Book does more than pay lip service to the best cinematic smooches

The old song says "a kiss is just a kiss." Movie fans know better.

The best celluloid smooches linger in our minds (and hearts) long after the closing credits because they reveal something important about the people involved.

They can signal the start of a romance, the reunion of lovers who've been apart or, in the case of "The Godfather, Part II," the fact that someone is about to get whacked.

In the new book "Great Kisses … And Famous Lines Right Out of the Movies" (Harper Entertainment, $12.95), Timothy Knight spotlights the 50 greatest kisses the movies have produced.

More Coverage Video First kiss

He narrowed his list to those supplemented by dialogue, thereby eliminating such beautiful-but-silent kisses as the one between Kelly McGillis and Harrison Ford in 1985's "Witness."

And in keeping with the Valentine's Day season, Knight focused on romantic moments, so the terrifying kiss that Michael Corleone bestows on his traitorous and soon-to-be-dead brother Fredo in the aforementioned "Godfather" film was out.

"I was looking for scenes where everything, the dialogue as well as the kiss itself, added up to a uniquely romantic moment," Knight said.

Knight, a former film critic and writer based in Los Angeles, knew when he started working on the book that classic kisses from movies like "Casablanca" and "From Here to Eternity" would be included. But there were some surprises, too.

Take 1976's "Rocky," for instance. Sylvester Stallone, not generally known for romantic scenes, shines in his endearingly awkward kiss with Talia Shire in that film, Knight said.

Another surprise was the kiss in 1952's "The Quiet Man," featuring one of the movies' ultimate tough guys, John Wayne.

"I never really thought about John Wayne as someone who could pull off a really romantic kiss like that," Knight said. "It definitely shows a different side of him."

The films on Knight's list come from just about every era of moviemaking, from 1932's "Love Me Tonight" to 2004's "Facing Windows." Most, though, are older movies. Does that mean contemporary movies are less romantic?

"The old films paid more attention to the buildup and anticipation that leads to a kiss, definitely," Knight said. "Some of that had to do with the production code in place back then, of course. But I rarely see the same kind of tension between characters in movies today. It's like they're just going through the motions."