# Are there any chick flicks that feature a poor man as the love interest? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 21, 2015, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052 "2015-06-21T03:00:11Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 8:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/21 "2015-06-21T08:31:59Z")
> [@ski](#): > > Depends on your definition of chick flick, though it has most of the necessary components: > > Princess Bride He was a highly reputable maritime entrepreneur. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 8:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/22 "2015-06-21T08:57:49Z")
_[Foolin’ Around](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080750/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_57)_ ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 9:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/23 "2015-06-21T09:57:52Z")
_Grease_ - at least, Sandy \*acted \*a lot richer than Zuko. \*Lady and the Tramp \*- says so right in the title. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/24 "2015-06-21T10:09:42Z")
I guess **Larry Crowne** qualifies, but then to get to blue collar Tom Hanks, Julia Roberts leaves her deadbeat, unemployed husband. So it’s still a step up, financially. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 11:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/25 "2015-06-21T11:45:25Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > Certainly the biggest and most well known. She’s rich, he’s poor. It’s hardly a romantic comedy since he dies in the end, but it is a chick flick for the most part. No, she and her mother are flat broke and are hoping to latch on to Cal’s money with a hot young wife, at least that’s the mother’s goal. ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/26 "2015-06-21T13:06:07Z")
Is _Sideways_ a chick flick? If so, the guy getting the girl is a high school English teacher so poor that he steals from his mom for a weekend getaway. In the old film _Tom, Dick and Harry_, the poorest of the three titular swains (Burgess Meredith) is the one who gets the girl (Ginger Rogers). ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 1:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/27 "2015-06-21T13:29:05Z")
[_City Lights_](https://en.wikipedia.org/?title=City_Lights). ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/28 "2015-06-21T13:43:22Z")
The Devil Wears Prada: Successful executive assistant turns her back on the highest-profile job she could imagine so she can be with her sous-chef boyfriend. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/29 "2015-06-21T15:30:03Z")
How about the TV series Beauty and the Beast? Definitely chick-flick material (well, chick-tv at least). Successful NY lawyer babe falls for ugly guy who lives in the sewers. ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/30 "2015-06-21T15:30:29Z")
> [@Mr\_Downtown](#): > > Say Anything. > [@Spoke](#): > > This was the one that occurred to me as I was composing the thread. **Say Anything** is a chick flick? ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/31 "2015-06-21T15:38:44Z")
> [@Shoeless](#): > > **Say Anything** is a chick flick? It might not have been written intentionally as a chick flick, but there’s no doubt it has a deep resonance with a lot of women. That movie is the reason an entire generation of women is still in love with John Cusack. . ---
**Author:** ![Lee\_Q](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/aeb1de/32.png) [@Lee\_Q](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lee_Q)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/32 "2015-06-21T15:39:17Z")
Seconding the Crossing Delancey suggestion. One of my favorite movies. Also has wonderful music by the Roches. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/33 "2015-06-21T15:53:40Z")
I immediately thought of Little Women, too. Meg bought a hideously expensive dress and told her husband when he found out that ‘she was so tired of being poor’. Poor Jo ended up with her cultured but dirt-poor older German (though they later opened up a school for boys, somehow). Kind of hated Amy for bagging rich neighbor Laurie, she should have stayed single and endlessly ‘dating’, trying to trade up, over and over. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 4:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/34 "2015-06-21T16:08:43Z")
This wasn’t a movie but a Masterpiece Theater series _[Flambards](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flambards_%28TV_series%29)_. It’s a story about an orphaned heiress who’s supposed to marry a cousin so her inheritance can be used to restore his estate, but she falls in love with a stable boy. It’s been eons since I’ve seen it, but I think she and the stable boy got their happily-ever-after. ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/35 "2015-06-21T16:36:21Z")
LOTR: The Return of the King. Granted, he cleaned up pretty good at the end… ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/36 "2015-06-21T16:36:56Z")
Not exactly a chick flick, but _The Breakfast Club_ features a romance between wealthy “princess” Claire and working class “criminal” Bender. Jane Austen’s _Mansfield Park_ has been adapted as a movie, and features a poor heroine who rejects a rich, sexy “bad boy” suitor in favor of a country clergyman with a modest income. Several of Austen’s other heroines marry men in similar situations, although her wealthiest romantic hero (Mr. Darcy of _Pride and Prejudice_) is probably also the most popular. ---
**Author:** ![amarinth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3be4f8/32.png) [@amarinth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarinth)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/37 "2015-06-21T16:47:23Z")
Classics: _It Happened One Night_, he’s an out of work reporter with nearly nothing at all (it’s a plot point) _How to Marry a Millionaire_ ends with two of the three heroines (Marilyn Monroe & Betty Grable) with poor guys, and the third thinking that she chose a poor guy over a rich guy. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/38 "2015-06-21T16:49:28Z")
> [@choie](#): > > Might be a stretch, but _Tangled_ (not really a chick flick) has a princess falling for a thief. Ditto _Frozen_, since we’re talking another princess and an ice farmer. > [@Alessan](#): > > \*Lady and the Tramp \*- says so right in the title. If we count animation (and I agree they’re not really chick flicks) then _Shrek_ is another example. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 4:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/39 "2015-06-21T16:57:44Z")
_Marty_ – I’m not sure how poor he is – he’s a butcher so he’s not super-rich – but he’s also fat and ugly. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2015, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052/40 "2015-06-21T17:04:56Z")
> [@Boyo\_Jim](#): > > _Marty_ – I’m not sure how poor he is – he’s a butcher so he’s not super-rich – but he’s also fat and ugly. But since he’s talking about buying into a supermarket, he may be better off than Clara, who’s a schoolteacher and a “dog.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-there-any-chick-flicks-that-feature-a-poor-man-as-the-love-interest/723052.md?page=3)