Romantic Comedy Teams

Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn

Pairing a male and female movie star in multiple romantic comedies has often been milked for box office success and many classic films. Finding that rare on screen chemistry that takes the charm of two stars and creates one is rarer than one may think. Hollywood has so enjoyed finding two actors that work well together in a romantic/ comedy that they often got them back together to make multiple films, and audiences have enjoyed the comfort of their familiarity.

The very first romantic comedy team up is that of silent film stars Fatty Arbuckle and Mabel Normand. They appeared in nearly 50 silent shorts together. All of them within a few years. Such movies as Fatty’s Wine Party (1914) and Mabel and Fatty’s Married Life (1915) display their slapstick repertoire. Why this was the one and only team up from the silent era worth noting is that Normand was a star on her own. Often Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin acted opposite the same leading lady in their comedies, but those actresses were only noted for those films. Normand was a star in her own right. Like the male comediennes of her time she wrote and directed some of her films.

By the 1930's, many romantic comedy teams were on the screen. This was mostly due to the fact that actors made many more films in those days than they do today. Clark Gable and Cary Grant were two of the biggest male leads of the time and each averaged about four films a year. Grant starred with Mae West in two of her most memorable comedies in 1933, She Done Him Wrong and I’m No Angel. Cary Grant made four romantic comedies with Katharine Hepburn in the 1930's, including such classics as Bringing up Baby(1938) and The Philadelphia Story(1940). Clark Gable paired up with Jean Harlow in several memorable films such as Red Dust (1933) and China Seas (1935).

William Powell and Carol Lombard made two romantic dramas together in 1931, the same year they were married. But it was not until after they divorced in 1933 that they co-starred in the classic screwball comedy My Man Godfrey (1936). William Powell found his greatest on screen match up with Myrna Loy. They became one of the most popular romantic comedy teams of their time. From 1934 to 1945 Myrna Loy and William Powell starred in 6 Thin Man movies, playing married detectives. Loy and Powell starred in 14 films all together. In 1947 and 1948 Loy teamed up with the most durable romantic comedy lead in Hollywood history, Cary Grant, in The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer and Mr Blandings Builds His Dream House.

The most celebrated pairing of two movie stars is that of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Although they were carrying on a dysfunctional love affair in real life, he was a married drunk, on screen they were the intellectual, politically minded team in such films as Woman of the Year (1942), Adam’s Rib(1949), Pat and Mike (1952) and Desk Set (1957). Tracy and Hepburn were best when at each others throats trying to best each other.

Doris Day and Rock Hudson created a whole new on screen couple by including sex in the scenario. The films of Loy/Powell and Tracy/Hepburn merely hinted at carnal knowledge, in Pillow Talk (1959) Hudson’s entire motive for getting with Day is for sex. They would make two other films together, Lover Come Back (1961) and Send Me No Flowers (1964). Even swim wear clad Annette Funicello and Frankie Avalon playing around on the beach in such provocatively titled films as Beach Party(1963), Beach Blanket Bingo(1965) and How to Stuff a Wild Bikini(1965), had less sex.

By the 1970's, movie stars were making less movies but more money. Teaming two movie stars up in more than one film became rare. But like all good genres, the romantic comedy team stayed alive. Barbra Streisand and Ryan O’Neal starred in What’s Up, Doc?. Made in 1972, it is a veritable remake of Bringing Up Baby. They would close out the decade with The Main Event (1979). In both films the leads spend great amounts of time fighting each other all the while falling in love.

With the success of films like Raiders of the Lost Ark, a romantic/comedy/adventure was almost a guarantee. Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner struck movie gold with Romancing the Stone(1984) and it’s sequel, The Jewel of the Nile(1985). In both films the couple have exciting adventures as they fall in love. Their best film together though is the dark comedy, War of the Roses (1989), in which they fall out of love.

Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan

The 1990's saw Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan make a valiant effort to be a romantic comedy duo. Their three films together, Joe Versus the Volcano (1990), Sleepless in Seattle (1993) and You’ve Got Mail (1998) never quite connected with audiences as well as their films with other co-stars. The couple of the decade was Julia Roberts and Richard Gere. With Pretty Woman (1990) and Runaway Bride (1999) they found movie magic.

With How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003) and Fool’s Gold (2008), Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson carry on the proud movie tradition of the pairing of movie stars that connect well in romantic comedies and have made more than one movie together. Like all of the romantic comedy teams that came before them, Hudson and McConaughey have that rare screen charm that allows the audience to root for them even when they are acting irresponsible, stupid and petty.

Almost all of these movie follow formulaic plots. Boy meets girl. Boy and girl have sparks. Boy and girl fight. Boy and girl make up. Perhaps it is that we see our own relationships in these couples or maybe it is the simple hope that we can end all of our romantic battles as easily as these characters do. Either way, these romantic/comedy teams have provided generations of couples with relatable, recognizable actors and characters.