An Affair to Remember

Year: 1957
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Directed: Leo McCarey
Stars: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning, Neva Patterson, Cathleen Nesbitt, Robert Q. Lewis, Charles Watts
Production: Twentieth Century Fox

Even as far back as Hollywood's golden age, the studios have always been accused of running low on ideas. We have the proof in movies like The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Pocketful of Miracles (1961) and The Blue Angel (1959) all stale, repetitious remakes of superior 1930's counterparts. As much as we like to put on our rose-colored glasses and imagine An Affair to Remember as a classic Cary Grant romantic comedy/drama, it is in fact a story that has already been told, in a little known tale called Love Affair (1939). At least Twentieth Century Fox had the smarts to put the same director on the job; Leo McCarey, famous for making the Marx Brothers' funniest movie Duck Soup (1933). Here though McCarey is seemingly struggling to make his story just as exciting and relevant as the original.

Hitchcock, is that you?

Cary Grant plays Nickie Ferrante an infamous playboy and tabloid stable. His highly publicized affairs with the rich and famous seems to have come to a halt when he engages New York heiress Lois Clark (Patterson). While on-board a luxury liner however, Ferrante meets Terry (Kerr) the fiancee to a Texas oil baron. Both are affianced so naturally they become attracted to each other. Before leaving the ship to their respective fates, the two make a pact to meet each other at the top of the Empire State Building in six months. If both have broken their engagements and started work on their true ambitions (Nickie an artist; Terry a singer), they will get married.

Love Affair (1939)

McCarey recycles the exact same script from the 1939 version that was first penned by Donald Ogden Stewart and Delmer Daves. The updates either pad the running time or are purely superficial; replacing Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne with Grant and Kerr, filming in color, adding a few more syrupy moments and including "An Affair to Remember (Our Love Affair)" into the soundtrack. What results is a movie that's stagy, bereft of tension and more than a little silly. It's a shame too because Grant and Kerr do a great job with what they're given. Even when Kerr is forced to sit on a sofa unable to tell her beloved Nickie her secret (for reasons of pride?) she swallows that contrivance the way only a British film veteran could.

And of course just like The Prince and the Showgirl (1957) and Funny Face (1957) the advent of technicolor proved this film's downfall. With the inclusion of technicolor there was a boon to film genres like epics, westerns and war movies which benefited from capturing the natural beauty of the great outdoors. Yet for studio films, technicolor exposed the audience to the phony filigree surrounding their favorite stars and starlets. Is it any wonder the best movies of 1957 not in the aforementioned genres were all in black and white? 12 Angry Men (1957), Witness for the Prosecution (1957) and Sweet Smell of Success (1957) all relied heavily on sets, all black and white and all better than An Affair to Remember by a long shot.

I'm gonna go see if Desk Set (1957) is playing in the next theater.
You in?

Presented with a thick film of nostalgia by Netflix (no doubt to cash in on those sultry sexagenarian Valentines), An Affair to Remember is simply not worth the fuss. Released and remembered fondly as the ultimate love story and nominated for multiple Oscars, the movie has aged like a cold fish stew. Do not use this film as the basis for judging the primary proprietors of such schlock. Leo McCarey made great films...in the 30's. Meanwhile Grant and Kerr were nominated several times at the Academy Awards (though never won) and there's a reason for that. It's just not An Affair to Remember.

Final Grade: D