Like all romance movies, romantic comedies are there to capture out hearts. Romantic comedies do so in a light-hearted and seemingly funny way. They often contain characters who meet in an unusual or spontaneous way and are sometimes set up to be “just friends” or to not initially like one another. However or wherever these timeless characters meet, the witty stories of how they fall in love become forever classics in our eyes. Here's a list of the top 20 romantic comedies based upon viewers like yourselves. Browse through these romantic comedy films and and give us your opinions. We welcome all comments and suggestions, please comment intelligently. If you think other romantic comedies belong on this list, please list and describe those movies. To see the more serious romance drama movies, you can check out this list: best romantic movies.
20 Ways How Laughter Makes Love Last
1. The Philadelphia Story (1940) starring Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, is the story of a well off woman who is forced to choose between her old love, her present love and a new love. On the eve of her second wedding, the bride-to-be finds herself face to face with her first husband, who works for Spy Magazine, who she believes is there to help her deal with a family controversy involving her father, but finds out that he has some alterer motives. This clever movie is a classic and with such an all-star cast, it is easy to see how it is considered the number one romantic comedy of all time.
2. It Happened One Night (1943) starring Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert, is the story of a woman tired of her rich family telling her what to do, who decides to jump off the side of her father's yacht in Miami and make her way back up to New York to see the man that her parents have swept her away from. On the bus ride back to her love, she is helped out by a newspaper writer, who is looking for a story. The two reluctantly fall in love on this long, funny journey, but are too afraid to admit it to one another. They arrive in NY and decide to go their separate ways, each going to what they originally intended, but for how long? To find out, watch this wonderfully funny and romantic classic.
3. City Lights (1931) is the story of a poor Tramp who falls in love with a blind girl who sells flowers in the city and who believes that the Tramp is a wealthy Duke. After the Tramp learns of a surgery that may give her the ability to see again, he sets off on a serious of comedic journeys to earn enough money for her to be able to have the surgery. He is successful in his quest, however, he goes to jail for a while because of something he did. While he is in jail, the flower girl has the surgery and her sight is restored, but she is anxious to meet the man who made it possible. What will happen when she find out that the rich Duke is a poor Tramp?
4. Roman Holiday (1953), starring Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck, is the story of a princess who decides to escape the pressures of royalty while on a diplomatic visit to Rome. There she meets a charming man, who actually turns out to be a newspaper man looking for a story that will earn him enough money to settle his large gambling debt. They spend a day in Rome together, each hiding who they really are and end up falling for one another. When her duty as a princess forces her to leave him, he must decide whether he can publish his exclusive story about the “real princess”. Will he be able to?
5. Some Like it Hot (1959) starring Marilyn Monroe, Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon, is the story of two musicians that, after witnessing a mob hit, go into hiding disguised as two females and join an all woman band. After joining this band, they each end up with another problem, one falls for a fellow band mate who he can't be with because he can't tell her his gender, while the other gets caught up with a wealthy benefactor who wants him (her) and will not take 'No' for an answer. This is a funny movie about how each person try to be with or far away from the people that want them.
6. Annie Hall (1977) starring Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, is the story of the relationship between a neurotic stand-up comedian and the ditsy Annie Hall, with whom he is in love. The film traces the relationship of the two from his point of view while he tries to figure out why he broke up with her. It is a witty movie that tells their love story from first meeting to dramatic end.
7. When Harry Met Sally (1989) starring Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan, is the story of how two people fall in love over the course of ten years. It starts with them first meeting and him telling her that men and women can never really be just friends. They part ways then several years later meet again on an airplane and each are in a serious relationship. Then another few years after that, they meet for a third time and become best friends. They realize that they love one another after having a huge argument and go there separate ways for a while. How will they meet again?
8. The Princess Bride (1987) starring Cary Elwes and Robin Wright Penn, is a fairly tale story about how “nothing can stop true love, not even death”. It is a story about a farm boy, Wesley and the daughter of his employer, Buttercup, who fall madly in love, before he is sent off to war. She later learns that he has died (or so she thinks) and is heartbroken, but agrees to marry a prince, who is planning on killing her the night of their wedding. When Wesley is finally able to return from war, he hears of the marriage and to save the woman he loves, he battles giants, Spanish swordsman and the evil prince.
9. Manhattan (1971) starring Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, is the story of an unhappy writer of TV shows from Manhattan, who was left by his wife for another woman. While his ex-wife writes a book about their relationship, the writer decides to date a 17 year old high school student that falls for him, but that he doesn't really care for. When he meets his best friend's mistress, he develops a crush on her and decides to go for her instead. By making this choice, he changes the lives of all of the people in his life, especially his own.
