Most of today’s romances focus on reality – being true to yourself, keeping it real, being genuine, and expressing what’s in your heart. Many earlier movies from the 1940s through 1960s found romance and intrigue in discovering the real people hidden beneath the phony facades.
While chemistry draws them together, true love lets them see beneath the surface. So in a nod to yesteryear’s best romantic deceptions, here’s a sampling of classic romantic suspense and romantic comedy movies in which one or both of the lovers pretend to be something that they’re not.
Charade (1963)
In this dark comedy thriller, a woman finds herself pursued by several dangerous and deceptive men who demand the $250,000 that her late husband stole during WWII.
Starring Cary Grant, Audrey Hepburn, Walter Matthau, James Coburn, George Kennedy
Director: Stanley Donen
Additional Information: Various identity changes keep the audience on its toes and add laughs to this feels-like-Hitchcock film.
Notorious (1946)
A party girl from Miami, Florida, spies on dangerous Nazi war criminals living in Brazil in an effort to clear her family name.
Starring Cary Grant, Ingrid Bergman, Claude Rains, Louis Calhern, Leopoldine Konstantin, Reinhold Schunzel
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Additional Information: Filmed in black and white. Shot in California, Florida, and Brazil.
Pillow Talk (1959)
A man and women who hate each other find romance when he disguises his voice and identity through the telephone party line that they share.
Starring Rock Hudson, Doris Day, Tony Randall, Thelma Ritter, Nick Adams
Director: Michael Gordon
Additional Information: Won an Academy Award for Best Writing, Story, and Screenplay – Written Directly for the Screen (Russell Rouse, Clarence Greene, Stanley Shapiro, Maurice Richlin).
Roman Holiday (1953)
A bored princess (pretending to be a regular girl) sneaks off to explore Rome with an ambitious reporter (pretending to be a regular guy).
Starring Audrey Hepburn, Gregory Peck, Eddie Albert, Hartley Power, Margaret Rawlings
Director: William Wyler