Betty and Veronica/Film

Examples of the Betty and Veronica trope in Films

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• The Cincinnati Kid has a textbook Betty and Veronica love triangle, so much that the 2nd paragraph of this page sounds like it's describing this movie. Steve McQueen is the hero, a poker player dating Tuesday Weld (Betty) who is pretty, sweet, and kind of dull, but he's drawn to the wild and sexy Ann-Margret (Veronica), who is married to a friend of his but constantly flirts with him. True to form, Weld is a blonde and Margret is a redhead.
• A "color-coded" triangle exists in film noirs The Postman Always Rings Twice, Tension, and Out Of The Past (where the evil Veronica, Jane Greer, dresses all in white, as Lana Turner had in "Postman"). In the black and white film Dark Passage, both the Veronica and Betty characters (Agnes Moorhead and Lauren Bacall respectively) are brunettes, but Moorhead's character loves and is coded by the color orange.
• John Hughes has used this binary triangle with some success. In Pretty in Pink, the traditional "Betty/Veronica" triangle exists between two boys and a girl (Blaine, Ducky, red-headed Andi)... Yet the unpleasant "Reggie" archetype is played by the blonde, wealthy James Spader, who seeks to sabotage his friend Blaine, an "Archie" type nice boy. The character of Duckie is comic relief, like "Jughead," but unique in that he's also a love interest. Of course Pretty in Pink was originally shot to have her end up with the Betty (Ducky) as well, but thanks to Executive Meddling, that didn't happen.
  • Hughes also played this trope straight in Some Kind of Wonderful - a red-haired "Archie" (Eric Stoltz) loves a popular girl (Lea Thompson) with brown hair, but can't see that his blonde best friend (Mary Stuart Masterson) loves him.
  • This was also used in Sixteen Candles, when the male love interest is dating the blond cheerleader (Veronica) but spends most of the movie trying to hook up with the red-headed plain but not-superficial girl (Betty). The cheerleader gets this herself, when she leaves said male love interest (Veronica) for a geeky but sweet kid she went home with while drunk (Betty). And since that geeky kid had a crush on the plain red head, he himself chose the Veronica over the Betty.
• Subverted in The Mask, where the Betty, a news reporter, sells Stanley out to the Big Bad, while the Veronica, the Big Bad's Moll, is the one who stays true and ends up with him.
• The two fiances in Corpse Bride fit this trope—shy, proper, living Victoria is the Betty and the lively-but-dead Emily is the Veronica. Except that Victor specifically wants to marry Victoria; Emily was in the picture thanks to a rather weird Accidental Engagement.
  • Victor ALSO wants to marry Emily; but, knowing that doing so would kill him (literally) and would make Victoria as sad as she is herself without any chance of closure, she rejects him at the last moment.
• Featured but skewed in Strange Days, where the Betty is an ass-kicking tough-as-nails limo driver who is devoted to the (slightly skeevy) main character, and the Veronica is a flaky, self-centred punk rock singer who broke the main character's heart and who he's been obsessed with ever since. The Betty wins out, mainly because the Veronica slept with the main character's best friend and conspired with him to frame the main character for two murders.
• While not a love-triangle set-up, it's worth noting that in Heathers, Winona Ryder's exotic and popular character is named Veronica, while her quieter, slightly dowdy childhood best friend she has dumped to join the popular crowd is named Betty, in obvious reference to Archie comics.
• In Mormon movie The Single's Ward the protagonist dumps the non-Mormon Veronica for the Mormon Betty after he has an epiphany and realizes that he values his faith.
• Terrence Malick's The New World applies this trope to the story of Pocahontas, who has to choose between John Smith (Veronica) and John Rolfe (Betty).
• Pictured above: Also gender-flipped in Pirates of the Caribbean with Jack as the Veronica and Will as the Betty. Elizabeth must choose between them...not that there's ever much doubt about who she'll choose, seeing that she's been in love with Will from the beginning and never shows much interest in Jack. But still, the option was there (and fans in particular liked to explore it very much).
