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'Women' the latest movie in emotive chick flick lineup

BY LEWIS BEALE | Special to Newsday

5:17 PM EDT, September 7, 2008

Chick flick: A film geared to female audiences, often filled with emotion, high drama and romance. Some people say the term with a sneer, as if the chick flick were a debased genre, down there with slasher movies and porn. Men would rather have bamboo splints shoved under their nails than be dragged to one. But chick flicks speak to females in ways guys may never understand. And they can make tons of money: Just check out this summer's grosses for " Sex and the City," " Mamma Mia!" and " The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2."

So Friday's release of "The Women," starring Meg Ryan and Annette Bening, a film based on a 1939 Joan Crawford classic, shows that Hollywood knows a good thing when it sees it. The chick flick is eternal. And in the long history of the genre, here are a few standouts.

NOW, VOYAGER (1942) One of the all-time great weepies, as Bette Davis gets help from shrink Claude Rains and falls for sophisticated Paul Henreid. "Oh, Jerry, don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars." Why, indeed?

AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (1957) Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr meet onboard a ship, return to their New York lives, but vow to meet at the top of the Empire State Building six months later. Then a tragic accident changes their plans. A three-hanky movie if ever there was one.

LOVE STORY (1970) Upper-crust Harvard guy Ryan O'Neal falls for working-class babe Ali MacGraw. Numerous tragedies ensue, including MacGraw's cancer diagnosis. But, hey -- "Love means never having to say you're sorry."

AN OFFICER AND A GENTLEMAN (1982) Naval officer-in-training Richard Gere falls for townie Debra Winger. Do they get together in the end? Does Gere look totally hot in Navy whites?

DIRTY DANCING (1987) Sheltered teen Jennifer Grey meets studly Patrick Swayze at a summer resort. They dance, make love, and the ugly duckling becomes a beautiful swan. Nobody puts Baby -- or this movie -- in a corner.

GHOST (1990) Swayze again, as a murdered yuppie who returns to Earth to save fiancee Demi Moore from a similar fate. Can love conquer even death? You betcha.

IN HER SHOES (2005) Cameron Diaz is a party girl with a messy private life. Toni Collette is her responsible sister, looking for a lasting relationship. And Shirley MacLaine is the grandmom who attracts the eye of dapper Jerry Adler (Hesh from "The Sopranos"). A multigenerational love story that really clicks.

SOMETHING NEW (2006) Sanaa Lathan is an upwardly mobile buppie lawyer. Simon Baker is her blonder-than-blond landscape gardener. Can their love overcome class and racial differences?