Recently I rewatched a couple of beloved older movies through the lens of being a relatively new, but avid, romance reader, and something hit me: I think I loved romance, or at least romantic themes, long before I realized it. This post is about a few of those early romantic impressions.
To dilute the relentless self absorption of this exercise, I’d love to know if I’m alone in this, or if you think you, too, may have been drawn to romantic story elements in film and TV even before picking up an actual romance novel.
1. The Terminator (1984)
I recently rewatched this movie, which as you likely know, is about a woman who is hunted by a cyborg sent back from a postapolcalyptic future in which machines have taken over the planet. The Terminator, played to perfection in this first installment by the present governor of California, wants to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) before she has a chance to give birth to John Connor, who will grow up to lead the anti-machine insurgency in the future. The adult John has sent back a fellow resistance fighter, Kyle Reese, to protect his mother.
As a teenager, I loved Sarah Connor in this film (as opposed to the caricature they made of her in Terminator 2). You may recall that it was Sarah, not Reese, who killed the terminator. She was a heroine I could believe in, an ordinary person who grew to meet seemingly insurmountable challenges. I also loved the time travel conundrum presented here — Sarah becomes pregnant with John after sex with Reese. So which came first? Did John know he was sending back his own father?
Viewing it again last week, I realized that there are very strong romantic themes in this violent movie, albeit in an inverted sense. For example, there are a lot of standard romance settings: a bar scene, a car scene, and there’s a long quiet interlude in a hotel room in which Sarah and Kyle bond, very like today’s rom suspense novels, and eventually make love. For my money, Kyle’s line, “I came across time for you Sarah,” is one of the most surprising, yet believable, romantic lines in a sci fi movie.
2. Gigi (1958)
When I first saw this movie, I was a first year college student. I had a habit of avoiding life by going into the library, signing up for a movie booth, putting on headphones and disappearing for a couple of hours. Surprisingly, given my loathing for My Fair Lady, I loved Gigi, especially for the music (“I Remember it Well”, or “I’m Glad I’m Not Young Anymore”, for example) and the visual experience (click here to see what I mean). The costumes and the interiors have to be seen to be believed. It’s set in the turn of the century Paris, but I would hardly say they go for accuracy, which would be very insulting to French people, but rather a stunningly transportive visual experience. I also loved the adult, forthright, fun approach to sexuality.
Re-viewing it recently, I was shocked to discover that this is essentially a historical romance novel on film (actually, it was a novella prior to its staging and filming). Gigi is a beautiful young woman being groomed to be a courtesan by her grandmother and aunt. Meanwhile, Gaston, a wealthy young sugar baron’s son, is the toast of Paris, with a different party and mistress every night. He is dear friends with Gigi and her family. Gaston is the classic depressed aimless rake. He eventually decides to make Gigi his courtesan, and at first she won’t have it. Finally she realizes, “I would rather be miserable with you than miserable without you.” They do get their (rather abrupt) HEA when Gaston realizes she must become his wife.
3. Foul Play (1978)
This was a (comedic) romantic suspense novel on film if there ever was one. Chevy Chase, as a bumbling cop, and Goldie Hawn, as a shy librarian, fall in love while he tries to protect her from the baddies. It’s often remembered for Dudley Moore’s hysterical scene as a would be gigolo, but what I recall is how handsome young Chevy was and what a fantastic kissing scene (if you follow the link, the kiss is around minute 5) he shares with Goldie. In fact, and this is likely TMI, which is why I am putting this one in the middle (so those of you who skim won’t see it), but it was the first time I remember being completely turned on, by anything, ever.
Yes, you read it right. I owe to Chevy Chase my sexual awakening. It explains a lot, actually.
4. The Manions of America (TV series, 1981)
This was the miniseries that introduced Pierce Brosnan to the United States. It’s kind of amusing that the hero went on to play James Bond and the heroine (Kate Mulgrew) went on to captain the Starship Voyager. In Manions, they played they two headstrong characters who fell in love against the odds. This is another romance novel on film. You have Rory, the Irish 19th century proud yet ambitious peasant, and Rachel, the haughty but vulnerable English miss, the forbidden attraction, and the famine that drives him to America, where he becomes rich and powerful. I fell hook, line, and sinker for both of them. And when, after three miscarriages, Rachel’s doctor tells her no more babies, Rory has to stay away from her, and eventually becomes tempted by a younger gal. Determined to keep her man, Rachel confronts him and they have angry sex. He tries to resist, but … it’s Kate Mulgrew. Resistance is futile. It ends badly, sorry to say. Scene here.
