Entertainment
The Best Romantic Comedies of the 1940s
In the 1940s, Hollywood produced stirring dramas and glittering musicals, but some of the most beloved films of that era are romantic comedies. The best 1940s romantic comedies featured witty banter and swoon-worthy scenes, all delivered by some of the greatest stars to ever grace the silver screen. Whether the plots focused on the screwball complications of love triangles or the smoldering chemistry of a will-they, won't-they relationship, the top 1940s romantic comedies still win over audiences today.
What film should win the top spot on this list of good '40s romantic comedies? The Philadelphia Story, starring Cary Grant, James Stewart, and Katharine Hepburn, is an enduring favorite. This 1940 classic took home Oscars for Best Actor (Stewart) and Best Writing (Donald Ogden Stewart). His Girl Friday, also starring Grant, is another great romantic comedy from the 1940s.
Real life couple Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy appeared in several romantic films of the '40s, including Adam's Rib and Woman of the Year. Holiday Inn, The Lady Eve, and I Married a Witch also appear on this top '40s romantic comedies list.
It's up to you to determine which movie will earn the number-one spot on this list. Give your favorite films a thumbs up and add any of the era's romantic comedies that are missing.list ordered by
- It's no accident when wealthy Charles (Henry Fonda) falls for Jean (Barbara Stanwyck). Jean is a con artist with her sights set on Charles' fortune. Matters complicate when Jean starts falling for ...more
- This classic romantic comedy focuses on Tracy Lord (Katharine Hepburn), a Philadelphia socialite who has split from her husband, C.K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant), due both to his drinking and to her ...more
- Alfred Kralik (James Stewart) and Klara Novak (Margaret Sullavan) are employees at Matuschek and Company, a general store in Budapest. Klara and Alfred are constantly at odds with each other, butting ...more
- When hard-charging New York newspaper editor Walter Burns discovers that his ex-wife, investigative reporter Hildy Johnson, has gotten engaged to milquetoast insurance agent Bruce Baldwin, he ...more
- A courtroom rivalry finds its way into the household when prosecuting lawyer Adam Bonner (Spencer Tracy) faces off against his wife, Amanda (Katharine Hepburn), who happens to be a defense attorney. ...more
- Tess Harding (Katharine Hepburn) is a progressively-minded political journalist. Sam Craig (Spencer Tracy) is a sports writer with very traditional values. The only thing the two have in common is ...more
- Artist playboy Dickie Nugent (Cary Grant) appears before beautiful judge Margaret Turner (Myrna Loy) for fighting at a nightclub, and charms her into dismissing the charge. That same day, Dickie ...more
- When advertising executive Jim Blandings (Cary Grant) discovers his wife's (Myrna Loy) plan to redecorate their New York apartment, he counters with a proposal that they move to Connecticut. She ...more
- In this Irving Berlin musical, Jim (Bing Crosby) and Lila are members of a performing trio who plan to quit and run a country hotel. When Lila says she has fallen in love with the dancer in the act, ...more
- Bob Davis (Fred Astaire), an American dancer in Buenos Aires, Argentina, finds himself desperate for work after losing all his money. He takes a gig at a wedding, hoping to impress the bride's ...more
- Due to a housing shortage in Washington, D.C., during World War II, Connie Milligan (Jean Arthur) agrees to rent part of her apartment to wealthy retiree Benjamin Dingle (Charles Coburn) and soldier ...more
- Susan Applegate (Ginger Rogers) decides to leave New York City and take a train back to Iowa, but she has only enough money for a child's ticket. She disguises herself as a young girl and, after ...more
- Moved to pity by the Christmas season, New York District Attorney John Sargent (Fred MacMurray) lets pretty shoplifter Lee Leander (Barbara Stanwyck) out on bail and offers her a ride home to ...more
- In the early 19th century in the English village of Meryton, the arrival of wealthy bachelors, most notably Mr. Darcy (Laurence Olivier), stirs up the families with single daughters. Among those is ...more
- Just as she is about to be burned at the stake for witchcraft, 17th century witch Jennifer (Veronica Lake) casts a curse on the family of her accuser, dooming all the men of future generations to ...more
- John Coudair (Otto Kruger) was wounded long ago when his fiancée called off their engagement, and when he spots the woman's granddaughter, comely stage performer Rusty Parker (Rita Hayworth), he's ...more
- Mr. & Mrs. Smith is a 1941 screwball comedy film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by Norman Krasna, and starring Carole Lombard and Robert Montgomery. It also features Gene Raymond, Jack Carson, ...more
- A mild-mannered pushover, Walter Mitty (Danny Kaye) longs to be free of his mundane existence, where has to contend with his pushy mother (Fay Bainter) and flighty fiancée (Ann Rutherford), among ...more
- An oil baron (Eugene Pallette) stops his daughter, Jane Winfield (Bette Davis), from eloping to Las Vegas with a band leader (Jack Carson) by hiring hard-up charter plane pilot Steve Collins (James ...more
- Idealistic Iowa congresswoman Phoebe Frost (Jean Arthur) touches down in postwar Berlin on a fact-finding mission about legendary cabaret singer Erika von Schlütow (Marlene Dietrich), long rumored to ...more
- John P. Merrick, the world's richest man, is annoyed to hear workers at one of his stores are trying to form a union. Getting a menial job, he's determined to root out the troublemakers, but soon ...more
- In this wacky Preston Sturges comedy, the soldier-smitten Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton) discovers that she is both married and pregnant after a raucous troop send-off party. While she has no idea ...more
- Skeptical novelist Charles Condomine (Rex Harrison) invites self-proclaimed medium Madame Arcati (Margaret Rutherford) to his home for a séance, hoping to gather material for a new book. When the ...more
- Joe Adams (Cary Grant) is as clever as they come. Certain that he'll be called up during World War II, Joe nabs the draft papers of a man who's been freed from service and leverages his position into ...more
- That Wonderful Urge is a 1948 20th Century Fox screwball comedy film, directed by Robert Sinclair and starring Tyrone Power and Gene Tierney. It is a remake of Love Is News, which starred Power and ...more
