List of romantic comedy films
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This is a list of romantic comedy films, ordered by year of release.
1912–1949
| Year | Title | Director | Country | Genre/notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1912 | All for a Girl | Frederick A. Thomson | United States | Short |
| 1914 | Mabel's Strange Predicament | Mabel Normand | United States | Short - A noisy, drunk, flirtatious tramp comes between Mabel and her lover Harry. The first film of Charles Chaplin appearing as The Tramp, - Keystone Film Company[1] |
| 1914 | Tillie's Punctured Romance | Mack Sennett | United States | First comedy feature film—subgenre: slapstick, with Marie Dressler in the title role - Keystone Film Company[2] |
| 1918 | Mickey | F. Richard Jones | United States | First romantic comedy feature film, shot between May, 1916 and April, 1917 - Mabel Normand Feature Film Company; released August 11, 1918 - W.H. Productions - with Mabel Normand in the title role as she grows from a mischievous, orphaned teenage girl into a mature young woman, battling family deceptions, misunderstandings, and attempted rape, finally to marry her dedicated true lover, a handsome young mining engineer, played by Wheeler Oakman.
The film became an instant hit all over the world, with lines stretching for blocks. It was the highest grossing motion picture in the world in 1918, grossing $18 million over a 4-year period, when admission prices were between about 25¢ and $1. Adjusting for inflation, in 2024 dollars, it grossed $372,316,291 over four years. Adjusting for the four-fold increase in world population today, in 2024 it would have brought in a potential box office gross over a 4-year period of $1,489,265,164. Adjusting for the fact that 1918-1922 were the years of the world pandemic of Spanish flu and were the years following World War I, it impossible to calculate the incredible success Mickey would have achieved in a healthier more peaceful world.[3][4] |
| 1919 | The Doll | Ernst Lubitsch | Germany | |
| 1920 | Erotikon | Mauritz Stiller | Sweden | |
| 1921 | The Wildcat | Ernst Lubitsch | Germany | |
| 1924 | Girl Shy | Fred C. Newmeyer | United States | |
| 1927 | Ten Modern Commandments | Dorothy Arzner | United States | |
| 1930 | Holiday | Edward H. Griffith | United States | |
| 1931 | City Lights | Charlie Chaplin | United States | [5] |
| 1932 | Trouble in Paradise | Ernst Lubitsch | United States | [6] |
| 1933 | One Sunday Afternoon | Stephen Roberts | United States | |
| 1934 | It Happened One Night | Frank Capra | United States | Screwball comedy[7] |
| 1936 | Libeled Lady | Jack Conway | United States | Screwball comedy |
| My Man Godfrey | Gregory La Cava | United States | Screwball comedy[8] | |
| 1937 | The Awful Truth | Leo McCarey | United States | Screwball comedy[9] |
| Easy Living | Mitchell Leisen | United States | ||
| 1938 | Bringing Up Baby | Howard Hawks | United States | Screwball comedy |
| Holiday | George Cukor | United States | [10] | |
| The Mad Miss Manton | Leigh Jason | United States | Screwball comedy | |
| 1939 | Ninotchka | Ernst Lubitsch | United States | [11] |
| Bachelor Mother | Garson Kanin | United States | Screwball comedy | |
| 1940 | The Philadelphia Story | George Cukor | United States | Screwball comedy[12] |
| I Love You Again | W.S. Van Dyke | United States | Screwball comedy | |
| The Shop Around the Corner | Ernst Lubitsch | United States | ||
| 1941 | Ball of Fire | Howard Hawks | United States | Screwball comedy |
| Here Comes Mr. Jordan | Alexander Hall | United States | Fantasy | |
| The Lady Eve | Preston Sturges | United States | Screwball comedy[13] | |
| The Strawberry Blonde | Raoul Walsh | United States | ||
| 1942 | Woman of the Year | George Stevens | United States | Sport[14] |
| 1944 | Cover Girl | Charles Vidor | United States | Musical |
| 1945 | Christmas in Connecticut | Peter Godfrey | United States | |
| 1946 | Cluny Brown | Ernst Lubitsch | United States | |
| 1947 | The Bishop's Wife | Henry Koster | United States | Fantasy |
| Down to Earth | Alexander Hall | United States | Fantasy | |
| 1948 | A Song Is Born | Howard Hawks | United States | Musical |
| 1949 | Adam's Rib | George Cukor | United States | [15] |