Best scene to make a move: See above, and sig heil. — Gwynne Watkins

Anyone waxing nostalgic about the innocent past presumably hasn't seen Some Like it Hot. It may be coy, but Billy Wilder's film has more sexuality on view than a dozen sperm-as-hair-gel contemporary sleazefests. As often happened in that era, censorship forced the filmmakers to be more suggestive than explicit, and thereby all the sexier. Starting with Jack Lemmon's first description of Marilyn Monroe ("Like Jell-O on springs!"), Some Like it Hot is a non-stop masterpiece of innuendo, about as sexy as a comedy can be without driving viewers out of the theater to hump. Plus, it ends with a legendary note of acceptance ("Nobody's perfect!"), sure to provoke warm, sticky feelings between you and your date.
Best scene to make a move: Monroe and Tony Curtis on the yacht. — Peter Smith

Commentarium (23 Comments)

May 19 07 - 7:17pm
JOM

City of Angles did it for me back in the day.
The secene were they finaly hook up to Angel

May 20 07 - 1:34pm
JP

I totally agree with your inclusion of Cinema Paradiso. However, it should be noted that one should see the regular version that showed in the theaters, and NOT the Director's Cut. I repeat - do NOT watch the Director's Cut. It includes 45 minutes of completely unnecessary extra footage that totally ruins an otherwise wonderful movie.

May 22 07 - 11:54am
mgt

Wow-an affair to remember is not on the list. Amazing.

May 23 07 - 4:27pm
AM

i'm all about the getaway and, strangely, the elephant man.

May 24 07 - 2:46am
BRB

New to your site. Interesting and potentially helpful content. Just checked out "The 50 Best Date Movies".

Come on.

You included "Triplets of Belleville" and left out "9 and 1/2 Weeks"? I'm shocked and appalled. The former is practically an abstinence pill and the latter has "sexy time" written all over it. WTF?

Jul 06 07 - 11:45pm
HTD

Great list, thank you. A few comments, some suggestions.

Ironically, I can't get behind either the quintessential date movie "Annie Hall," or "Manhattan." One is, as you say, a post-mortem. The other too cynical, even after Woody runs back to Mariel. For Woody date movie material, I'd suggest "Sleeper" waaay before these.

You undersold "Edward Scissorhands" as adolescent angst 101. Goodness, it's a metaphor for a type of fated, futile love affair beset by the ugliness of the world. But, yes, maybe too sad, even with the wonderousness of octogenarian Wynona dancing in the snow in the final scene?

I'd add Hitchcock "Vertigo," or maybe better, "North by Northwest." Obvious, perhaps; but you can't top the sex-play dialogue Grant and Marie Saint have over cocktails in the dining car.

Preston Sturges's "The Lady Eve" with Stanwyck and Fonda. Sexual relations as an elaborate con, but Barabara clearly fools herself she's playing top from the bottom, when the reverse is true.

The original "Swept Away," from Wertmuller.

And, respectfully, what's the John Cusack fixation? John hasn't had a real deal role since "The Grifters."

Finally, a little known Burt Reynold's-Dyan Cannon movie, "Shamus," set in New York when both were still hot and could play a straight role (as in not caricatured). This, during Burt's "Deliverance" period. He's a low-rent detective, she's priviledged but frustrated. You must find it if only for the pool table scenes - Burt makes a bed of a billiards table in his crappy Queens studio. Sexy, touching and unsentimental, and a historical look at what was once swinging New York.

Feb 12 08 - 9:56pm
mh

the list should include a few more horror flicks, cuz those sure make me grab my sweeties arm. and whats up with all the black and whites? while I like 'em I sure as heck couldnt pay my better half to watch 'em.

Aug 25 08 - 2:47pm
SPL

Breakfast at Tiffany's?
Amelie?

Sep 13 08 - 1:26pm

wtf?

Oct 08 08 - 5:55pm
DH

Great list! But I really miss "Serendipity" starring John Cusak and the always so beautiful Kate Beckinsdale.

Nov 30 08 - 12:11pm
PMR

Did anyone ever see "Personal Best" with Mariel Hemingway. That movie could get you laid

Aug 28 10 - 7:25pm
Big Mike

You've got a lot of nerve putting up Triplets, Star wars, and Rear Window. These are movies that need to be enjoyed unimpeded, I know it sounds like a geeky thing to say, but being reduced to background noise is something that should be reserved for real trash, not movies that work hard to entertain. You want a movie to make out by? Get one of the Scary movies since you won't bother with a plot.

Nov 17 10 - 11:42am
JG

True Romance with Slater and Arquette. Action, adventure, and Walken.

Jan 22 11 - 5:09am
Jason

Where's "Benny & Joon"?

Feb 18 11 - 11:11am
janessa

Are you know mr Donovan?

Aug 07 11 - 12:48am
Dino

How about Ghost, that should be number one? Not even top fifty?

Sep 18 11 - 1:46pm
Kirrangelique

I think Lost Boys would make a good date movie. It's funny, it's sexy, it's got a bit of blood and action, and vampires. Best time to make a move would be the love scene between Star and Michael.

Sep 30 11 - 10:12am
KD

What about The Notebook??? Awesome date night movie!

Nov 20 11 - 7:03pm
DJ

Dear John can do some work, if I do say so myself.

Mar 10 12 - 2:54am
carissa

OMG KUCH KUCH HOTA HAI! <3 i hate Hollywood Romance films, Bollywood romance is so much sweeter without all those stupid sex scenes! Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge would of been good on this list too. (has the same actors as Kuch Kuch Hota Hai) <3

Apr 03 12 - 1:27am
Jake Summz

Odd movie: but I ALWAYS get laid during Clockwork Orange.

Aug 08 12 - 10:55pm
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Sep 13 12 - 12:36am
M

Omg who wrote this list? My Grandma?
Something that's not black and white!
Top Gun is hot hot hot.
Nothing like the Notebook / Dear John / The Vow- you do NOT want to be weeping in front of your date.
I like funny movies, thing Billy Madison, Happy Gilmore, Duece Bigalo. Stuff that gets you both laughing and having a good time. Not depressed and crying where your make up ends up half way down your face. Nor do you want to be sh*t scared watching a scary movie!