The 40 most popular 1960s romance movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


Sex and the Single Girl
1964 · 1h 50m · US
A womanizing reporter for a sleazy tabloid magazine impersonates his hen-pecked neighbor in order to get an expose on renowned psychologist Helen Gurley Brown.


The Sound of Music
1965 · 2h 54m · US
In the years before World War II, a tomboyish postulant at an Austrian abbey is hired as a governess in the home of a widowed naval captain with seven children and brings a new love of life and music into the home.


The Graduate
1967 · 1h 47m · US
A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.


Breakfast at Tiffany's
1961 · 1h 55m · US
Holly Golightly is an eccentric New York City playgirl determined to marry a Brazilian millionaire. But when young writer Paul Varjak moves into her apartment building, her past threatens to get in their way.


The Apartment
1960 · 2h 6m · US
Bud Baxter is a minor clerk in a huge New York insurance company, until he discovers a quick way to climb the corporate ladder. He lends out his apartment to the executives as a place to take their mistresses. Although he often has to deal with the aftermath of their visits, one night he's left with a major problem to solve.


Lolita
1962 · 2h 34m · UK
Humbert Humbert is a middle-aged British novelist who is both appalled by and attracted to the vulgarity of American culture. When he comes to stay at the boarding house run by Charlotte Haze, he soon becomes obsessed with Lolita, the woman's teenaged daughter.


Marnie
1964 · 2h 10m · US
Marnie is a beautiful but emotionally withdrawn thief, stealing from employers before disappearing under new identities. When her new boss, Mark Rutland, discovers her secret, his fascination turns to obsession, and he blackmails her into marriage, convinced he can cure her. But as he probes deeper into Marnie’s fractured mind, long-buried fears and compulsions begin to surface.


West Side Story
1961 · 2h 33m · US
In Manhattan’s Upper West Side, rival gangs of Polish-Americans and newly arrived Puerto Ricans clash for control of the neighborhood, even as two young members from opposite sides fall dangerously in love.


Cleopatra
1963 · 4h 11m · UK
Determined to hold on to the throne, Cleopatra seduces the Roman emperor Julius Caesar. When Caesar is murdered, she redirects her attentions to his general, Marc Antony, who vows to take power—but Caesar’s successor has other plans.


Breathless
1960 · 1h 30m · FR
A small-time thief steals a car and impulsively murders a motorcycle policeman. Wanted by the authorities, he attempts to persuade a girl to run away to Italy with him.


Happiness
1965 · 1h 20m · FR
Though married to the good-natured, beautiful Thérèse, young husband and father François finds himself falling unquestioningly into an affair with an attractive postal worker.


L'etreinte
1969 · 1h 43m · BE
L’Étreinte (1969) is a sharp, provocative Franco-Belgian psychological drama that masterfully subverts power dynamics through an erotic lens. Heavily inspired by The Story of O, the film tracks Gisèle, an innocent runaway who becomes a housemaid—and subsequent sex slave—to Michel, a wealthy playboy. What begins as a classic tale of bourgeois exploitation takes a radical turn when a visiting friend awakens Gisèle to her own alienation. In a striking third-act shift, the film flips the master-servant dynamic, leaving the oppressor completely subjugated by his former victim..


Lola
1961 · 1h 29m · FR
A bored young man meets with his former girlfriend, now a cabaret dancer and single mother, and soon finds himself falling back in love with her.


Romeo and Juliet
1968 · 2h 18m · IT
Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet fall in love against the wishes of their feuding families. Driven by their passion, the young lovers defy their destiny and elope, only to suffer the ultimate tragedy.


The Umbrellas of Cherbourg
1964 · 1h 33m · FR
This simple romantic tragedy begins in 1957. Guy Foucher, a 20-year-old French auto mechanic, has fallen in love with 17-year-old Geneviève Emery, an employee in her widowed mother's chic but financially embattled umbrella shop. On the evening before Guy is to leave for a two-year tour of combat in Algeria, he and Geneviève make love. She becomes pregnant and must choose between waiting for Guy's return or accepting an offer of marriage from a wealthy diamond merchant.


L'Eclisse
1962 · 2h 6m · FR
Vittoria is a beautiful literary translator living in Rome. After splitting from her writer boyfriend, Riccardo, Vittoria meets Piero, a lively stockbroker, on the hectic floor of the Roman stock exchange. Though Vittoria and Piero begin a relationship, it is not one without difficulties, and their commitment to one another is tested during an eclipse.


Doctor Zhivago
1965 · 3h 20m · IT
The life of a Russian physician and poet who, although married to another, falls in love with a political activist's wife and experiences hardship during World War I and then the October Revolution.


The Time Machine
1960 · 1h 43m · US
A Victorian Englishman travels to the far future and finds that humanity has divided into two hostile species.


The Parent Trap
1961 · 2h 9m · US
Two identical twin sisters, separated at birth by their parents' divorce, are reunited years later at a summer camp, where they scheme to bring their parents back together. The girls, one of whom has been living with their mother and the other with their father, switch places after camp and go to work on their plan, the first objective being to scare off a gold-digger pursuing their father.


Three Poplars on Plyuschikha Street
1968 · 1h 19m · SU
A married woman fresh from the countryside meets a charming cab driver on her first day in Moscow. They spend the day together and their fondness for each other grows...


Let's Make Love
1960 · 1h 59m · US
When billionaire Jean-Marc Clement learns that he is to be satirized in an off-Broadway revue, he passes himself off as an actor playing him in order to get closer to the beautiful star of the show, Amanda Dell.


