Can You Name These 1950s Rom-Coms?

Sandra Dee starred as "Gidget," all about her time as part of the world of surfing which including falling in love with a surfer. This is arguably the first true "beach" movie that became something of a sub-genre for a few years.

"Pillow Talk" was the first of three movies that Rock Hudson, Tony Randall and Doris Day made together. It pulled in $18,500,000 at the box office, which, adjusted for inflation, is about $163 million today.

"How to Marry a Millionaire" featured Grable, Monroe and Bacall as a trio of golddiggers looking to hook up with rich men. It was the first movie ever to be shown in color on TV several years after its release in 1961.

"Father of the Bride" featured Liz Tayor and Spencer Tracy as the titular bride and her father. Tracy wanted to have Katharine Hepburn playing his wife in the movie, but apparently the studio felt they made too hot a couple to believed as one that already had raised a family.

"The Seven Year Itch" featured Marilyn Monroe and Tom Ewell. The name of the movie refers to the idea that a man starts losing interest in his wife after seven years of marriage and is actually a term you'll hear psychologists use.

Not known for romance or comedy much at all, John Wayne took a risk leaving Westerns to make "The Quiet Man" as did director John Ford. The movie was a total shot in the dark at the time, but it won Ford an Oscar for Best Director.

Debbie Reynolds starred as Tambrey Tyree, aka Tammy, in four separate movies, including "Tammy and the Bachelor." Tammy is a bit of what you might call a rustic tomboy insofar as she runs around the swamp in bare feet and is best friends with a goat.

The movie "Gigi" featured Leslie Caron in the title role of Gig, though, in fact, her character's proper name was Gilberte, which was also the name of one of the two main nerds from "Revenge of the Nerds." Not the cutest name, overall.

"Some Like it Hot" was a massive success and featured Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and, of course, Marilyn Monroe. Monroe was already quite famous at the time the movie was made, and the director hadn't expected someone of her caliber to want in.

"Kiss Me Kate" is an adaptation of William Shakspeare's "The Taming of the Shrew." In a remarkable departure from how modern films save the technology for action blockbusters, this movie was actually filmed in 3-D.

One of Disney's best-loved movies and, despite being animated, clearly a romantic comedy, "Lady and the Tramp" came out in 1955. In 1945, an article in Cosmo entitled "Happy Dan, the Cynical Dog" caught Walt Disney's eye and became the basis for the film.

Frank Sinatra performed the song "Love is the Tender Trap" from the movie "The Tender Trap" twice in the movie, while Debbie Reynolds actually sings it once in the movie herself, though her version gets criticized by Sinatra on screen.

"Bus Stop" was still a comedy and even partially a musical, but it offered up a little more drama than most of Marilyn Monroe's previous films had. Monroe put a lot of effort into making her character different from previous roles, including learning a new accent and deliberately being less impressive with her singing and dancing.

in "Funny Face" Audrey Hepburn sang all of her own musical numbers, unlike in "My Fair Lady," which she made in 1964. She had a solo number as well as a duet with Fred Astaire, who was actually about 30 years her senior at the time.

"Bell, Book and Candle" featured Kim Novak as a witch who casts a spell on hew neighbor, played by Jimmy Stewart. The movie also featured a cat named Pyewacket, which was the name of a witch's familiar as described by Witchfinder General Matthew Hopkins in 1644.

"Indiscreet" featured Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman in the lead roles, but they weren't the original choices for the roles. Clark Gable was lined up for the male lead while the female lead was going to be either Jayne Mansfield or Marilyn Monroe. Just like today, however, casting doesn't always work as planned.

"Dream Wife" was directed by Sidney Sheldon, who later found fame on TV with the show "I Dream of Jeannie" among several others. He liked the character of Princess Tarji from "Dream Wife" so much that she appeared on a 1966 episode of his show, albeit played by a different actress.

"Desk Set" came out in 1957and set Katharine Hepburn at odds with a computer that was invented by the romantic lead Spencer Tracy. This was actually the eighth movie Tracy and Hepburn made together.

"Gentlemen Prefer Blondes" came out in 1953, and you can still see its influence in pop culture today. Marylin Monroe's pink dress and performance of the song "Diamonds are a Girl's Best Friend" has been parodied or done in homage by numerous singers from Madonna to Beyonce.

