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An Affair To Remember
This Valentine’s Day, untold numbers of women, no doubt inspired by the movie’s bit part in "Sleepless In Seattle," will weep over the Cary Grant-Deborah Kerr romance, "An Affair To Remember." The film, released in 1957, was nominated for four Academy Awards, and endures as a classic of its genre, even if the main plot point of the film is a bit difficult to swallow today. Cary Grant plays Nickie Ferrante, an international playboy and artist, and the kind you only meet in movies, because he’s seemingly going to settle down with a wealthy sugar mama, and because, well, he’s played by Cary Grant. On board an ocean liner home to meet his fiancee in New York, Nickie meets Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr), and the sparks are instant. Neither can deny the passion they feel for one another, but because of Nickie’s reputation, Terry enters cautiously into their budding relationship. It doesn’t help that the ship is crawling with gawkers eager to observe Nickie’s every move on Terry. But when Terry joins Nickie on a brief visit to his grandmother in the south of France, she sees him with new eyes, and their bond is sealed. The two lovers agree to return to their betrothed, but agree to meet in six months at the top of the Empire State Building. For anyone who hasn’t seen the picture before, stop reading now. Everyone out of the room? Okay, good. A tragic accident keeps Terry from making her appointment with Nickie at the top of the Empire State Building. But instead of calling, writing, or even sending Nickie a telegram, to say “sorry I missed our date, but I was hit by a car,” she becomes a school teacher, pining away for Nickie while her former fiance dutifully, and inexplicably, spends all his time taking care of her. No, some sort of strange pride or fear keeps her from reaching out to Nickie and revealing the truth, that she is now without use of her legs. Perhaps she feels Nickie won’t love her as an invalid. Nickie, on the other hand, works through the stages of grief and heartache through his paintings, of which his agent says are the best work he’s done, though we don’t get to see hardly any of it. Let’s face it, the second half of this movie is complete hooey. Okay, I get that Nickie is mad at Terry for standing him up, but for neither one of them to contact each other for months on end is a real whopper of a plot point, one that’s hard to swallow in this day and age. But the final scene sells it, and sells it hard. Nickie decides to pay a surprise visit to Terry on Christmas Eve. