Fans Choose Favorite Movies, Kisses, and Dialogue One-Liners

In 1934, It Happened One Night, starring 1930s heartthrob Clark Gable, became the first Hollywood movie to sweep all Top Five categories in the Academy Awards nominations -- Best Picture, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director, and Best Original Screenplay or Adapted Screenplay.

In March of 2011, movie fans proved Gable was made of enduring qualities far beyond his lifetime. Gable got the nod for all-time Top Movie Kiss in Gone With the Wind (1939) with Vivien Leigh as the pair portrayed the fictional immortals Rhett Butler and Scarlett O'Hara.

The next best four movie kisses of all-time were balloted as follows:

• No.2 -- From Here to Eternity; Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr on the beach, 1953
• No.3 -- Lady and the Tramp; that sweet little spaghetti kiss, 1955
• No.4 -- An Officer and A Gentleman; Richard Gere sweeps up Debra Winger, 1982
• No.5 -- Casablanca; Humphrey Bogart lets Ingrid Bergman know how much he missed her, 1942

One Half Million Voters Can't Be Wrong

On March 22, 2011, television presented its findings from the votes of one half million Americans who cast their ballots for "Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time". Categories voted on included Best Musicals, Top Movie Kisses, Best (Dialogue) One-Liners, Best Action Movies, and All-Time Best Movies (all genres), as well as others.

A Top Five was presented in each category according to descending number of votes cast for each film, or category.

Gable scored again as Gone With the Wind was voted All-Time Best Movie (all-genres). The two through five choices were:

• No.2 -- The Wizard of Oz, 1939
• No.3 -- The Godfather, 1972
• No.4 -- Casablanca, 1942
• No.5 -- E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, 1982

How the Fans Votes Stack Against the Experts

Fans generally have a different attitude toward the best in anything categories from the accepted experts in a given field. Movies are no exception; however, the choices revealed in television's "Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time" do closely follow the Four-Star movie gurus.

American movie historian and critic Leonard Maltin, author of 2003 Movie & Video Guide, awards a Four-Star (top most rating) rank to four of the fans' Top Five all-time movies. His exception was The Godfather, which rated a Three-and-A-Half Star kudo from Maltin.

In 2003's Four-Star Movies The 101 Greatest Films of All Time, published by Black Dog & Leventhal of New York and catalogued by Gail Kinn & Jim Piazza, three of the fans' Top Five choices for best all-time movies in all genres are named. Kinn and Piazza ranked their chosen Four-Star movies one through 101 with this Top Five result:

• No.1 -- Godfathers I and II
• No.2 -- Casablanca
• No.3 -- Citizen Kane
• No.4 -- Gone With the Wind
• No.5 -- Lawrence of Arabia

E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial, the fans' No.5, ranked 59th with Kinn and Piazza, while The Wizard of Oz got their nod for No.7 all-time.

Top Five Action Movies Comparison

Voting movie fans liked these best five Action Movies: No.1 -- (Indiana Jones) Raiders of the Lost Ark; No.2 -- The Dark Knight; No.3 -- Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King; No.4 -- Die Hard; and No.5 -- Gladiator.

Maltin rated Gladiator and Die Hard as Three-Stars and Raiders of the Lost Ark a Four-Star. Kinn and Piazza disagreed, ranking "Raiders" 92nd on their all-genre All-Time Four-Star list. The remaining four Action Movies chosen by the fans didn't make Kinn and Piazza's Best 101 Four-Star list.

Top Five Musicals Comparison

The fans' Top Five Musicals included: No.1 -- The Sound of Music; No.2 -- Grease; No.3 -- The Wizard of Oz; No.4 -- Singin' in the Rain; No.5 -- West Side Story.

Maltin's comparison Four-Stars from that list include The Wizard of Oz, West Side Story, and Singin' in the Rain. He gives a Three-and-A-Half-Star ranking to The Sound of Music, and a Three-Star to Grease.

Kinn and Piazza's 101 Four-Star ratings place only two of these on their list, The Wizard of Oz at No.7 and Singin' in the Rain at No.10.

Top Five Movie Dialogue One-Liners

Gone With the Wind, the all-time bestselling book loved the world over, did just as well as a movie in the opinion of movie fans who voted for the Top Five Best All-Time Dialogue One-Liners from films. Interestingly enough, the screenplay for the film Gone With the Wind was made up mostly from the dialogue in Margaret Mitchell's beloved novel.

The fans' choices for movie dialogue one-liners are:

No.1 -- "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a d...", Rhett's dismissal of Scarlet in Gone With the Wind

No.2 -- "Go ahead, make my day", Clint Eastwood ready to shoot in Dirty Harry

No.3 -- "I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse", Marlon Brando in The Godfather

No.4 -- "I'll have what she's having", a dinner patron overhearing the conversation between Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan in When Harry Met Sally

No.5 -- "Here's looking at you, kid", Bogart's toast to Bergman in Casablanca

For those wondering what the other two movies are that copped all Top Five Academy Awards besides It Happened One Night, they are One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, 1975, and The Silence of the Lambs (eehhh!), 1991.