Entertainment
The Best '50s Romantic Comedies
The 1950s are often remembered as a time marked by wholesome family values. But that doesn't mean that the decade's moviegoers were opposed to a good love story. Quite the opposite, in fact – the '50s boast some of the most iconic romantic comedies of all time. Some of these heartwarming comedies prove the age-old adage that opposites attract while other top 1950s romantic comedies feature complicated love triangles. All of them starred actors and actresses that were household names then, and whose legacy continues today.
What film should be named the greatest on this list of the best '50s romantic comedies? The animated classic Lady and the Tramp may feature canine lead characters, but the laughter and love at the heart of the film are universal. The legendary actress Peggy Lee provided many of the voices in this Disney masterpiece. Audrey Hepburn's films Funny Face, Sabrina, and Roman Holiday helped solidify her as one of the great romantic leading ladies of the 1950s. Marilyn Monroe was another incredibly popular romantic comedy star in the 1950s. Her movies Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and The Seven Year Itch showcased the seductive beauty and charisma that made her an icon.
It's up to you to decide the best romantic comedy from the 1950s. Grab some popcorn, vote your favorite films up the list, and add any that are missing.list ordered by
- Overwhelmed by her suffocating schedule, touring European princess Ann (Audrey Hepburn) takes off for a night while in Rome. When a sedative she took from her doctor kicks in, however, she falls ...more
- A spoof of the turmoil that afflicted the movie industry in the late 1920s when movies went from silent to sound. When two silent movie stars', Don Lockwood and Lina Lamont, latest movie is made into ...more
- Chauffeur's daughter Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn) returns home from two years in Paris a beautiful young woman, and immediately catches the attention of David (William Holden), the playboy son of her ...more
- Playboy songwriter Brad Allen's (Rock Hudson) succession of romances annoys his neighbor, interior designer Jan Morrow (Doris Day), who shares a telephone party line with him and hears all his breezy ...more
- After witnessing a Mafia murder, slick saxophone player Joe (Tony Curtis) and his long-suffering buddy, Jerry (Jack Lemmon), improvise a quick plan to escape from Chicago with their lives. Disguising ...more
- Schatze Page, Loco Dempsey and Pola Debevoise (Lauren Bacall, Betty Grable, Marilyn Monroe) are three women on a mission: They all want to marry a millionaire. To accomplish this task, they move into ...more
- Lorelei Lee (Marilyn Monroe) is a beautiful showgirl engaged to be married to the wealthy Gus Esmond (Tommy Noonan), much to the disapproval of Gus' rich father, Esmond Sr., who thinks that Lorelei ...more
- This Disney animated classic follows a pampered cocker spaniel named Lady (Barbara Luddy) whose comfortable life slips away once her owners have a baby. When, after some tense circumstances, Lady ...more
- Dispatched on an assignment, New York City-based fashion photographer Dick Avery (Fred Astaire) is struck by the beauty of Jo Stockton (Audrey Hepburn), a shy bookstore employee he's photographed by ...more
- After accidentally killing an opponent in the ring, boxer Sean Thornton (John Wayne) leaves America and returns to his native Ireland, hoping buy his family's homestead and live in peace. In doing ...more
- Jazz artist C.K. Dexter Haven (Bing Crosby) is still hung up on his ex-wife and neighbor, socialite Tracy Samantha Lord (Grace Kelly), however Tracy is engaged to another man (John Lund). Matters are ...more
- In the midst of a summer heat wave, New Yorker Richard Sherman (Tom Ewell) ships his wife, Helen (Evelyn Keyes), and their son off to Maine for vacation. Left alone to work back in Manhattan, Richard ...more
- When beautiful Kay Banks (Elizabeth Taylor) announces her engagement to Buckley Dunstan (Don Taylor), her doting middle-class father, Stan (Spencer Tracy), must contend with a variety of problems, ...more
- 14Gidget is a 1959 Columbia Pictures CinemaScope feature film. It stars Sandra Dee, Cliff Robertson, and James Darren in a story about a teenager's initiation into the California surf culture and her ...more
- 15Gaston (Louis Jourdan) is a restless Parisian playboy who moves from one mistress to another, while also spending time with Gigi (Leslie Caron), a precocious younger friend learning the ways of high ...more
- Tom Winston (Cary Grant) is struggling to raise his three children on his own after his wife's death. After meeting the charming and beautiful Cinzia Zaccardi (Sophia Loren) at a concert, he hires ...more
- Successful theater agent Charlie Reader (Frank Sinatra) lives a playboy's life in New York City. When his childhood friend, Joe McCall (David Wayne), shows up with a desire to leave his wife, the two ...more
- French private investigator Claude Chavasse (Maurice Chevalier) discovers his client's wife has been having an affair with an American playboy, Frank Flannagan (Gary Cooper). When the client decides ...more
- Teacher's Pet is a 1930 two-reel comedy short; part of the Our Gang series. It was produced by Hal Roach, directed by Robert F. McGowan, and originally released to theatres by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer on ...more
- Divorced Broadway stars Fred Graham (Howard Keel) and Lilli Vanessi (Kathryn Grayson) agree to star in a musical adaptation of William Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" alongside rising young ...more
- Our Girl Friday is a 1953 British comedy film starring Joan Collins, George Cole, Kenneth More and Robertson Hare. A woman is shipwrecked with three men on a deserted island.
- In this musical, American millionaire Jervis Pendleton (Fred Astaire) becomes taken with an orphan named Julie (Leslie Caron) while vacationing in France. Determined to improve the quality of Julie's ...more
- Despite the rise of the railroads, in the 1850s the Erie Canal is still a major route for transporting goods. Farmer Dan Harrow (Henry Fonda) takes a canal boat job to save money for his own land. ...more
- The chauffeur (Hugh Dempster) for the richest man in Scotland, greeting card manufacturer B.G. Bruno (David Niven), drops by an Edinburgh theater to return the lost purse of chorus girl Janet Jones ...more
- Based on Arnold Schulman's Broadway play of the same name, this comedy finds widower Tony Manetta (Frank Sinatra) struggling to own and operate a Miami hotel. Irresponsible in both business and ...more