Cary Grant was initially supposed to star alongside Hepburn in "Sabrina," but he turned it down and Humphrey Bogart got the role. Bogart had spent most of his career in tough-guy roles, so a rom-com was a definite about-face from his usual roles.

"Love is Better Than Ever" came out in 1952 starring Liz Taylor and Larry Parks. If you look closely, you'll see the director Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly both had cameos in the movie as patrons at a restaurant.

"High Society" starred Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly. This was actually the last movie Grace Kelly starred in before she decided on a career change and became the Princess of Monaco.

Directed by Bud Pollard, a man known for exploitation films, "Love Island" was about a Navy pilot landing on an island and falling in love with a native girl. The movie used a lot of footage that had been shot for an entirely different film called "Legong: Dance of the Virgins."

"Kiss Them For Me" featured Suzy Parker, who for a time was one of the biggest models in the world, alongside Jayne Mansfield and Cary Grant. The movie did fairly poorly and actually tanked Jayne Mansfield's career for several years.

"The Farmer Takes a Wife" came out in 1953 and starred Betty Grable and Dale Robertson. It was a remake of a movie by the same name that came out 18 years prior and starred Henry Fonda and Janet Gaynor.

"Love in the Afternoon" stared Audrey Hepburn and Gary Cooper and followed a bit of a convoluted story of Hepburn first trying to save Cooper's life and then falling in love with him. At the time, Hepburn was 28 and Cooper was 56.

In real life, Katharine Hepburn was an avid sports fan and athlete herself. The golf and tennis featured in "Pat and Mike" weren't shot with a stand-in; it was Hepburn herself playing everything.

Not quite a sequel to "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes," "Gentlemen Marry Brunettes" was based on a book by the author of the original which featured Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell. Russell returned for this movie, playing a different character, but Monroe did not.

"Born Yesterday" featured Judy Holliday, Broderick Crawford and William Holden. There was some talk of the female lead being played by Rota Hayworth for a while, but eventually, Holiday, who played the character on stage, agreed to the role.

Cary Grant and Sophia Loren starred in "Houseboat" together. Grant's wife Betsy Drake originally wrote it and was meant to star in it until Grant had an affair with Loren and decided to ditch Drake, have the script rewritten and drop her name from it entirely. Then he and Loren broke up.

Starring Bing Crosby and Jane Wyman, "Here Comes the Groom" premiered back in 1951. In 1952, there was a radio broadcast of the movie that shortened the whole thing to about 60 minutes and featured Jane Wyman in the same role.

"Roman Holiday" featured Gregory Peck opposite Audrey Hepburn, who was playing a princess. Elizabeth Taylor was one of the first choices for the lead and Cary Grant was offered a role as well, but neither one was available to do it, though rumor says Grant turned it down because he felt all the attention would have been on the female role.

"Happy Go Lovely" was a British comedy from 1951 starring David Niven and Vera-Ellen. It also featured Caesar Romero, who would achieve the ultimate degree of kitschy fame as the Joker on "Batman" with Adam West in the '60s.

"Ain't Misbehavin'" featured Piper Laurie, Mamie Van Doren and Rory Calhoun. It's mostly remembered these days for the title song which does get performed in the movie and has managed to outlive the film itself.

Jack Lemmon was asked to change to his name before appearing in "It Should Happen to You" because studio bosses thought the press would pan the movie and call it a lemon, playing off the actor's name. Lemmon declined.

Shirley Booth, Anthony Perkins, and Shirley Maclaine starred in "The Matchmaker" a 1958 rom-com. The somewhat more well-known musical "Hello, Doly!" is based on the same play originally.

Lauren Bacall and Gregory Peck starred in "Designing Woman." Bacall filmed the movie while her husband Humphrey Bogart was in the end stages of cancer. She took the role to distract herself from what was happening.

Aside from having a delightful name, "Phfft" featured Jack Lemmon and Judy Holiday as a couple who divorce and then fall in love and remarry again. It was actually the second movie that year that Holliday and Lemmon made together after "It Should Happen To You."

Jane Wyman starred in "Three Guys Named Mike" as an airline stewardess with American Airlines who is also a bit of a bungler and managed to get nearly fired from her job about four or five times over the course of the whole film.

Joan Collins starred in "Our Girl Friday" as a woman named Sadie who gets stranded on a deserted island with three other people. According to Collins, she was the first woman ever to appear in a movie wearing a bikini thanks to this film.