We know this much: Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn appear in the most pictures among the American Film Institute's list of "100 Years … 100 Passions" or, more to the point, most romantic American movies.
Each is in six, according to Tuesday night's three-hour countdown of the top 100 on CBS.
Grant's are "An Affair to Remember," "The Awful Truth," "Bringing Up Baby," "Notorious," "The Philadelphia Story" and "To Catch a Thief."
Hepburn was with him in "Bringing Up Baby" and "The Philadelphia Story." Her others are "The African Queen," "On Golden Pond" and two she made with Spencer Tracy, "Woman of the Year" and "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner."
Humphrey Bogart is a runner-up among the men with five: "Casablanca," "The African Queen," "Sabrina," "To Have and Have Not" and, in a supporting role, "Dark Victory."
Another Hepburn, Audrey, is in five, too: "Roman Holiday," "Sabrina," "My Fair Lady," "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and one of the most pleasing surprises on the list, "Two for the Road."
Here's an oddity: Marni Nixon, Hollywood's most famous ghost singer, is heard in five of the 100. She sang for Audrey Hepburn in "My Fair Lady," for Deborah Kerr in "The King and I" and "An Affair to Remember," for Natalie Wood in "West Side Story" and for herself while playing the small role of Sister Sophia in "The Sound of Music."
Two directors each made four of the 100: George Cukor ("My Fair Lady," "A Star Is Born," "Camille" and "The Philadelphia Story") and William Wyler ("Roman Holiday," "Wuthering Heights," "Jezebel" and "Funny Girl").
The AFI notes that in seven of the top 10, the loving couples do not end up together. Imagine how many couples who do end up together wouldn't get along well later anyway.
Remember the ambiguous final shot in "The Graduate"⢠Elaine (Katharine Ross) boards the bus with Benjamin (Dustin Hoffman), but the last we see of them, now that the rescue is finished and the mission completed, they're looking vacant and detached.
As director Mike Nichols observed, Elaine is on the verge of reconsidering: "I can't marry you. I haven't got a thing to wear."
Since the AFI began building an annual three-hour TV special around the 100 best of something — best American movies, followed by most thrilling and then the funniest — it has avoided explaining precisely who draws up the initial list of 400 contenders and who votes on the final 100.
All we know is that it's a panel of critics, film historians and industry insiders.
This year's movies had to, "regardless of genre, (depict) a romantic bond between two or more characters whose actions and/or intentions provide the heart of the film's narrative."
The choosers don't differentiate between rock-solid love of the sort that survives decades of aging ("On Golden Pond," "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner") and momentary animal magnetism ("Body Heat," "Last Tango in Paris").
They must limit their choices to American movies. Well, sort of.
"The film must be in the English language with significant creative and/or financial production elements from the United States."
Hmmm. I'm eager to help them fudge a little to include the almost completely British "Doctor Zhivago," but exactly how American are "The English Patient," "Last Tango in Paris," "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," "Sense and Sensibility" and, despite my partiality to it, "Two for the Road," in which the director and one supporting actor are Americansâ¢
What bonehead failed to include "The Best Years of Our Lives," "On the Waterfront" and "Giant" among the 400 contenders⢠If "Best Years" doesn't contain three more powerful and authentic love stories than any other film in existence, I'll wade through "Titanic" again without a life preserver.
Among the 400 nominees, the 10 most egregious omissions from the final 10: "Robin and Marian," "Rocky," "Laura," "Alice Adams," "Adam's Rib," "Of Human Bondage," "Carousel," "Oklahoma," "South Pacific" and a pet passion, "Raintree County."
A few I'd knock off to make room for them: "Ghost," "When Harry Met Sally," "Titanic," "Sleepless in Seattle," "Last Tango in Paris" (absorbing, but counter-romantic), "The English Patient," "The Unbearable Lightness of Being," "The Princess Bride," "Working Girl," "Dirty Dancing" and "Jerry Maguire."
Although no two versions of the same plot under the same title made the list of 100, there are echoes.
"Double Indemnity" plainly inspired "Body Heat," just as "Bringing Up Baby" inspired "What's Up, Doc?" And although "Sleepless in Seattle" told a different story, its heroine wept all over the imperishable "An Affair to Remember."
I'd love to know what kind of access the voters had to the movies they were voting on and what percentage of the 400 they swore they'd seen — signed affidavits only, please.
I'd kill for a pristine, uncut copy of "Porgy and Bess," which the Gershwin estate has buried. So where did the voters see it that they could vote it No. 92⢠Truly, very few people still alive have seen it.
And although I suspect the list pickers are an astute group, even if their identity is to be protected at all costs, I'm suspicious of the degree to which the list is balanced to include silent movies from before 1929 as well as recent, considerably less worthy titles. Fess up: It's to keep the younger TV viewers and today's film industry pacified.
No one will persuade me that either the voters or the ballot counters weren't pressured to balance the list by years and decades, even if some sort of weighted tabulation had to be applied. The same suspicious balance occurs every year.
But on the whole, yeah, they got the list right and in a reasonably logical sequence.
Of course, they're kidding that "From Here to Eternity" is only No. 20 and "A Star Is Born" only 43 and "A Place in the Sun" only 53, "Marty" only 64 and "The Bridges of Madison County" only 90.
What's ahead⢠I don't think the AFI and the big TV networks would dare do a three-hour special on movie musicals. Westerns⢠Not popular enough now, either. I'm guessing they'll go next time for a broad category that includes science-fiction, horror and fantasy. Nothing sells so well today.
