tall, dark, and handsome

tall, dark, and handsome

Supposedly what a woman wants in a man’s appearance. This standard description of the romantic hero found in women’s fiction of the first half of the 1900s was given further currency by the 1941 film, Tall, Dark, and Handsome. It starred dark-haired, good-looking Cesar Romero as an underworld boss who is really a softie at heart. See also strong silent type.
See also: and, handsome
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • answer to the description (of)
  • answer to the description of
  • beggar description, to
  • beyond description
  • a blow-by-blow description
  • the royal we
  • another kettle of fish
  • be another kettle of fish
  • a different kettle of fish
  • kettle
References in periodicals archive
In movies like Going My Way, The Cardinal, and The Thorn Birds, Bing Crosby, Tom Tryon, and Richard Chamberlain played Father-what-a-waste, that tall, dark, and handsome cleric who had all the lasses fainting in the aisles.
We have the right to an attorney: both the U.S. government's resort to military tribunals and the church's reluctance to turn pedophile priests over to the legal system stem from the same misguided belief that their noble goals should exempt them from due process of the law. (culture in context)