14 February and a quick look at whats on tv here today shows they have scheduled the usual run of rom-coms .... there's AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, WHAT'S UP DOC? (yippee!), I LOVE YOU PHILIP MORRIS, BRIEF ENCOUNTER, SABRINA, and VICKY CHRISTINA BARCELONA ....
No doubt BREAKFAST AT TIFFANY'S will also be played a lot today .... I did a piece on Valentine choices a year or three ago - see Valentines label.
My choice today though is:
Martin Ritt's THE BLACK ORCHID from 1958/59 is a perfect romantic
treat, as widow Sophia Loren is wooed by widower Anthony Quinn -
quite lovable here. He has a disapproving daughter and Sophia (aged 24
with just a hint of grey in her hair) is the mother of teenage tearaway.
Its all nicely resolved at the breakfast table and must surely have
influenced Cher's MOONSTRUCK, a nice romcom pastiche. That's what I said back then - and it still works now.
Sophia is the withdrawn widow blaming herself for her husband's death and her son is in a remand home. Quinn is the gruff widower also looking for a second love but his daughter Ina Balin won't let him. There is that lovely ending around the kitchen table when everything is nicely resolved. An ideal Valentine treat then, almost as good as HOUSEBOAT !
Sophia is the withdrawn widow blaming herself for her husband's death and her son is in a remand home. Quinn is the gruff widower also looking for a second love but his daughter Ina Balin won't let him. There is that lovely ending around the kitchen table when everything is nicely resolved. An ideal Valentine treat then, almost as good as HOUSEBOAT ! 
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