TCM Romantic Getaway

Is On The LoveAir

Spend A Romantic Movie-Viewing Month With Turner Classic Movies. By Jeff Pfeiffer

Throughout February, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) celebrates cinematic romance with a number of fi lms spanning seven decades — from Charlie Chaplin and Virginia Cherrill in 1931’s City Lights to Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder and Michelle Pfeiffer in 1993’s The Age of Innocence.

TCM’s primary focus will be on Valentine’s Day weekend, when it will air over 48 hours’ worth of romantic movies beginning the evening of Feb. 12 and continuing through Feb. 14, as part of its TCM Romantic Weekend Getaway programming event. Additionally, each Thursday, the network will air a primetime lineup of themed romantic titles.

Here are just a few of the notable fi lms TCM is airing this month that you will fall in love with all over again — or for the fi rst time. Check your listings for more titles and airtimes.

Roman Holiday (1953) — Feb. 13

Audrey Hepburn won a Best Actress Oscar for her role as Ann, a beautiful princess on a European publicity tour, in this charming, Best Picture Oscarnominated 1953 romantic comedy from director William Wyler (an Oscar nominee). During a stop in Rome, Ann sneaks away from her embassy, determined to see the Eternal City on her own terms. A hard-bitten newspaperman (Gregory Peck), hiding the fact that he’s a reporter, spends the day with her in an effort to get a scoop, but fi nds himself falling for the young royal.

Pillow Talk (1959) — Feb. 13

Written on the Wind (1956) — Feb. 11

One of the lushly colorful 1950s melodramas for which director Douglas Sirk remains renowned, this fi lm stars Rock Hudson, Lauren Bacall, Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominee Robert Stack and Best Supporting Actress Oscar winner Dorothy Malone in a tale about self-destructive siblings (Stack and Malone) spoiled by their father’s oil wealth. Hudson plays a geologist for the oil company they run, who secretly loves the brother’s wife (Bacall), with deliciously soapy and oh-so-dramatic situations ensuing. The fi lm also received an Oscar nomination for its title theme song by Victor Young and Sammy Cahn. Doris Day, Rock Hudson and Tony Randall made the fi rst of their three timeless romantic comedy teamings in this classic that won an Oscar for its screenplay. It tells the story of Jan (Best Actress Oscar nominee Day), an uptight interior decorator who must share a party line with laidback playboy Brad (Hudson). But the real connection is made when the two meet and he begins wooing her with late-night calls — while pretending to be someone else.

Casablanca (1942) — Feb. 12

It’s still the same old story, but after nearly 80 years, this Best Picture Oscar-winning classic fi lled with drama, suspense and romance retains its position as one of the fi nest fi lms ever produced — not to mention retaining its ability to have you reaching for a hanky with its tale of love and sacrifi ce in the early days of World War II. The romantic triangle among passionately heroic Czech resistance leader Victor Laszlo (Paul Henreid), his beautiful wife Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) and her ex-lover, cynical American Rick Blaine (Best Actor Oscar nominee Humphrey Bogart), is as emotionally compelling as ever, thanks to electrifying performances from the leads (and from scene-stealing Best Supporting Actor nominee Claude Rains) and one memorable line after another courtesy of the fi lm’s Oscar-winning screenplay. Casablanca is one of those fi lms you’ll never get tired of playing again.

The Way We Were (1973) — Feb. 14 Best Actress Oscar nominee Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford make movie magic as star-crossed lovers Katie Morosky and Hubbell Gardiner. Theirs is a classic love story sparked by the attraction of opposites, played out against the backdrop of American life from World War II through McCarthyera paranoia in Hollywood. The fi lm’s title song won an Oscar and has become a tear-jerking classic standard in its own right thanks to Streisand’s emotional rendition here.

Lover Come Back

(1961) — Feb. 11 Doctor Zhivago (1965) — Feb. 13

This Best Picture Oscar-nominated David Lean epic is a tale of a Russia divided by war and hearts torn by love, with Omar Sharif in the title role and Julie Christie as his haunting, longtime love Lara. Both are caught up in the tidal wave of history between the years prior to World War I and the Russian Civil War of 1918-22. Maurice Jarre’s score earned one of the fi lm’s fi ve Academy Awards out of the 10 for which it was nominated. as his haunting, longtime love Lara. Both are caught up in the tidal wave of history between the years prior to World War I and the Russian Civil War of 1918-22. Maurice Jarre’s score earned one of the fi lm’s fi ve

This is one of three beloved romantic comedies Doris Day, Rock Hudson and Tony Randall teamed up for in the late 1950s and early ’60s. It’s an outrageously funny tale of mistaken identity that received an Oscar nomination for its screenplay. Day and Hudson play Carol and Jerry, rival advertising executives who dislike each other’s tactics.