The top five kisses in cinema history, as chosen by TOM OGG. Disagree? Tell us your own favourites in the comments section on Facebook.
Gone with the Wind (1939)
IT’S well over an hour into Victor Fleming’s record-breaking epic before Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) and Scarlett O’Hara (Vivien Leigh) finally lock lips. “I don’t think I will kiss you, although you need kissing, badly,” Rhett tells Scarlett, before kissing her anyway, the big passive-aggressive tease.
Famously, Leigh didn’t enjoy the kiss half as much as her character, complaining about the chain-smoking Gable’s false teeth and monumentally bad breath.
Yes, when it came to mouth hygiene, frankly, he didn’t give a damn.
To Have and Have Not (1944)
THE off-screen romance between Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall during the filming of Howard Hawks’ wartime classic resulted in some of the most electrifying chemistry ever caught on camera (even if Bogie was old enough to be the 19-year-old Bacall’s father).
And the pair’s spark was never brighter than when – after much double entendre-filled banter (“You know how to whistle, don’t you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow”) – Steve (Bogart) finally plants one on Slim (Bacall).
The fact that Slim immediately follows the kiss by giving Steve a slap across the chops arguably adds to the raunchiness of the preceding smooch.
For Here to Eternity (1953)
ARGUABLY the most famous snog in cinema, Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr’s passionate embrace amid the waves of Halona Cove has been endlessly pinched and parodied, from Grease (1978) to Airplane! (1980). Nothing can lessen the impact of the heart-stirring original, however, and the scene remains a highlight of Fred Zinnemann’s endearing romantic drama.
Of course, if you tried to replicate the scene in real life you’d both end up with seawater up your nostrils and a load of sand in your trunks, but never mind…
The Blues Brothers (1980)
TO John Landis’ one-of-a-kind musical comedy and a scene featuring the late, great Carrie Fisher.
When Jake and Elwood Blues (John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd) run into Jake’s gun-toting former fiancée (Fisher) in a service tunnel, it seems the bespectacled twosome have finally met their match. But then Jake removes his iconic black shades (for the first and only time in the film) and flashes his brown eyes at his angry ex, and the former couple are soon engaged in a passionate kiss – until Jake drops her in the mud and the brothers make their escape.
The scene is certainly far preferable to Fisher’s other famous on-screen kiss in Star Wars (1977) in which she snogs her own brother. Gross!
Society (1988)
“THE rich have always fed off the poor” – the tagline to Brian Yuzna’s bonkers social satire proves all too prescient in the film’s final half-hour.
As wealthy party guests engage in a spot of “shunting” (don’t ask), the film’s hero, Bill Whitney (Baywatch star Billy Warlock), fights for his life against rich kid Ferguson (Ben Meyerson). It seems Bill is done for when Ferguson plants a sloppy farewell kiss on his lips – but then Bill pulls the pliable Ferguson inside-out through his own bottom, which rather puts an end to the dispute.
Not for nothing is the film’s special effects guru called “Screaming Mad George”.
