The movies can teach us a lot about love, sex, and relationships — especially the crazy and foolish things we shouldn’t do. As Valentine’s Day approaches, so does a bold opportunity to let that special someone know you wouldn’t mind getting a little closer. If you need some guidance, try emulating these big-screen seductions. Cinema is filled with sexy, savvy come-ons that got the guys and girls — and even a few that left wannabe lovers in the dust. Check out ten of the best pickup lines in film history that you wish you thought of first.
“Why don’t you come up sometime and see me?”
Hollywood’s queen of double entendres oozed self-confidence and sex appeal when she uttered this famous line in She Done Him Wrong — the movie that also made Cary Grant a major star. Censors had a field day with Mae West’s cheeky dialogue. Perhaps the only other line in this scene that can parallel her opener is when the bawdy chanteuse tells Grant, “You can be had.” Variations of West’s signature line can be heard in her other films.
“Gimme some sugar, baby.”
Horror icon Bruce Campbell, who is best known for playing Ash in the Evil Dead franchise, is always quick with a good one-liner. Coming from any other man, this quote from Army of Darkness — the third installment in series — would have failed miserably. Then again, not every guy looks as hot as Ash does with a chainsaw for a hand.
“You know, it’s dangerous for you to be here in the frozen food section… Because you could melt all this stuff.”
How can you say no to Steve Martin’s mobster murmurings in My Blue Heaven?
“Suppose you get down off your motorcycle and give me a ticket.”
No one can deliver snappy dialogue like Walter Neff (Fred MacMurray) and Phyllis Dietrichson (Barbara Stanwyck) in Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity . Neff makes a house call at femme fatale Phyllis’ house and gives her the hard sell — multiple times. In turn, she rattles off a series of rejections that leaves heads spinning. The above quote doesn’t do the tête-à-tête justice — watch the clip.
“I gotta warn ya, every man I’ve ever gone out with has been ruined.”
“Well, that’s what they get for messing with my girl.”
Bugsy is one of those films where the leads have real, undeniable chemistry, and Warren Beatty’s pickup line is as smooth as buttah. The actor married Annette Bening shortly after making the movie.
“Can you keep a secret? I’m trying to organize a prison break. I’m looking for, like, an accomplice. We have to first get out of this bar, then the hotel, then the city, and then the country. Are you in or you out?”
What makes Bill Murray’s line to Scarlett Johansson in Sofia Coppola’s Lost in Translation so charming is that we can imagine the actor really saying it to someone. The role was tailor-made for Murray, which lends even more magic to his on-screen relationship with Johansson.
“I have crossed oceans of time to find you.”
For a creature that supposedly has eternity to win the heart of his true love, Gary Oldman’s Dracula is an impatient fellow. He wastes no time getting Winona Ryder’s Mina in his clutches and woos her with a little old-fashioned romance — the vampy hypnosis helped, too.
“How would you like to have a sexual encounter so intense it could conceivably change your political views?”
John Cusack’s 1980’s slate deserves the love it gets (and High Fidelity, of course), but Rob Reiner’s underrated 1985 film The Sure Thing is often left out of that praise. Cusack turns on the awkward charm as usual and proves funny guys always get the girl in the end.
“Are you looking for shells too?”
“No, I’m just looking.”
James Bond has never needed a pickup line to win women, but this quote from Dr. No shows Bond was a ladykiller right from the start of the series. Many people would fumble over their words after seeing a bikini-clad Ursula Andress emerging from the water, but Bond maintains his wit and confidence instead.
“You glide. It’s a very attactive quality. Most girls, they merely plod along. You, on the other hand, you glide… “
Andy Garcia is effortlessly cool in Gary Fleder’s Things to Do in Denver When You’re Dead . Practice obviously made perfect. You can argue that this movie is a Pulp Fiction clone until you’re blue in the face, but we’ll be having dinner with Jimmy “The Saint” after his aggressive, but inspired pickup line.