Bugsy (1991)

A Kiss Silhouetted in the Light of One's Own Hollywood Screen Test

Director Barry Levinson's crime-gangster character study told of the rise and fall of true-life 1940s mobster Benjamin "Bugsy" Siegel.

In one of its notable scenes, larger-than-life, East Coast 40s gangster Benjamin 'Bugsy' Siegel (Warren Beatty) delivered his first kiss to sassy, slinky, and leggy B-movie starlet Virginia "Flamingo" Hill (Annette Bening). It was the beginning of their tempestuous romantic relationship.

They were silhouetted in the light behind the screen of his own projected screen-acting test (he was an egotist who fancied himself as a screen actor). As he grabbed her and they were about to kiss, they quipped at each other:

Virginia: "Do you always talk this much before you do it?"
Bugsy (snappily): "I only talk this much before I kill someone."

Cape Fear (1991)

Creepy and Disturbing Kiss

In this remake from director Martin Scorsese, vengeful psychotic Max Cady (Robert De Niro) threatened public-defender lawyer Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) and his wife Leigh (Jessica Lange) and family, blaming Sam for helping to send him to prison in Atlanta fourteen years earlier for the rape and battery of a young woman.

The most tense and disturbing scene was both repellent and fascinating. Cady posed as a drama teacher on the set of a play in the school's auditorium, where he had planned to take advantage of the young Bowden daughter.

He proceeded to verbally and physically seduce and kiss the rebellious, naive, sexually-curious and troubled fifteen-year old daughter Danielle (Juliette Lewis) - with her dual responses of fear and excitement. He was able to persuasively have Danielle confide in him.

He told her:

"You know, I think I might have found a companion, a companion for that long walk to the light."

He politely asked if he could put his arm around her. When she giggled and acted embarrassed by his forwardness although eventually agreed ("No, I don't mind"), he approached closer, and stroked her face.

He was able to insert his thumb into her mouth, and she sucked on it. Then he cupped her face, cradled her head, and tenderly kissed her.

Delicatessen (1991, Fr.)

Last Chance Underwater Kiss

Outrageous and zany scenes among apartment building tenants were common-place in this French black comedy set in post-apocalyptic France, filmed by directors Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro.

At film's end, newly-hired handyman and circus clown Louison (Dominique Pinon) and near-sighted cello-playing girlfriend Julie (Marie-Laure Dougnac) purposely flooded a bathroom to escape her murderous cannibalistic butcher-landlord father Clapet (Jean-Claude Dreyfus).

Before the water was released, however, the couple feared that they would drown together - and they shared their first kiss - underwater.

The cascading torrent of water filled the entire dilapidated tenement building and cleansed the filth.

Frankie and Johnny (1991)

Flowery Kiss

Director Garry Marshall's touching romantic drama, an adaptation of Terrence McNally's two-character stage play, told of the developing relationship in a NYC diner between:

• ex-con Apollo Restaurant short-order cook Johnny (Al Pacino)
• distrusting, emotionally-abused, pretty blonde waitress Frankie (Michelle Pfeiffer)

A completely romantic kiss came at long last between the two -- revealingly in front of the back of a floral warehouse delivery truck filled to bursting with vividly colorful flowers (the door was lifted open as their lips touched).

L.A. Story (1991)

Fantasy Kisses

This satirical and magical film from British director Mick Jackson was set in a fantasy Los Angeles (the City of Angels). It featured the growing romance between:

• wacky or "Kookie" LA weatherman Harris K. Telemacher (Steve Martin)
• British newspaper reporter Sara McDowel (then-wife Victoria Tennant)

In one scene, their car rolled on its own onto the highway, and a sentient freeway traffic sign urged Harris to kiss her twice:

"Kiss her, you fool!"

In another scene after Harris and Sara left a stodgy dinner, he grabbed her and removed her reluctance to kiss him by telling her: "Let your mind go, and your body will follow" - followed by a fantasy in which the two of them were transformed into young children as they shared an innocent peck on the lips.

In the finale, by sheer force of power and will, Harris summoned a thunderstorm and fog to prevent Sara from returning back to England on a plane. (Earlier, he had vowed: "All I know is, on the day your plane was to leave, if I had the power, I would turn the winds around. I would roll in the fog, I would bring in storms. I would change the polarity of the Earth so compasses couldn't work, so your plane couldn't take off.")

She returned to his place by taxi and they shared a final passionate kiss in the rain as Harris narrated:

"Forget for this moment the smog and the cars and the restaurant and the skating and remember only this. A kiss may not be the truth, but it is what we wish were true."

The Man in the Moon (1991)

Receiving Her First "Perfect" Puppy-Love Kiss

Director Robert Mulligan's home-spun nostalgic coming-of-age drama (his last film) was set in 1957 in the rural, backwater Louisiana town of Robeline, with its sentimental story of two sisters who loved the same boy-next-door:

• pubescent, coltish, 14 year-old Danielle "Dani" Trant (14 year-old Reese Witherspoon in her debut film)
• beautiful 17 year-old Duke University freshman Maureen Trant (Emily Warfield)

The handsome young 17 year-old farm boy neighbor Court Foster (Jason London), with a widowed mother, was the object of their affections. Court first met Dani at the local swimming hole where she was skinny-dipping and he was in his boxer shorts. Although perturbed by him, soon after, she became infatuated with her first love and innocent "little girl" friendship for him.

