Like The Cutting Edge? Watch It Happened One Night.

D.B. Sweeney, Moira Kelly, toe picks? If you haven’t seen this film, and you love romantic comedies from the 90s, hit your head against the wall for letting others jeer you out of it. A hunky (yes, I said it) hockey player, a snotty ice skating star, a try for the Olympics, and unbeatable chemistry.

More recent attempts at this genre of cutting-down-the-ice-cold girl have raised my feminist hackles. See: Sarah Jessica Parker post Sex and the City or Katherine Heigl and Jennifer Aniston in nearly anything. But if done well, these romantic comedies are about both characters coming to terms with their egos, and no one is more fun to watch wrestling with his own than Clark Gable, who was hunky himself in those pre-Gone with the Wind days.

Compare:

The Cutting Edge: D.B. Sweeney finally gains his mojo around Kelly, showing off his hockey skills. Remember? And she slams him in the face with a puck for it.

It Happened One Night: Gable’s destitute reporter tries to gain pride around Claudette Colbert‘s heiress, even showing her how to dunk her donut properly in coffee.

The most famous scene is when Gable gives her an enthusiastic demonstration of how to hitch a ride, with no results. “Do you mind if I try?” she asks, and lazily walks over, raises her skirt, and flags a car with one lovely leg. Watch Gable’s expression afterward, the mingled shame, annoyance, and desire for Colbert explaining for you why a million women swooned for him. And guess what? That’s not the best scene. Not by a long shot.