Stars who create on-screen sparks

In Otto Preminger’s treatment of Gershwin’s “Porgy and Bess” (1959), Dorothy Dandridge knows better than to fall for hunky bad-boy Brock Peters, but she fails to put up much of a fight. Her ambiguous lament, “What You Want With Bess?,” is one of the most erotically charged moments in movie-musical history.

A masked ball sets off the verboten sparks between Olivia Hussey and Leonard Whiting in the 1968 version of Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet,” which revels in the physical beauty of its teenage actors. In the musical update of the same tale, “West Side Story” (1961), the Romeo and Juliet characters (Natalie Wood, Richard Beymer) also lock eyes at a dance, though it’s the Oscar-winning supporting players, Rita Moreno and George Chakiris, who do the most spectacular dancing and provide most of the sizzle.

On the seas or at weddings
Shipboard romances tend to complicate forbidden love. Oskar Werner plays a desperate doctor who falls for a drug addict (Simone Signoret) who may be using him in “Ship of Fools” (1965); their nuanced performances earned Oscar nominations for both actors. Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, intrigued at first sight by their differences, defy class barriers to commit to each other in “Titanic” (1997). Barbara Stanwyck fleeces Henry Fonda, then breaks her own con-artist code by falling for him in “The Lady Eve” (1941). 

Some passions are aroused simply by making an appearance at someone else’s wedding. That’s what helps to reunite the troubled couple in “Sunrise.” It happens again in “The Best Years of Our Lives” (1946), in which Dana Andrews and Teresa Wright so movingly abandon all reservations and commit to each other, and “Giant” (1956), with the estranged Rock Hudson and Elizabeth Taylor turning up at her sister’s wedding and silently renewing their commitment. Hudson’s appearance is unannounced, and Taylor’s dawning realization of his presence tells us all we need to know about their bond.

“Giant” might have been a stronger film if it had ended there. Many romantic classics reach their peak at the end: Orane Demazis saying goodbye to the sea-obsessed Pierre Fresnay in both “Marius” (1931) and its sequel, “Fanny” (1932); Elizabeth Taylor wondering why she’s always saying goodbye to Montgomery Clift in “A Place in the Sun” (1951); the rain-drenched George Peppard trying not to let Audrey Hepburn say goodbye in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” (1961).

Last year’s most romantic movie, “Before Sunset,” is also best as it ends. All it takes is Ethan Hawke settling in at Julie Delpy’s Parisian apartment, feeling at home as she does an impromptu song and dance. Now that’s chemistry.

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