To celebrate the release of the fully restored Pandora and The Flying Dutchman on DVD available from 9th August 2010, we are taking a look back to the most classic of love stories that have graced our screens.

10. Pandora And The Flying Dutchman (1951)
Ava Gardner stars as the irresistible Pandora in this lush Technicolor classic by Albert Lewin. Pandora is a woman who men are willingly to die for and yet she is too selfish to fall in love until she meets Dutch sailor Hedrick. The rugged sailor cuts a lonely figure on board the Flying Dutchman, his ship, on which he destined to sail the seven seas for all eternity until a woman sacrifices her life for his.

9. Roman Holiday (1953)
Playing a key role in securing the iconic status of Audrey Hepburn, and of the Vespa scooter, Roman Holiday is a true fairytale of a Princess eager to escape her sheltered life and experience life on a visit to Rome. An exclusive story on the royal is an opportunity reporter Joe Bradley would usually grab with both hands, but after spending time with the woman behind the tiara, the only thing he wants is her.

8. King Kong (1933)
An honourable mention must go to the giant gorilla who stops his reign of fear over Skull Island as he falls for blonde starlet Ann Darrow who has been abducted to be his sacrifice. Although not human, his affection for Ann is touching, and the Empire State Building adds a touch of romantic scenery despite the fact that Kong is swinging from it.

7. My Fair Lady (1964)
The second appearance of Hepburn on this list, but this time as a Cockney flower-girl being turned into a lady by phonetics fan Henry Higgins. As the divide between what is real and what is an act blurs, so do the feelings between the student and teacher, with a third party adding to the mix. Much adapted and replayed, the 1964 version remains a true classic.

6. An Affair to Remember (1957)
While both are engaged, playboy Nicky and singer Terry fall head over heels for each other, but hopefully not overboard, as they cruise from Europe to New York. A pact to meet in six months at the Empire State Building is challenged by a tragedy and evolves the film into a heartbreaking tale full of twists and turns to keep the audience on their toes.

5. Cinderella (1950)
Walt Disney brings dreams to life through his animated love story of a girl rescued from a life cleaning up after her stepsisters by means of a fairy godmother, pumpkin coach and her Prince Charming. Soon it is not only her scrubbed floors that are sparkling as she leaves a glass slipper at a royal ball for the Prince to trace the girl who captured his heart.

4. Casablanca (1942)
Love and virtue are two words that often don’t go together in the more complex classic romances, and Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman play a pair of ex-lovers with a complicated spark. Bogart’s Rick runs into his former lover and her new husband in the area of wartime refuge, and old wounds are reopened all round. Historical conflict, a longing to escape and what is right in the eyes of the law heightens the drama in this romance.

3. Brief Encounter (1947)
Impossible love is often the most intense kind, and this tale of married housewife Laura and doctor Alec is one of the most impossible yet. Knowing that their relationship can never surface after meeting at a train station, they continue to see each other at the station’s small café where their love grows until breaking point. A tragic story of longing and hopelessness, Brief Encounter takes a high position in third place.

2. West Side Story (1961)
Gang rivalry in New York City is the rather sizeable hurdle for lovers Tony and Maria in this adaptation of the classic romantic tragedy Romeo and Juliet. The young couple plan to run away together and dream of stopping the violence between their families, but their teen ideals can’t last long and this becomes one of the most tragic love stories of all time.

1. Gone With The Wind (1939)
Vivien Leigh’s Scarlett O’Hara strikes a remarkable romantic heroine as the Southern jezebel whose ruthless search for true love leads her to home truths which she never thought she would find. With a string of beaus and proclaimed to be the most beautiful girl in the county, Scarlett wants exactly what she can’t have, in the form of the shy, elegant, and most importantly married Ashley Wikes. Sophisticated rogue Rhett Butler is a constant and persistent figure in Scarlett’s changeable life, but how many husbands, deaths, years and relocations will it take to realise that he is the one for her? Well, frankly my dear, he doesn’t give a damn.


Ava Gardner stars in Pandora and the Flying Dutchman, released and remastered for DVD from 9th August 2010.