Directed by Preston Sturges • 1941 • United States
Starring Barbara Stanwyck, Henry Fonda, Charles Coburn

Barbara Stanwyck sizzles, Henry Fonda bumbles, and Preston Sturges runs riot in one of the all-time great screwballs, a pitch-perfect blend of comic zing and swoonworthy romance. Aboard a cr...

Directed by Frank Borzage • 1936 • United States
Starring Marlene Dietrich, Gary Cooper, John Halliday

The smoldering romanticism of director Frank Borzage and the elegant wit of producer Ernst Lubitsch merge beautifully in this glittering comedy about a crime spree that leads to love. In the mo...

Directed by Rouben Mamoulian • 1932 • United States
Starring Maurice Chevalier, Jeanette MacDonald, Charles Ruggles

A case of mistaken identity gives a romantic Parisian tailor (Maurice Chevalier) the opportunity to woo the princess of his dreams (Jeanette MacDonald) in this exquisite musical, r...

Directed by Ernst Lubitsch • 1930 • United States
Starring Jack Buchanan, Jeanette MacDonald, Claude Allister

Jeanette MacDonald's independent-minded countess leaves her foppish prince fiancé at the altar, and whisks herself away to the Riviera. There, she strikes the fancy of the sly Count Rudo...

Directed by Frank Tuttle • 1932 • United States
Starring Lili Damita, Charles Ruggles, Roland Young

Cary Grant makes an immediate impression with his film debut in this delightfully naughty romantic romp. He is the javelin thrower whose unexpected early return from the Olympics sets off a string...

Directed by Marion Gering • 1934 • United States
Starring Sylvia Sidney, Cary Grant, Edward Arnold

Scripted in part by Preston Sturges, this charming romantic farce features a rare and winning comic performance from Sylvia Sidney as the princess of the fictional European kingdom of Taronia, who ...

Directed by William K. Howard • 1936 • United States
Starring Carole Lombard, Fred MacMurray, Douglass Dumbrille

All aboard for mystery and mayhem in this stylishly entertaining cruise-ship comedy. Screwball virtuoso Carole Lombard does her best Garbo send-up playing an alluring Swedish beauty t...

Directed by Mitchell Leisen • 1939 • United States
Starring Claudette Colbert, Don Ameche, John Barrymore

Arriving at Paris’s Gare de l’Est train station with only her gold lamé gown on her back, penniless American ex-showgirl Eve Peabody (Claudette Colbert) must use her wiles in order to work h...

Directed by René Clair • 1941 • United States
Starring Marlene Dietrich, Bruce Cabot, Roland Young

French director René Clair brings a touch of continental élan to this saucy, Production Code–defying romantic comedy, the first of four films he made in Hollywood, with Marlene Dietrich at her coqu...

Directed by Billy Wilder • 1942 • United States
Starring Ginger Rogers, Ray Milland, Rita Johnson

The great Billy Wilder made the leap from hitmaking Hollywood screenwriter to acclaimed writer-director with this fizzy, innuendo-laden (“Why don’t you get out of that wet coat and into a dry martin...

Directed by Mitchell Leisen • 1944 • United States
Starring Joan Fontaine, Basil Rathbone, Arturo de Córdova

“Rebecca” author Daphne du Maurier’s swashbuckling novel gets a deluxe film adaptation, complete with lavish seventeenth-century period detail, gorgeous Technicolor cinematography, and a ...