In one of their many film appearances together, Roy Rogers kissed his wife and costar Dale Evans on the forehead. After that, the studio received sacks of letters telling them to “leave the mushy stuff out.”
Such is the dilemma of romance in westerns. Many of the classics may offer a love story as a subplot: Ringo and Dallas in Stagecoach, Wyatt Earp and Clementine in My Darling Clementine, Sundance and Etta (and maybe Butch) in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. However, many fans don’t care if the hero gets the girl as long as the bad guy winds up face down in the mud.
But romance devotees need not avoid the genre altogether. Here are movies with love stories at the forefront — with or without the mushy stuff.
1938 THE COWBOY AND THE LADY
“You and I are poles apart. If you really knew me you wouldn’t like me at all. And yet I’d rather be with you than anyone else.”
Can a hard-partying Florida society girl find lasting happiness with a humble, slow talking rodeo cowboy? A romantic comedy like wouldn’t have it any other way—though it takes its mismatched couple a while to get there (91 minutes, to be exact).