However, the love-sick Dani hadn't been kissed by a boy (although she claimed she had to Court), and one day on their front porch, she asked her sister to give her kissing lessons: "What's it like to kiss a boy?" Maureen gave Dani her advice: "For starters, you let him kiss you, if you like him. If you don't like him, you just tell him that you're not that kind of a girl." Dani asked: "What if you like him a lot?" Maureen responded: "You won't have to think about it. It'll all come to ya." Dani asked for practical advice about what to do, and was shown how to position herself:

"You still have to kinda tilt your head to one side, that's so you won't bump noses. OK. Would you loosen up, he's gonna think you're scared of him. Not that much. OK. Now you kinda open your mouth just a little...You wanted to know how. I am tellin' you how. Look, practice on your hand, okay? That's it, just keep practicin'."

One day at the swimming location, she also practiced on Court: "I want to know you...I want to know you more. I want to know you all I can...I want to know your hopes." He responded: "My hopes. Well, I hope your boobs will get bigger and your butt will grow." When she wrestled with him, she found herself in his arms, when they almost kissed, but hesitated.

Court: "It seems like it always comes to this, doesn't it?"
Dani: "Have you kissed a lot of girls?"
Court: "Not a whole lot."
Dani: "I want you to be the first boy to ever kiss me."
Court: (chuckling) "I thought you've been kissed 'so many times'." (He leaned forward and kissed her) How was that?"
Dani: (with her eyes still shut) "Perfect."

However, Dani's sister was the one to acquire Court's consummated love when she returned home from college when her mother was hospitalized, and Court turned his attentions to Maureen (after love at first sight) and all but neglected Dani.

The film ended with a tragic tractor plowing accident in which Court was killed, followed by the bittersweet ending when Dani and her sister were drawn closer together:

Dani: "You know, sometimes I think that nothing's ever gonna make sense again."
Maureen: "Maybe life's not supposed to make sense."
Dani: "Doesn't that scare you?"
Maureen: "Yes, it does."
Dani: "I wish I could still talk to the man in the moon. Don't you?"
Maureen: "It would be nice."
Dani: "Maureen?"
Maureen: "What?"
Dani: "Will we always talk to each other?"
Maureen: "Always."

My Girl (1991)

Innocent First-Kiss

Director Howard Zieff's coming-of-age romantic drama was set in rural Pennsylvania in the early 1970s, and told of the struggles of a young girl and her summer adventures, including an up-and-down friendship with an unpopular boy:

• precocious, tomboyish, 11 year-old hypochondriac Vada Sultenfuss (Anna Chlumsky)
• geeky Thomas J. Sennett (Macauley Culkin)

In one sweet, innocent scene at their favorite fishing place under a tree, the two discussed why people got married, before coming around to their first kiss. Vada assertively asked:

Vada: "Have you ever kissed anyone?"
Thomas: "Like they do on TV?...No."
Vada: (suggesting) "Maybe we should, just to see what's the big deal."
Thomas: "But - I don't know how."

She proposed that they first practice by kissing their arms, and then close their eyes for the real thing, on the count of three. She added a "two and a half" before "three," and then gave him a very quick smooch. Afterwards, there was a long pause. She demanded that he say something because it was "too quiet." Agitated, he began to recite a mangled version of the Pledge of Allegance, and she joined in:

"On political agents to the flag of the United States of America..."

The kiss was made poignant later in the film when Thomas died suddenly from a severe allergic reaction to a bee sting, and Vada dealt with the loss. She was consoled by her widowed father Harry (Dan Aykroyd), a funeral director.

[Note: The scene won MTV's "Best Kiss" movie award).]

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991)

Passionate Shape-Shifting Chameloid Kiss

This was the sixth and final Star Trek film in the original series of feature films. Enterprise Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Dr. Leonard McCoy (DeForest Kelley) were accused of the assassination of Klingon Chancellor Gorkon (David Warner) in an elaborate set-up. The two were found "guilty as charged" and sentenced to life imprisonment on the ice-cold penal asteroid of Rura Penthe (the "Aliens' Graveyard") in its dilithium mines.

After arriving there, they were soon befriended by a shape-shifting Chameloid named Martia (Iman) who proposed an escape plan to Kirk, as McCoy listened from his nearby bunk. She confided: "I know how to get outside the shield...Getting outside the shield is easy, but after that, it's up to you to get us off the surface before we freeze. Can you?... I can't make it alone, and you're likeliest candidate to come in this hellhole for months." Kirk asked: "Candidate for what?" - and she gave him her reply - a passionate kiss. McCoy then sat up and asked incredulously: "What is it with you, anyway?" When Kirk asked: "Still think we're finished?" McCoy confirmed: "More than ever."

The escape plan seemed to go very smoothly, but of course, it turned out to be a ploy to lead them into a trap that would cause their deaths (to "get them out of the way"). When Martia's betrayal was revealed (she had been offered a full pardon in exchange for her duplicity), she transformed herself into Kirk's double and struggled with him. Kirk wondered to himself:

Kirk: "I can't believe I kissed you."
Martia: "Must have been your lifelong ambition."

She was killed by Klingon guards to silence her as a potential witness.