Mondays in February / 19 Movies
Breaking up is hard to do – especially on the big screen with millions watching and choosing sides. Join us on TCM in February as we share movies filled with romance, heartbreak and sometimes sweet revenge, in our Spotlight “It’s Not You – It’s Me – Breakup Classics.”
Our breakup movies are divided into categories beginning with Pre-Code Heartbreakers such as The Divorcee (1930), with Norma Shearer in an Oscar-winning performance. She plays a woman who leaves her husband (Chester Morris) when she discovers he has been unfaithful. Just to even the score, she sleeps with his best friend (Robert Montgomery).
Also under this spicy heading are two more pre-Code gems: Goodbye Again (1933), starring Warren William as an author torn between an ex-girlfriend (Genevieve Tobin) and his secretary (Joan Blondell); and Forsaking All Others (1934), which focuses on a potent love triangle composed of Robert Montgomery, Joan Crawford and Clark Gable.
Falling into the category of Second Guessing are two romantic comedies starring Melvyn Douglas. In And So They Were Married (1936), he and Mary Astor play a pair whose upcoming wedding is sabotaged by their respective offspring. And, in That Uncertain Feeling (1941), Douglas and Merle Oberon play a married couple who divorce after she becomes infatuated with another man.
Another second guesser is Jennifer Jones in Indiscretion of an American Wife (1953). In this drama shot in Rome, she delivers a touching performance as a married woman who agonizes over whether to end her love affair with an Italian academic (Montgomery Clift).
Knowing Me, Knowing You is our grouping of movies in which mutual understanding becomes a touchstone of close relationships. David Lean’s Brief Encounter (1945), everybody’s favorite bittersweet and understated English romance, stars Trevor Howard and Celia Johnson as hesitant yet passionate lovers, each of whom is married to someone else.
Other conflicted but touching relationships are those between Omar Sharif and Julie Christie in Doctor Zhivago (1965); Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford in The Way We Were (1973); and Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep in Kramer vs. Kramer (1979).
Teenage Tearjerkers include A Summer Place (1959), with Sandra Dee and Troy Donahue as teen lovers whose romance is complicated by the fact that her mother (Dorothy McGuire) and his father (Richard Egan) also share a romantic relationship.
Sensitive direction by Elia Kazan helps Splendor in the Grass (1961) transcend the “teen” genre in its story of a sensitive high schooler (Natalie Wood) whose attraction to a sexy fellow student (Warren Beatty) leads to an emotional breakdown.
Among the movies’ classic Slow Burns is the smoldering romance rekindled by Humphrey Bogart’s Rick and Ingrid Bergman’s Ilsa, former lovers who meet again amid the wartime intrigue of Casablanca (1942).
Our slow-burning love stories include a couple of international gems. Ingmar Bergman’s dramatic Scenes from a Marriage (1973), distilled from a Swedish TV series, stars Erland Josephson and Liv Ullman as a couple who see their union disintegrate over a 10-year period.
The French comedy-drama Love on the Run (1979) is the final film in a series of five from writer-director François Truffaut about the character Antoine Doinel and his romantic misadventures. In this one, Antoine (Jean-Pierre Léaud) – now in his 30s and in the midst of a divorce – rediscovers his first love Colette (Marie-France Pisier).
Divorce Remorse is the driving emotion behind a collection of marital comedies. The screwball classic The Awful Truth (1937) has Cary Grant and Irene Dunne as a couple who are getting a divorce but find they are still in love.
Marriage on the Rocks (1965) has Deborah Kerr divorcing Frank Sinatra and making a big mistake – marrying Dean Martin! In Divorce American Style (1967), the conflicted couples are portrayed by Dick Van Dyke and Debbie Reynolds as well as Jason Robards and Jean Simmons. Blume in Love (1973) finds George Segal regretting his divorce from Susan Anspach, with Kris Kristofferson standing by.
