15 Beloved Date Movies From the 1970s

In the past, dating seemed like such a simple thing. After all, social media, where one would monitor a prospective lover’s likes and follows, and “ghosting” sounded like something one would do when visiting the local haunted house, didn’t exist until the mid-2000s.

Regardless of whether dating was simple or complicated, all generations loved one thing: a good romantic movie, often enjoyed with a potential life partner. Certainly, some of these movies feel like a product of their time and would never get made today. But the Boomer generation and beyond still cherish these 15 romantic movies from the 1970s.

Grab your popcorn and your soda, and snuggle up to your honey for…

1. Summer of 42

Based on the memoirs of screenwriter Herman “Hermie” Rauscher, Summer of ’42 became one of the most popular books of the 1970s. The film was also one of the top films of the era, though it would never get green-lit today due to the subject matter.

The movie, which starred Gary Grimes and Jennifer O’Neill, tells of a 15-year-old’s adventures on Nantucket Island, which include sleeping with an older, married woman and “becoming a man” in the process. Talk about coming of age!

2. Love Story

Although considered cloying and cliched by today’s standards, Love Story, based on the smash hit novel of the same name, became the most successful film of 1970.

The film, which starred Ali McGraw and Ryan O’Neal, tells the story of WASPy Oliver Barrett IV (O’Neal) and his love affair with blue-collar Italian-American Jennifer Cavalleri (McGraw). The couple’s against-all-odds story, though, ends when Jenny can’t get pregnant, and discovers that she has a terminal illness.

3. Shampoo

Warren Beatty was at the height of his tomcat prowess when Shampoo hit theaters. The film made headlines at the time because Beatty’s co-stars were all women he’d dated in the past (Julie Christie, Goldie Hawn) or actively dated at the time (Michelle Phillips of The Mamas and The Papas fame).

Later, Shampoo became famous when Star Wars first hit theaters, as a young Carrie Fisher — the once and forever Princess Leia — got her “big break” in the film as Lorna Karpf.

4. Annie Hall

1977’s Annie Hall let Woody Allen examine why his relationship with Diane Keaton (who played the titular character) failed.

While his critics would argue that it was due to Keaton’s age, especially given the director’s later revealed predilections, his fans countered that the film was one of the greatest in his oeuvre. It did, however, garner Keaton an Academy Award for Best Actress, so there’s that.

5. Harold & Maude

Harold & Maude is another film that would never get the green light today, again, because of the subject matter.

The film, which starred Ruth Gordon and Bud Cort, tells of a fatalistic teenager named Harold obsessed with death. He meets and befriends a 79-year-old concentration camp survivor named Maude, and the pair fall in love and, eventually, get married. On her 80th birthday, however, Maude dies by suicide, despite her infectiously positive demeanor, which she eventually passes on to Harold.

6. On a Clear Day, You Can See Forever

This 1970 film adapted the hugely successful Broadway play of the same name. It starred Barbra Streisand as Daisy Gamble, a clairvoyant scatterbrain who undergoes hypnotic therapy (courtesy of a psychotherapist played by Yves Montand) and wakes up in the 19th century.

Here, she discovers she’s Lady Melinda Winifred Waine Tentrees, the illegitimate child of a scullery maid in Victorian England.

7. The Way We Were

Barbra Streisand all but carried romantic movies in the 1970s, and she did the same thing in The Way We Were, where she starred opposite Robert Redford.

In the film, Streisand plays Katie Morosky, whose relationship with Redford’s Hubbell Gardiner undergoes crests and waves, culminating with a marriage, the birth of a daughter, and an eventual bittersweet divorce.

8. The Great Gatsby

While Generation X knows and loves the version of The Great Gatsby starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Boomers know and love the 1974 film. Written by Francis Ford Coppola and starring Robert Redford, Mia Farrow, the film also introduced a very young Sam Waterston, who played Nick Carraway long before he played Jack McCoy on Law & Order.

This version of The Great Gatsby was the third iteration of the film, though Coppola later claimed that the actors didn’t follow his written screenplay.

9. A New Leaf

Walter Matthau plays an unlikely millionaire tomcat from New York City in A New Leaf, which marked comedian Elaine May‘s screenwriting debut.

Matthau’s Henry Graham goes about finding a rich bride for himself now that the money well has run dry, but he doesn’t plan a life of happily ever after. Rather, Henry’s plan involves something out of an Investigation Discovery special: marry a rich woman, kill her, then collect her vast fortune as her “devastated heir.”

10. Manhattan

Manhattan is another movie that today’s industry would never make, partly because of Woody Allen’s tarnished legacy, and partly due to its controversial subject matter.

The film, released in 1979, tells the story of a neurotic, 42-year-old playwright based in Manhattan (played by Allen, who consistently portrayed the same character in every film) and his 17-year-old girlfriend (played by Mariel Hemingway). Things seem simple on the surface (or as simple as they can be, given the wholly inappropriate nature of the relationship), until Allen’s Isaac Davis falls in love with his best friend’s mistress (Diane Keaton, who is actually over the age of consent).

11. Grease

Critics either passionately love or passionately hate Grease, which tells the story of greaser Danny Zuko and his summer fling with “good girl” Sandy Olsson that becomes a whole lot more.

Regardless of the criticisms, some of which are valid, Grease introduced the world to the fiery on-screen chemistry between Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta.

12. A Star Is Born

Before Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper brought A Star Is Born back to the big screen in 2018, Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson reprised this classic from 1937.

Streisand and Kristofferson starred in the third iteration of the film, which told of the tumultuous relationship between rock star John Norman Howard (Kristofferson) and Esther Hoffman (Streisand). The closing scene of the film features Esther’s career birth as “Esther Hoffman-Howard” after her husband’s untimely demise.

13. The Heartbreak Kid

Another Elaine May special propelled by the success of A New Leaf, The Heartbreak Kid, starred Charles Grodin as a beleaguered newlywed who has quickly grown tired of his new wife’s (Jeannie Berlin) earnestness.

While on their honeymoon, Lenny (Grodin) discovers and falls in love with the shallow heiress Kelly Corcoran (Cybill Shepherd) and begins courting her against her parents’ wishes.

14. The Goodbye Girl

The 1977 film, The Goodbye Girl, earned Richard Dreyfuss an Academy Award win, and for good reason.

In the film, he stars as Elliot Garfield, a struggling actor who sublets his friend’s apartment, and moves in with his friend’s girlfriend (Marsha Mason) and her 10-year-old daughter. Naturally, romance ensues.

15. Same Time, Next Year

Based on the stage play of the same name, Same Time, Next Year tells the story of an ongoing affair between George and Doris. The relationship changes when Doris’s husband perishes…or, at least, that’s what George hopes will happen.