Charade
1963 · 1h 53m · US
After Regina Lampert falls for the dashing Peter Joshua on a skiing holiday in the French Alps, she discovers upon her return to Paris that her husband has been murdered. Soon, she and Peter are giving chase to three of her late husband's World War II cronies, Tex, Scobie and Gideon, who are after a quarter of a million dollars the quartet stole while behind enemy lines.


Paris Blues
1961 · 1h 38m · US
During the 1960s, two American jazz musicians living in Paris meet and fall in love with two American tourist girls and must decide between music and love.


Si quiero
1967 · MX
Newlyweds find married life to be challenging.


Last Year at Marienbad
1961 · 1h 35m · FR
At a weekend gathering, a man tells a woman that they had spent time there together a year prior. But, the woman has no recollection whatsoever and is convinced that he is simply fabricating the encounter. The more he speaks about their activities the previous year however, the more compelling he becomes. The question remains however – did they meet previously or not?


Mayerling
1968 · 2h 20m · FR
Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria clashes with his father, Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria, over implementing progressive policies for their country. Rudolf soon feels he is a man born at the wrong time in a country that doesn't realize the need for social reform. The Prince of Wales, later to become Britain's King Edward VII, provides comic relief. Rudolf finds refuge from a loveless marriage with Princess Stéphanie by taking a mistress, Baroness Maria Vetsera. Their untimely demise at Mayerling, the imperial family's hunting lodge, is cloaked in mystery.


Kohlhiesel's Daughters
1962 · 1h 36m · DE
Landlord Kohlhiesl has two twin daughters that nevertheless couldn't be more different: Liesel is beautiful, feminine, sophisticated, educated and in love with a fellow, Toni, from back home. The other daughter, Susi, is clumsy, masculine, never left home and wants nothing to do with men. Liesel would dearly love to marry Tony, but her father refuses to allow the wedding until her sister Susi has found a husband first...


Atrás de las nubes
1962 · 1h 35m · MX
All it says in my notes is "Like 'Juan Sin Miedo', only with soldiers." So... Army officer seeks revenge for... something...


The Thomas Crown Affair
1968 · 1h 42m · US
A debonair, adventuresome bank executive believes that he has pulled off the perfect multi-million dollar heist--until he must match wits with an insurance investigator who will do anything to get her man.


The Young Girls of Rochefort
1967 · 2h 6m · FR
In the seaside town of Rochefort, twin sisters Delphine and Solange dream of love and artistic fulfillment beyond their quiet lives. As sailors, artists, musicians, and chance visitors pass through town during a weekend fair, a web of near-misses and romantic longing brings ideal partners tantalizingly close—without their realizing it.


The Misfits
1961 · 2h 4m · US
While filing for a divorce, beautiful ex-stripper Roslyn Taber ends up meeting aging cowboy-turned-gambler Gay Langland and former World War II aviator Guido Racanelli. The two men instantly become infatuated with Roslyn and, on a whim, the three decide to move into Guido's half-finished desert home together. When grizzled ex-rodeo rider Perce Howland arrives, the unlikely foursome strike up a business capturing wild horses.


La Valentina
1966 · 1h 39m · MX
A smuggler, condemned to be shot, is pardoned in exchange for kidnapping "La Valentina."


Pretty Poison
1968 · 1h 29m · US
A troubled arsonist spins a tale of espionage to a captivating girl, who becomes enthralled and entangled in his dangerous fantasies, leading to unexpected murder and chaos that change their lives forever.


How to Steal a Million
1966 · 2h 3m · US
A woman must steal a statue from a Paris museum to help conceal her father's art forgeries.


Billie
1965 · 1h 27m · US
A 16-year-old tomboy and high school athlete becomes embroiled with the lives around her boyfriend whose conservative father is running for mayor.


Irma la Douce
1963 · 2h 27m · US
When a recently fired policeman falls in love with a French prostitute, he doesn't want her to be with other men, so he creates an alter-ego in order to become her only customer.


Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
1967 · 1h 48m · US
A couple's attitudes are challenged when their daughter brings home a fiancé who is black.


The Savage Guns
1961 · 1h 23m · ES
This Western is set in the Mexican valley of Sonora not that far south of the state of Arizona. It's just after the American Civil War, and a former Confederate officer, Mike Summers has taken refuge in a small town in the valley. He has married and is hoping to live in peace the rest of his life. Instead, he and his wife and the rest of the town are suffering the depredations of a brutal gunman, Danny Pose, and his gang of outlaws. Summers holds off picking up a gun because of his personal vow of non-violence. But the situation deteriorates and a new ally comes into the picture, Steve Fallon, a wandering gunslinger who may not be able to handle the bad guys alone.


Pierrot le Fou
1965 · 1h 50m · FR
Pierrot escapes his boring society and travels from Paris to the Mediterranean Sea with Marianne, a girl chased by hit-men from Algeria. They lead an unorthodox life, always on the run.


Funny Girl
1968 · 2h 35m · US
The life of famed 1930s comedienne Fanny Brice, from her early days in the Jewish slums of New York, to the height of her career with the Ziegfeld Follies, as well as her marriage to the rakish gambler Nick Arnstein.
The 1960s broke the old rules everywhere at once — the French New Wave, the collapse of the Hollywood Production Code, and new waves across Europe and Japan reshaping what a film could show and say.
Romance is the genre most shaped by its era's ideas about intimacy, which makes watching across decades a genuine education. It spans the screwball comedies, the sweeping melodramas, and the modern indie two-hander.