They're irresistible when you're happy, they're irresistible when you're sad -- there's really no wrong time to watch a classic romantic movie. And whether you prefer your love stories frothy and old-fashioned or tortured and intense, no matter: There's something for everyone on this greatest hits list. In these movies, emotions run high, obstacles abound, and it all only makes the happy endings that much sweeter. So grab the nearest box of tissues and read on to see how your favorite romantic classic fares.

7. Titanic (1997)
The showy effects may overshadow the affair, but James Cameron's goldmine still has at its center the heady romance between Rose (Kate Winslet) and Jack (Leonardo DiCaprio). Their joyful, intimate scenes, when he sketches her portrait, when they lean out over the bow, are even more resonant than the disaster sequences that follow. Ultimately, she sacrifices her future, and he his life, but it's all worth it because it gives Celine Dion something to sing about. Which earns Titanic its lucky number seven.

6. Ghost (1990)
Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze) and hottie potter Molly Jensen (Demi Moore) are actually a little too happy together at the outset of this romance, so his tragic murder might prompt a smidgeon of schadenfreude from lonelier viewers. But even haters will be pulling for the couple once psychic Oda Mae Brown (Whoopi Goldberg) gets involved in helping Molly find closure. When the scratchy chords of "Unchained Melody" kick in, good luck resisting this movie's pull.

5. Annie Hall (1977)
Annie Hall is Woody Allen's most successful romance, not least because it tracks the entire life cycle of Alvy Singer (Allen) and Annie's (Diane Keaton) rocky, over-thought love affair, while locating the couple within a very distinct period in the annals of American navel-gazing. Even with the bizarre fantasy sequences -- Alvy sporting full Hasid garb at a Wasp-y dinner party, anyone? -- the movie rates as one of the most naturalistic depictions of a romance on record, so it's a shoe-in for the middle of this list.

Were two star-crossed lovers ever quite so, well, tortured as Loretta Castorini (Cher) and her fiance's brother Ronny (Nicolas Cage)? She's a dowdy Brooklynite; he's a one-handed baker with troubles of his own, yet their unexpected romance perfectly encapsulates the woozy rush of  being swept off your feet -- but with a refreshing cynicism that earns it the fourth place slot on this list. When Ronny expresses his feelings, Loretta slaps him across and hollers "Snap out of it!"... And you know they'll be together in the end. 

3. Casablanca (1942)
The romance in Casablanca between Ilsa (Ingrid Bergman) and Rick (Humphrey Bogart) ends before the story even begins: She's married to someone else, he's sworn off love, but they will always, always have Paris. Compellingly conveying the opposing forces of the head and the heart, Casablanca manages to make believable every character's difficult choices, however self-defeating. The problems of three little people may not amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world, but in Casablanca, they certainly do.

2. West Side Story (1961)
West Side Story is the gold standard of Shakespearean rip-offs. The famous dance scene at the gym, where Tony (Richard Beymer) and Maria (Natalie Wood) first lay eyes on one another, is still a heart-stopper, and there's never a dry eye in the house when she cradles his dying body in her arms and screams "Don't you touch him!" at the gang members who snuff out his short life at movie's end. Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim's brilliant songs aren't too shabby, either, but this one's still only second to...

1. Gone with the Wind (1939)
The ne plus ultra of romance movies is part sweeping historical epic, part portrait of a willful woman, and all love story. Rhett Butler (Clark Gable) and Scarlett O'Hara (Vivian Leigh) have one missed connection after another, and when the feisty pair finally does get together, they still manage to flub their best chance at happiness by sniping at each other the morning after their best!sex!ever! Leaving the ending unresolved allows romantics to write their own happily ever after -- a stroke of genius that earns this classic the gold.