I haven’t re-viewed this one because I am sure I would find the accents atrocious, the history ridiculous, and the acting poor. But boy, did it make an impression. If anyone has seen it recently, I would love to know what you think!
5. The Bionic Woman (1976-78)
God, did I love Jaime Sommers. I wanted to be Jaime Sommers. Athletic, gorgeous yet down to earth, strong and kind, and, unlike most women, who were getting sixty cents for every dollar men made, worth seven million dollars (this is controversial. Some say she was made with spare parts and was thus cheaper). We first met Jamie when the six million dollar stud, Steve Austin, traveled back to his hometown and wooed the young tennis ace. They eventually got engaged and made the unfortunate choice to go skydiving. Jamie crashes, with disastrous results. Steve convinces Oscar Goldman to rebuild her, and she gets the bionic arm, legs and ear. I recall so clearly Jamie pushing back those blond locks behind her ear to hear baddies from miles away. Jaime’s body rejects the bionic implants and she eventually dies — in Steve’s arms!! — but her character was so popular she got resurrected for her spinoff.
I responded to Jaime as a 7-9 year old looking for role models, but I am not surprised how clearly I can recall her relationship with Steve: it was a big part of the draw for me. (In the interest of full disclosure, I will admit the Fembots storyline also made a lasting impression. Fembots were evil powerful androids who were difficult to tell apart from humans. I am convinced I ended up writing a dissertation on trust 20 years later as a result of the terror and awe inspired in me by the Fembots).
This was a fun trip, for me anyway, down memory lane. Where would yours take you?
I had a middle-school crush on Chevy Chase, too! How strange is that? “Modern Problems” was the film that did it for me. Why on earth I was allowed to go see it, I can’t imagine.
As an adult, I took up romances late. I’m 40 and it’s been just in the last 18 months or so that I’ve picked up the genre. Looking back, though, the seeds were sewn in my tween and teen years.
The year that Diana Spencer married I missed almost six weeks of school – it was a lonely time. My grandmother, approving of and wanting to encourage my nascent Anglophilia as I recovered from my health issues, sent me a box of Victoria Holt novels. Although I would probably not pick one up now, I cannot imagine that there would have been anything better for me to read in that time and in that place. I loved them, every one.
In my teens I discovered Judith Krantz. Although not strictly romance, her books do cover some overlapping ground. I think one of the reasons that I find contemporaries difficult is that, for some themes, Mrs. Krantz just is hard to beat.
In my 20s and 30s I read mostly non-fiction of the how-humans-are-doomed or balance-sheets-are-fun variety. Now feeling like I’ve got nothing to prove to anyone and those who don’t like my choices can suck it, I’ve embraced romance wholeheartedly. No other genre I’ve ever read has prompted me to look up and learn history, vocabulary words, NASCAR stuff, tourist Greek, mythology, decorative arts, recipes and so on. One book, which shall remain nameless for now, has inspired the business plan on which I am feverishly working. In retrospect, it’s clear that each stage of my reading life has led me quite definitely to where I find myself now.
I didn’t have much of a journey, really. The first time I read about a condom in a book, I was ten and had no clue what it was. It was in a YA romantic suspense. I read all sorts of books between over the next eight years, but the ones I gravitated to, the ones I read most frequently, all included romance, even if they weren’t entirely about the pursuit thereof. I was obsessed with manga for about three years, and my favourites were either focused on romance or featured it. See a pattern here? So when I started reading romance novels… well, it just clicked. At first I was a bit ashamed of myself – after all, in the past, I’d been one of those people, the ones who assume all romance novels are boddice rippers and ridicule those who read them. I’m not proud of that, but I can’t change the past. Anyway, when I realized that the books I was reading technically fell into the hated romance genre, I was loathe to admit it. But I finally realized that hey, I love these books, and they’re damn good. As Marsha said, I’ve got nothing to prove to anyone and those who don’t like my choices can suck it.
It all began when I was six years old and saw a pig and a frog in love. Long live Missy Piggy and Kermit the Frog, the best romantic couple ever!!
I’m 52 and I remember loving romance from the time I was 13 or 14, reading Emilie Loring, Victoria Holt, Mary Stewart, to name a few. And the summer I discovered Helen MacInnes (and her wonderful strong heroines) the rest of the world was absorbed by Watergate. Over the decades I’ve gone back and forth from romance to other genres and back again.
But what I especially wanted to mention is the movie Gigi. I’ve seen this movie at least half a dozen times. Earlier this summer I watched it again for the 1st time in some 8 or 9 years and it was the also the 1st time since I had become an avid reader of historical romance. I have to say I now have a whole new appreciation for this movie. I felt as if I understood it so much better than I had before. I’m curious to know if others react this way as well.
I came to Georgette Heyer as a young teen, loved Stewart, MacInnes … all of the ones Phyl mentioned
… how did I find Romance with a capital “R”? I don’t know — I can’t remember. I do know that I had this snobbish attitude of oh, Nora Roberts, how good could she be if she’s so popular. Well, stupid me: as my kids would say, she’s the schizzle!
Own Foul Play, Love Foul Play, entire family can recite Foul Play and now I even live in NorCal! Not bad for a Toronto girl. Adored the Manions but I’m afraid to re-watch it because, whoa, it really doesn’t end well. But COULD he have been more gorgeous? Where’s the way-back machine so he can play Roarke?
Terminator is one of my favorite movies. It’s totally a romance! I love that quote. Strong, vulnerable hero + strong, vulnerable heroine = win, win, win.
I haven’t seen any of the other movies, but Chevy Chase is hot!!! I feel like a perv for saying that. He’s just so funny. Bumbling, like you said. I find that very endearing. I can just see him falling all over the place on Saturday Night Live.
I was surprised to see Gigi on your list. I see it as a cynical take on love, sex, society, and marriage, not a romantic story. Though I read the story when I was quite young and saw the film much later as an adult, so it’s possible that my interpretation was fixed too young.
I have always considered Terminator a romance myself
so happy to know I’m not the only one.
My introduction to romance was via my mother’s telling of Henri de Lagardère ou Le bossu, by Paul Feval. I was four or five when she started telling us the novel–from memory–as she drove us across Mexico City to and from school.
The dashing swordsman, the beautiful heiress, the evil Prince, the secrets, the fights, the escapades. :sigh:
A few years later I watched Captain Blood and The Adventures of Robin Hood (both with Erroll Flynn and Olivia de Haviland) and that, as they say, was that.
Oh, I’ve been a romance fan for as long as I can remember. It all started when my grandma and I would watch All My Children–this was before I started kindergarten. And I’ve always read for the romantic storyline first, even before I started reading romance novels.
I love Gigi! That’s my favorite musical. I like to sing along with Gaston when he sings, “Oh, Gigi! When you were standing at the brink, was I out yonder Gigi blinking at a star? Oh Gigi! Was I standing up too close or back too farrrr?”
I was a romance reader for ever – my first romance was the picture book ‘Susie Saucer and Ronnie Rocket’, and I read every fairy tale I could. I’m bad – ridiculously bad – at languages, but was reconciled to French for a year by a throwaway sentence in the text book which revealed Jacques liked Brigitte. I was hoping for developments…
The only one of those movies I’ve seen is the Bionic Woman, and I don’t think the romance was a huge part of the attraction. (Truthfully, the only episode I can remember is one where they’ve a bionic dog, and the dog is trapped in the forest fire, and I thought it was The Cleverest Writing Ever! because the dog had caused the fire in the first place.) Those 70s series did make me read the Russian propoganda-ish newspaper which was, for whatever reason, always in the library at school, because I thought that any nation so regularly shown as villains must have some redeeming qualities.
Press Gang – TV series for children here: that was romance. Linda was a take-no-prisoners editor of a school newspaper, and she and Spike had one of those will-they-won’t-they relationships. It was great.