10. Harold and Maude (1971) starring Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort, is the story of a 20 year old man who hates life and is obsessed with death who pretends to commit suicide in front of his mother to get attention from her while she tries to set him up to marry women and tries to enlist him in the army. While attending a funeral, which was a hobby of his, he meets a 79 year old woman who has a zest for life and who shows him things about the world that changes his perspective on life and the world. He plans to marry her and asks her on her 80th birthday, but what he doesn't expect to happen is for her to surprise him with one more thing that changes his life forever.
11. Charade (1963) starring Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant and Walter Matthau, is the story of a woman who returns home from a ski trip and discovers that her husband has been murdered and that she may be the next target. She spends a few days running through Paris trying to save her own life by finding what the murders are looking for, the money that he stole with them from the US government during WWII. She meets a man (Cary Grant) who is also after the money and says he will help her, but who changes his name and reason for wanting it every time he gets caught in whatever lie he is telling. The movie becomes even more intense when the men after her start getting killed themselves. Who can a girl in Paris trust?
12. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) starring Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet, is the story of two people who decide to have their memories of one another erased by surgical means. They don't realize that by doing so that they are actually helping themselves realize what they had together to begin with.
13. Groundhog Day (1993) starring Bill Murray and Andie MacDowell, is the story of a weatherman who discovers that he is living the same day over and over again, Groundhog Day. He at first uses this to his advantage, but then he realizes that he will never again do anything new, see anything new, meet anyone new, and this frustrates him and he doesn't know what to do or how this living the same day over and over again could ever help him. He doesn't realize that it will help him be with the one he loves.
14. Breakfast at Tiffany’s (1961) starring Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard, is the story of Holly Golightly, who in public is a sexy sophisticated New York socialite. But when alone with her new neighbor, who she thinks resembles her brother and who is a writer that is intrigued by her, shows her vulnerable, and slight neurotic side, she begins to rethink her life. This movie shows how the two eventually fall in love, even through all of the frustrating situations that she ends up putting him through.
15. Shakespeare in Love (1998) starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Joseph Fiennes, is the story of young Shakespeare, who suffers from writers block until he meets his ideal woman, Viola, who helps to inspire one of his most famous plays. She is promised to another man, but she also dreams of being an actress, and disguised as a man, she is able to do this and earns the part of Romeo in Shakespeare's play. While working together on the play, William and Viola start a passionate love affair that helps to inspire the rest of the play.
16. Pretty Woman (1990) starring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts, is the story of the love that develops between a wealthy businessman and a hooker he hires to be his “beck-and-call” girl for the week he is staying at a Beverly Hills hotel. This unlikely romance develops when she helps him realize the things that he didn't even know that he was missing and when he shows her that she is capable of so much more than life on the streets.
17. Sleepless in Seattle (1993) is the story of a widower (Tom Hanks) in Seattle, who, because of his son, speaks on a late night radio show about true love. A beautiful woman (Meg Ryan), although lives across the country in New York, falls in love with him when she was listening to the radio. The man's young son decides that the two should be together, and with the classic romance movie An Affair to Remember as inspiration, tries to get them to meet on the top of the Empire State Building.
18. Beauty and the Beast (1991) is an animated film that includes a young girl who, in order to save the life of her father, decides to live in a castle forever with a “beast”. With only the beast and his enchanted furniture as company, the young girl helps to break the spell on the household by seeing the real man behind the beast and by falling in love with him in spite of his appearance.
19. Adam’s Rib (1949) starring Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn, is the story of a married couple who work on opposites of a lawsuit about a woman shooting her husband. The two lawyers' perfect marriage starts to have its own troubles because neither are willing to drop the case and they each willing to do whatever it takes to win for their clients. They begin to quarrel and even the smallest arguments turn into big fights between these two. Can their marriage survive this case?
20. Moonstruck (1987) starring Cher and Nicholas Cage, is a story about a woman who doesn't know how to choose between her fiancee or his brother. A few years after her husband dies, a book-keeper decides that she wants to be married again. She meets a nice dependable man and they are soon engaged, though she doesn't really love him. She thinks she can handle a loveless marriage,but after meeting her fiancee's younger, passionate brother, she is not sure if she can go through with it.
What other romantic comedy movies need to be on the most romantic comedies of all time list? List your favorite romantic comedies and tell us why you think they are good. We all have differences of opinions and there is no right or wrong when choosing a movie. The movies on this list were voted and chosen by viewers who love to watch romantic comedies because they get to laugh and see people fall in love at the same.
