# Great Movies w/ Toxic Couples? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [May 26, 2021, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974 "2021-05-26T18:44:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 4:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/21 "2021-05-27T04:27:34Z")
Hepburn and Bogart in _ **The African Queen** _. “You song-singin’ skinny old maid!” ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/22 "2021-05-27T04:45:07Z")
Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread would have to be a contender here, with a couple whose toxicity sometimes gets extremely literal. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/23 "2021-05-27T07:49:11Z")
In a Lonely Place [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/d7u66IYT10s/maxresdefault.jpg "In A Lonely Place") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7u66IYT10s) ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 11:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/24 "2021-05-27T11:05:08Z")
> [@ZipperJJ](#): > > And it spiraled from there. Nice. ---
**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/25 "2021-05-27T11:08:45Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Would _Leaving Las Vegas_ count? This one, along with _True Romance_, both popped in my mind. The couples in both of these by no means hated each other, but certainly weren’t good for each other. ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/26 "2021-05-27T16:45:52Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > _Dead Ringers_ I’d say it counts. Some people are best left single. Some people can’t be helped by anybody else. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/27 "2021-05-27T21:08:35Z")
I don’t know what you mean the exploitation in “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” getting old after a while. For me, it’s a film I keep my kids away from because I want them to have fond memories of my parents. ---
**Author:** ![74westy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/74westy/32/3950_2.png) [@74westy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/74westy)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 10:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/28 "2021-05-27T22:33:36Z")
Your parents are Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/29 "2021-05-27T22:42:26Z")
No, but they could’ve been. Pretty enough and baggage to fill decades of weekend dinners. ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/30 "2021-05-27T22:48:39Z")
I wish they were MY parents. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [May 27, 2021, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/31 "2021-05-27T23:37:03Z")
_The Blue Angel_ (1930/1959) _Twentieth Century_ (1934) _The Devil is a Woman_/_That Obscure Object of Desire_ (1935/1977) – and other versions of the same source novel _Le Dernier Tournant_ (1939) – and all other versions and knock-offs of _The Postman Always Rings Twice_ _Frankenstein Meets the Wolfman_ (1943) – They don’t get along _Detour_ (1945) _Duel in the Sun_ (1946) _Gilda_ (1946) _Desert Fury_ (1947) – John Hodiak and Wendell Corey _The Lady from Shanghai_ (1947) _Out of the Past_ (1947) _Rope_/_Compulsion_/_Swoon_ (1948/1959/1992) _Caught_ (1949) _Gun Crazy_ (1950) _The Sound of Fury_, a.k.a. _Try and Get Me_ (1950) – Lloyd Bridges and Frank Lovejoy _Sunset Blvd._ (1950) _The Man with the Golden Arm_ (1955) _Little Shop of Horrors_ (1960 – Seymour and Audrey, Jr. _King Kong vs. Godzilla_ (1963) _This Sporting Lif_e (1963) _The Great Texas Dynamite Chase_ (1976) – Prototype for _Thelma and Louise_ _Heroes of the East_ (1978) _The Last Seduction_ (1994) _Ichi The Killer_ (2001) ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/32 "2021-05-28T00:23:38Z")
> **[Macbeth (1948 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macbeth_(1948_film))** > > Pages for logged out editors learn more > > Macbeth is a 1948 American historical drama directed by Orson Welles. A film adaptation of William Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name, it tells the story of the Scottish general who becomes the King of Scotland through treachery and murder. The film stars Welles in the lead role and Jeanette Nolan (in her feature film debut) as Lady Macbeth. > In the Middle Ages, Macbeth and Banquo are approached by the Three Witches. They address Macbeth, hail... ---
**Author:** ![Saintly\_Loser](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/saintly_loser/32/4045_2.png) [@Saintly\_Loser](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saintly_Loser)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/33 "2021-05-28T00:25:18Z")
> [@Dropo](#): > > _The Last Seduction_ (1994) I was going to post this one. Once we’re into noir, or neo-noir, they’re _all_ toxic couples. _Body Heat_ _Palmetto_ ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/34 "2021-05-28T00:25:19Z")
Barbara Stanwyck and Fred MacMurray in _ **Double Indemnity** _. Lana Turner and John Garfield in _ **The Postman Always Rings Twice** _. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/35 "2021-05-28T00:33:22Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind Winner. When you’d go so far as to erase someone from your memory… [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/J25raXjymtc/hqdefault.jpg "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind in 5 Minutes") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J25raXjymtc) ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/36 "2021-05-28T00:58:12Z")
Ann Blythe and Zachary Scott in _ **Mildred Pierce** _. Joan Crawford and Jack Carson aren’t exactly harmonious, either. ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/37 "2021-05-28T01:18:48Z")
It’s terrible movie, especially since it’s marketed as a comedy but is mainly good if you’re lacking depression in your life, but the couple in This is Forty are definitely toxic. ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/38 "2021-05-28T01:39:38Z")
> [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > _Head On (Gegen die Wand)_ is a brilliant movie, and stars Sibel Kekilli in one of her first (maybe her first) major roles… From IMDB: “The publicity of the Golden Bear award for her debut [Head-On](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0347048?ref_=nmbio_trv_1) (2004) shed some light on her past, when the Yellow Press discovered that she had acted in several porn videos under the role name Dilara.” > [@Saintly\_Loser](#): > > _Fat City_ is another must-watch, with Stacy Keach, and a very young Jeff Bridges. Also Candy Clark. And Susan Tyrrell, who was Oscar-nominated for her performance. ---
**Author:** ![Galactus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galactus/32/3581_2.png) [@Galactus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galactus)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/39 "2021-05-28T02:43:49Z")
Fight Club? ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2021, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974/40 "2021-05-28T02:50:54Z")
Damn. Ninja’d by 5 minutes. I was going to say: _Fight Club_ but whether the toxic couple includes the Helena-Bonham Carter character or not is the question. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/great-movies-w-toxic-couples/942974.md?page=3)