• In Death Becomes Her, Helen, a shy, timid Betty in the beginning of the movie, is desperately afraid her fiance Ernest will fall for Madeline, her childhood friend, who is a flashy actress and definite Veronica. Depending on how you define the roles, though, they become less distinct after the first fifteen minutes of the movie.
• Mulholland Drive: Betty is, well, "Betty", and Rita is "Veronica". Initially subverted in that, instead of being two sides of a love triangle, they initially develop a lesbian relationship. It gets more complicated later on.
• Shark Tale has longtime friend Angie as the Betty and The Vamp Lola as the Veronica.
• In Caveman, Atouk lusts after the sexy but shallow Lana. When she becomes interested in him, he rejects her for his friend Tala.
• The plot of Two Lovers, although the brunette is the stable one while the blonde is wild. Another exception in the brunette and blonde appearing to be of equal attractiveness.
• Star Wars. Good-hearted, loyal, and friendly farmboy/Jedi Luke is the Betty. Roguish, rough, and experienced Han is the Veronica. Rather luckily (given the later revelation that she was Luke's Long Lost Sibling), she chose Han.
• Inverted in Forgetting Sarah Marshall, where the protagonist chases after the wholesome, apple-pie blonde all-American girl and ends up with the wild, exotic boob-flashing brunette from Hawaii.
• Brutally subverted in Not Another Teen Movie, where Janey, having to choose between Jake (The Jock who dates her only because of a bet with his Jerk Jock buddy) and Ricky (the annoying, whiny loser of a "friend"), chooses the former, causing him to have a change of heart, while the latter remains an annoying whiny loser.
• The movie adaptation of The Phantom has Diana, Kit's ex-girlfriend, and Sala, the female leader of a gang of Air Pirates.
• Cat People has the male lead falling for the beautiful, exotic, Serbian Irena, but later leaving her for his sweet, dependable, American coworker Alice. (Partly because Irena wouldn't sleep with him.)
• Queen of the Damned has a genderswapped version with Enkil as the Betty and Lestat as the Veronica to Akasha's Archie. Lestat most decidedly wins when Akasha murders Enkil in order to pursue Lestat. And then...
  • Akasha as the Veronica and Jesse as the Betty to Lestat's Archie. Jesse wins when Lestat turns on Akasha in order to save his Betty.
• Bram Stokers Dracula has (although Bram Stoker's Dracula does not) a genderswapped version with Mina as Archie, Dracula as Veronica and her much more average fiance Jonathan as Betty. Dracula dies, but it is not made entirely certain that Mina goes back to Jonathan.
  • On the other hand, one could view Mina as the Betty and Lucy as the Veronica to 'The Man Himself'. As it's a matter of Death rather than love, and Dracula does try for both, this is probably a subversion (or even just a nod to the trope rather than an instance proper.)
• In The Age Of Innocence, Newland Archer is engaged and eventually married to May Welland, a lovely but completely ordinary socialite (The Betty), while falling in love with her cousin Ellen, the family reprobate (The Veronica). This trope is played even stronger in the book, where May is blond and blue-eyed and Ellen dark-haired. Subverted somewhat in that in this case, the Betty is wrong for him, despite their similar backgrounds and upbringing.
• The 2010 Rupert Grint movie Cherrybomb has another genderswapped version, with Michelle as the Archie, having to choose between the (relatively) safe and dependable Malachy (Betty) and the rebellious, dashing Luke (Veronica).
• In Vicky Cristina Barcelona, the blonde Cristina (Betty) and the brunette (Vicky) are involved in a love triangle with Javier Bardem's character.
• In My Best Friend's Wedding, Julia Roberts' sarcastic, redheaded New Yorker (Veronica) tries to stop her best friend Dermot Mulroney (Archie) from marrying sweet, blonde, blue-blooded Cameron Diaz (Betty). She doesn't succeed. Not only that, but she's called out on her bullshit.