Marsha wrote:
Marsha, you are my twin. A shared crush on Chevy Chase, and we both turned 40 this year! I love this bit in your comment, and I totally agree with you.
Niveau wrote:
This is very much how it felt to me. and “suck it” is so useful a phrase isn’t it?
katiebabs wrote:
I love you, I really do.
Phyl wrote:
I could not agree with you more. In fact, it was Gigi that really prompted this post. I watched it recently and thought, “Oh my God. This IS a historical romance novel. Gaston is the rake, Gigi the ingenue, I know these characters, these conflicts, this setting, this plot! I never would have identified it in college.
Janet W wrote:
Gosh, I thought no one would have seen Foul Play. And, like Gigi, I now see this through the lens of a romance reader, as a (comedic) romantic suspense (why don’t we have more stories like this in romance? Or do we?).
Oh, and I want to log my jealousy of your past and present home towns. They’re the schizzle.
jillsorenson wrote:
No, no, you are in good company here. It’s safe to admit your love of the chin dimpled comedian.
RfP wrote:
First, where the hell have you been? I was going to send out a search party. Or have you been avoiding us?
Second, yes, the cynicism is there in the movie, which is one of the things I love about it — Gigi’s family believes that women do better as courtesans than as wives. But love does triumph in a very straightforward way in the end. I haven’t read the novella. I wonder if that means the film got the Hollywood treatment?
azteclady wrote:
This gave me goosebumps. Thank you so much for sharing!
I will never have a memory like that. My mother gave me Our Bodies Ourselves, Germaine Greer, Betty Friedan and Shulamith Firestone.
heidenkind wrote:
I never watched soaps, never got into romantic films as a girl or young woman (rom coms are still a hard sell for me). I was very drawn to sci fi, fantasy, horror. The first movie I saw, after Star Wars (7 times), was Beyond and Back, a pseudo documentary about the near death experiences. I was 7.
My favorite films in high school were Terminator, Mad Max. Reanimator. That’s why I find it interesting to look back and see that I really did respond to romantic themes in some of the most unlikely places.
Marianne McA wrote:
I’m sure my keyboard needed my coffee more than I did. thanks!
I have always adored romance, although I only recently found myself able to read actual romance novels. I had to get used to the writing conventions and all the sex first.
“Foul Play” made a big impression on me at a young(ish) age as well, because it was the first time I ever saw (to remember) two people on screen who had sex and then *still liked each other* the next day. Most of what I was seeing then was scenes about how “this was all a mistake and we will never talk about it again,” in futile efforts to keep unfulfilled sexual tension going between two characters rather than establish a real relationship.
I’ll join the Gigi fans here. A charming romance, and pretty costumes too!
A much worse movie that affected me in a similar way was Let’s Make Love with Yves Montand and Marilyn Monroe — I can remember the frisson of pleasure I experienced as I watched Yves & Marilyn work through the silly plot devices keeping them apart.
But the ultimate for me is Love in the Afternoon, with Gary Cooper and Audrey Hepburn. I love Sabrina (Audrey Hepburn & Humphrey Bogart) a lot, but Love in the Afternoon has that extra fillip of real despair at the end. I do love me some emotional porn!
More recently, I tend to flummox people when I say that my two favorite movies are Pretty Woman and The Killing Fields. They’re both about the transformative power of love. What everyone focused on when Pretty Woman was first released was the sexism implied in the combination of Pygmalion plus “prostitute with a golden heart” device, but they didn’t talk about the changes that Edward (Richard Gere’s character) undergoes by the end of the movie, which is more than Henry Higgins ever had to do. I saw Pretty Woman so many times I knew where all the continuity errors were!
And an honorable mention for My Man Godfrey (Depression-era romance with Carole Lombard and William Powell). Not the most convincing romance in the world (Carole’s ditzy blonde is just a bit tiresome when all’s said and done) but William Powell’s Godfrey is a man of integrity well-deserving of his HEA.
Gigi of course along with many other musicals: The Sound of Music, Guys and Dolls, et cetera.
The Empire Strikes Back has a strong romantic content in it along with some classic lines: “I love you.” “I know.”
Loads of oldies are romances like Philadelphia Story, The Lady Eve, even Casablanca although its end is about sacrificing true love for duty (*sigh*).
