Testing Chemistry Formulas

Webster’s Dictionary describes the chemistry between two people as a “mutual attraction, attachment or sympathy-matching personalities or vibes to make the relationship click.”

Over the years, numerous romantic screen teams have possessed that special something that leaps off the screen and creates magic. But even the most popular couples have discovered that chemistry can be elusive.

Romantic pairings are part of movie history. In the 1920s, audiences couldn’t get enough of Greta Garbo and John Gilbert, who first set the screen afire in 1927’s “Flesh and the Devil.” Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire danced their way into moviegoers’ hearts in 10 popular musicals in the 1930s and ‘40s. Sophisticated farceurs William Powell and Myrna Loy were the epitome of the perfect married couple in the six “Thin Man” mystery-comedies they made during the ‘30s and ‘40s.

Humphrey Bogart and his eventual wife, Lauren Bacall, headlined four hit films in the ‘40s, and Katharine Hepburn and her significant other, Spencer Tracy, appeared in nine movies from the ‘40s through the ‘60s.

Now Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are hoping to repeat the magic they created in 1993’s blockbuster “Sleepless in Seattle” with their new romantic comedy, “You’ve Got Mail,” which opened Friday.

Hanks and Ryan seem like a perfect pairing--but not in every case. Sure, everyone remembers “Sleepless in Seattle,” but it’s not so easy to recall their first film together--the 1990 comedy “Joe Versus the Volcano”--which was a critical and commercial flop.

Married performers seem to have an even harder time finding the right project. Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor may have made such acclaimed hits as “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” and “The Taming of the Shrew” during their marriage, but the couple had more than their share of flops, including the overblown “Cleopatra” and the equally dreadful “Boom!” and “Doctor Faustus.”

Here’s a look at some popular screen teams over the years, their well-known hits and little-known misses.

Burt Lancaster and Deborah Kerr

The One We Remember: As the illicit lovers in 1953’s “From Here to Eternity,” Lancaster and Kerr burned up the screen in their famous beach love scene.

The One We Forget: Sixteen years later, they played illicit lovers yet again in John Frankenheimer’s drama “The Gypsy Moths.” Though the film received generally good reviews, it barely made a ripple at the box office.

Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr

The One We Remember: Grant and Kerr made audiences weep buckets of tears as those romantic lovers in 1957’s “An Affair to Remember,” directed by Leo McCarey.

The One We Forget: Four years earlier, the two starred in the silly romantic comedy “Dream Wife,” which was written and directed by none other than Sidney Sheldon.

Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn

The Ones We Remember: Grant and Hepburn seemed to bring out the devil-may-care sides of each other in the delightful 1938 comedies “Bringing Up Baby” and “Holiday” and, most especially, in 1940’s “The Philadelphia Story.”

The One We Forget: Their partnership got off to a rocky start with the offbeat 1935 comedy “Sylvia Scarlett,” a box-office flop.

Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn

The Ones We Remember: Their on-screen and off-screen partnership lasted 25 years. During that time, they starred in such classics as “Woman of the Year,” “State of the Union,” “Adam’s Rib,” “Pat and Mike,” “Desk Set” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner.”

The One We Forget: It’s hard to believe that Tracy and Hepburn ever starred in a clinker, but the ill-fated 1947 western “The Sea of Grass” is a stuffed turkey.

Walter Pidgeon and Greer Garson

The Ones We Remember: He was handsome and dignified; she was beautiful and graceful. During the ‘40s and early ‘50s, they were one of the best-loved screen teams, starring in such classics as 1942’s Oscar winner “Mrs. Miniver” and 1943’s “Madame Curie.”

The Ones We Forget: Even their professionalism couldn’t save “The Miniver Story,” the wan 1950 sequel to “Mrs. Miniver,” or the pedestrian 1953 melodrama “Scandal at Scourie,” in which they play a Protestant couple who shock their town when they adopt a Catholic girl.

John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John

The One We Remember: Audiences were hopelessly devoted to these two when they played high school sweeties Danny and Sandy in the 1978 blockbuster musical comedy “Grease.”

The One We Forget: Lightning didn’t strike for Travolta and Newton-John when they re-teamed for the insipid 1983 fantasy “Two of a Kind.”

Gary Cooper and Ingrid Bergman

The One We Remember: Coop and Bergman were hot and heavy as ill-fated lovers Robert and Maria in Sam Wood’s long but compelling 1943 adaptation of Ernest Hemingway’s novel “For Whom the Bell Tolls.”

The One We Forget: The same year “Bell” was released, Cooper, Bergman and director Wood re-teamed for the romantic drama “Saratoga Trunk,” based on the book by Edna Ferber. The film, though, wasn’t released until 1946.

William Holden and Audrey Hepburn

The One We Remember: Holden and Hepburn turned on the charm in Billy Wilder’s classic 1954 “Sabrina,” in which Hepburn played a chauffeur’s daughter madly in love with the playboy son (Holden) of their employer. (There was zippo chemistry between Harrison Ford and Julia Ormond in the 1995 “Sabrina” remake.)

The One We Forget: A decade later, the two starred in the dismal, boring comedy “Paris--When It Sizzles.” It should have been called “Paris--When It Fizzles.” Holden played a screenwriter and Hepburn his secretary.

Greta Garbo and Melvyn Douglas

The One We Remember: Garbo’s first comedy was 1939’s delightful “Ninotchka,” directed by the master of sophistication, Ernst Lubitsch. Garbo was a cold, clinical Russian agent who falls in love with devil-may-care Douglas, whom she meets in Paris.

The One We Forget: The two first starred together, with mixed results, in the 1932 melodrama “As You Desire Me,” but they were lost at sea in the ill-fated 1941 comedy “Two-Faced Woman,” which ended up being Garbo’s last movie.

Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth

The One We Remember: “Gilda,” from 1946, was one of the biggest postwar hits. The melodrama is best remembered for Ford and Hayworth’s sizzling love scenes, as well as for Hayworth’s “Put the Blame on Mame” number.

The One We Forget: Ford and Hayworth made a few films after “Gilda,” but none of them captured its appeal. They paired for the last time in the unremarkable 1966 drama “The Money Trap.”

Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake

The One We Remember: They were both blond and beautiful, smoldering in the 1942 film noir “This Gun for Hire.

The One We Forget: Even Ladd and Lake couldn’t save the snoozy 1948 caper thriller “Saigon.”

George Segal and Glenda Jackson

The One We Remember: Segal and Jackson’s “A Touch of Class” wound up being one of the surprise hits of 1973, garnering Jackson a best actress Oscar.

The One We Forget: Six years later, Segal, Jackson and “Class” director Melvin Frank reunited for the romantic comedy “Lost and Found.” Unfortunately, all the jokes seem to be missing from the script.