Romantic Comedies
Arguably one of the most popular sub-genres of comedy movies is romantic comedies. Each of these genres, both romance and comedy, are very popular on their own, but when combined, it creates a uniquely satisfying blend. In some sense, you could say that it’s the best of both worlds. These flicks are not as stereotypical as they might seem, as they include everything from silly humor to intellectual wit, and from fairy-tale love at first sight, to stories of lovers who can’t make it work. There is truly something to appeal to everyone in this sub-genre.
In an effort to create a great assortment of films, which reflects this broad nature of this sub-genre, we have created a large list of twenty-six different and unique pictures. After the list was created, we realized that there was at least one film from every decade between the 1930s up until 2010. So if you are curious to see how this sub-genre has evolved over time, and in which ways it may have stayed the same, you could watch these in order.
The earliest movie on our list is the classic Charlie Chaplin flick “City Lights” which premiered in 1931. Chaplin’s character “the Tramp” is featured as a hero on AFI’s list of “100 Years…100 Heroes & Villains”. On the other hand, the most recent picture on the list is the animated feature from Disney, “Tangled” which is a re-imagining of the popular fairy-tale “Rapunzel”. This flick has a great love story, lots of humor, plus several enjoyable musical numbers.
In that same vein, we have included two musicals, the first being “Singin’ in the Rain” and the second “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”. Some of the flicks on our list feature teenagers as the protagonists, such as “Sixteen Candles” and “10 Things I Hate About You”, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be enjoyed by adults as well. If you are in the mood for some foreign films, we have not forgotten those. Two of the foreign pictures in our assortment happen to be from Italy and both are period pieces. The first is “Il Postino” and the other is “Life is Beautiful”. The third foreign flick is a contemporary picture from France entitled “Amélie”.
Romantic Comedies List
For organizational purposes, the films on the list are arranged by their year of release, with the oldest ones at the top, and the most recent flicks at the bottom. That way in case you are looking for a specific time period, decade or year, it should be easier to find it. And to keep this list from getting too long we were not able to include all of our favorites, but we hope that you are able to find something below which seems interesting to you.
City Lights
Year Released: 1931
Starring: Charlie Chaplin, Florence Lee and Virginia Cherrill
It Happened One Night
Year Released: 1934
Starring: Claudette Colbert, Clark Gable and Walter Connolly
My Man Godfrey
Year Released: 1936
Starring: Carole Lombard, William Powell and Alice Brady
The Philadelphia Story
Year Released: 1940
Starring: Katharine Hepburn, Cary Grant and James Stewart
The Shop Around the Corner
Year Released: 1940
Starring: James Stewart, Margaret Sullavan and Frank Morgan
Singin’ in the Rain
Year Released: 1952
Starring: Debbie Reynolds, Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor
The Quiet Man
Year Released: 1952
Starring: Maureen O’Hara, John Wayne and Barry Fitzgerald
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
Year Released: 1954
Starring: Howard Keel, Jane Powell and Jeff Richards
The Apartment
Year Released: 1960
Starring: Shirley MacLaine, Jack Lemmon, Fred MacMurray
Annie Hall
Year Released: 1977
Starring: Diane Keaton, Tony Roberts and Woody Allen
Tootsie
Year Released: 1982
Starring: Jessica Lange, Dustin Hoffman and Teri Garr
Sixteen Candles
Year Released: 1984
Starring: Anthony Michael Hall, Molly Ringwald and Justin Henry
Say Anything…
Year Released: 1989
Starring: John Cusack, John Mahoney and Ione Skye
Forrest Gump
Year Released: 1994
Starring: Tom Hanks, Gary Sinise and Robin Wright
Groundhog Day
Year Released: 1993
Starring: Andie MacDowell, Bill Murray and Chris Elliott
Il Postino
Year Released: 1995
Starring: Philippe Noiret, Massimo Troisi and Maria Grazia Cucinotta
As Good as It Gets
Year Released: 1997
Starring: Helen Hunt, Jack Nicholson and Greg Kinnear
Life is Beautiful (La Vita è Bella)
Year Released: 1997
Starring: Roberto Benigni, Giorgio Cantarini and Nicoletta Braschi
There’s Something About Mary
Year Released: 1998
Starring: Cameron Diaz, Ben Stiller and Matt Dillon
Shakespeare in Love
Year Released: 1999
Starring: Joseph Fiennes, Gwyneth Paltrow and Geoffrey Rush
10 Things I Hate About You
Year Released: 1999
Starring: Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger and Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Amélie (Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amélie Poulain)
Year Released: 2001
Starring: Audrey Tautou, Jamel Debbouze and Mathieu Kassovitz
Bridget Jones’ Diary
Year Released: 2001
Starring: Renée Zellweger, Hugh Grant and Colin Firth
Love Actually
Year Released: 2003
Starring: Liam Neeson, Colin Firth and Keira Knightley
The Proposal
Year Released: 2009
Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Sandra Bullock and Mary Steenburgen
This is just one of the many comedic love stories that were released, to learn about some more, view our article dedicated to romantic comedies 2009.
Tangled
Year Released: 2010
Starring: Zachary Levi, Mandy Moore and Donna Murphy
For some more funny and passionate films from this year, head over to our romantic comedies 2010 page.
Thanks for perusing our page on the top romantic comedies of all time. Want to see some more funny and romantic flicks, then view our lists of romantic comedies by year, like romantic comedies 2008 or the most recent one romantic comedies 2011.