TV shows like Remington Steele and Moonlighting were all about the will they/won’t they romantic tension.
I guess as long as it isn’t strictly labeled a romance, the general public doesn’t lump it into the much-feared genre.
You made me think, it has only been in the last 10 years that I have gotten into romance novels, most of my fav films are action and kids movies, and the TV shows I watched were the Goodies, Muppets, Buffy and Angel and I remember wanting to erase most of the romance from the last two shows.
BUT I guess my love of the romance novel could realistically be attributed to my Nan, who not quite knowing what to do with her madcap granddaughter used to make me sit down with her and watch old movies, The Philadelphia Story, Bringing up Baby and various musicals..
Actually, James Cameron himself says “Terminator” is actually a romance movie. He says he just fooled people by putting it in an action story, but he intended it to be a romance.
It’s one of my all-time favorites.
Your post comes down firmly in favour of ‘nature’ over ‘nurture’ then *g*
As I’ve blogged about before, my mum was a big romance fan when I was a child – she even stored some of her categories in my wardrobe as she was out of room; I don’t think occurred to her that a 10 year old might read them! I’ve always wondered if I was ‘imprinted’ with a romance interest at that point in time or if it was always in me.
Of course, I could have just inherited the romance gene from mum.
Another vote for the movie musicals. I don’t buy the insta-love of Romeo and Juliet, but in West Side Story, when Tony starts belting out “Maria,” he’s got me all the way.
Even before that, though, I’d have to point a finger at some of my childhood reading. Maud Hart Lovelace’s Betsy-Tacy books in particular. A proud, upright boy who goes head to head with you in the annual Essay Contest is still my pattern of an ideal romantic hero.
To be honest, I don’t quite remember the moment I realised I may be destined to be a romance reader.
My mum was never a M&B reader, but her favourite novels tend to have a romantic element. M.M. Kaye’s Death in series, Josephine Tey’s Brat Farrar, Georgette Heyer’s Cousin Kate, and although I detest those, Bronte’s Jane Eyre and Daphne Du Maurier’s French Creek. (She wasn’t into Jane Austen (too whimsical) at all.) She introduced me to all those when I was young.
FIlms – as a mite, I wasn’t keen on popular adult (as opposite to teen) romantic films, like Brief Encounter, Casablanca and so on. I was very into films that has a “hidden” romantic element.
Such as The Terminator, Sinbad and the Eye of Tiger, The Warriors, Ice Cold in Alex, The Time Machine, Escape From New York, Giant (I felt Elizabeth Taylor should have been with James Dean, not Rock Hudson), Convoy, and Two-Lane Blacktop.
And I still think Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid is a romantic film, not between the Sundance Kid and Etta, but between him and Butch. The ending says it all! They jumped off TOGETHER! I was convinced when they took the leap, they held hands. It was years before I had a proper look at it on VHS and saw they didn’t.
I do remember the moment of seeing my first “bodice-ripper’-type film clearly, though: A Duel in the Sun.
@Pamelia
When he responded with that, I wanted to smack the smirk off his mug.
I’ve been hither and yon, but mainly yon, and thus off the internut. I did get a chance to read Tumperkin’s rather terrifying book club selection; my cortex is still aquiver.
Jessica wrote:
I’ll have to re-read to see how much of this was in the text and how much was my being a youthful sourpuss. Even with the sunny ending, I recall reading it as a deeply cynical story in which love didn’t conquer all but, by suckering Gaston most inconveniently, allowed the courtesans to conquer all. I didn’t read that table-turning as changing the core values of the society as it was initially presented. In my reading the crux was money throughout, and it was Gigi’s family–or the courtesans’ viewpoint–that won the day; Gigi herself never gained any particular agency. (Of course, she was incredibly young, and not only in years.) Must re-read.
Ahhhh, Foul Play was my first “romance” as well. Thanks for bringing that smile to my face.
Ha, I stumbled on here while going through the BBAW shortlists, and your Chevy Chase insights just made me laugh out loud at work. I have never read a romance novel and am not planning on doing so anytime soon, but I subscribed to your feed just because I want to read what you have to say about them. Hilarious. I appreciate humorous bloggers.
You have my vote!