• The Deaths of Ian Stone sets up the protagonist with a sweet-natured blonde Betty, then shifts him to dating an increasingly unnerving dark-haired Veronica as the Dream Within a Dream kicks in. Neither he nor the Veronica are even remotely human, and he loved her before abandoning her for the Betty who by all rights should have been his prey. The plot of the film is based in her attempts first to snap him out of it, then to get revenge.
• Spider-Man 3 reverses the comics' version of the characters, casting Gwen Stacy as the Veronica and Mary Jane Watson as the Betty to Peter Parker's Archie. Peter eventually chooses Gwen while under the influence of the Venom symbiote, but manages to offend and alienate both of them with how much of a douche he's become.
• In Clerks, Dante Hicks is dating Veronica (Betty) when an old flame from high school comes back into his life, Caitlin Bree (Veronica). Veronica brings him lasagna at work and is trying to get Dante back in school. Caitlin is engaged (but calls off the wedding), and cheated on Dante in high school. He winds up trying to go for Caitlin, and losing them both. Veronica dumps him, and Caitlin goes catatonic after screwing a random dead guy in the Quick-E-Stop's restroom, thinking it was Dante.
  • In Clerks II, Dante has another choice between his high-maintenance fiancee Emma (Veronica) and his boss, Becky (Betty). This time he actually gets the girl and ends up with Becky.
• While the two female love interests in Cassandra's Dream aren't part of a love triangle, each being involved with one of the two brothers, their personalities fit perfectly the trope: Kate is the soft, reasonable girl next door, and Angela the sexy, intellectual actress.
• Betty Schaefer and Norma Desmond in Sunset Boulevard.
• Batman and The Joker for Vicky Vale in Batman.
  • Also, ironically, Bruce Wayne and Batman in Batman Forever.
• Sweeney Todd has the titular character as Betty and Judge Turpin as Veronica for Lucy Barker.
  • Lucy is also Betty and Mrs. Lovett is Veronica for Todd.
• Wallace and Victor Quartermaine in Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit.
• She's Out of My League plays around with this. For Molly, Kirk is the Adorkable Betty and Cam, her ex-boyfriend, is the Veronica. Meanwhile for Kirk, the beautiful and worldly Molly initially seems the Veronica and his familiar ex-girlfriend Marnie is the Betty. However Molly is genuinely nice and Marnie is not.
• The 1927 silent film It (not to be confused with Stephen King's IT) has reserved, aristocratic blonde Adela (the Betty) and sexy, fun-loving working class brunette Betty (the ironically-named Veronica) vying for Cyrus's affections. As Betty is the titular "it" girl and Cyrus is clearly attracted to her (even when he doesn't want to be) and oblivious of Adela's feelings for him throughout the entire film, it should be obvious which girl wins in the end.
• The Olsen twins, if their moves include a Sibling Triangle. Everything that they've ever been in. Ashley's character might be interested in fashion and modeling or be the cool surfer chick but will always be the boy-crazy Veronica while Mary-Kate's character might be a serious student or serious athlete but always the down to earth one.
• Something New: Mark (Betty) and Brian (Veronica) for Kenya (Archie). Mark has no cultural or color divide to overcome and works a similar professional job and comes from an acceptable social status. Brian does not.
• In a deleted scene from Pulp Fiction, Mia Wallace runs a personality/pop culture test on Vincent Vega. One of the questions is "Betty or Veronica", and Vincent chooses Betty, claiming never having gotten Veronica's appeal. Which is made interesting by the fact that Mia is a total Veronica.
• The Science of Sleep: Stéphane is firmly a Betty and Zoé (an aspiring musician) has elements of being a Veronica.
• The 1945 French classic Children of Paradise. Amid its Love Dodecahedron is the triangle between the mime Baptiste, the sultry carnival performer Garance (Veronica) and Nathalie (Betty), daughter of the manager of the theater where Baptiste is a star. In a variation on the usual formula, Garance loves Baptiste, but his shyness and her many other suitors stand in the way of their romance (also, both women are brunettes). Eventually Baptiste marries Nathalie, only to have Garance re-enter his life.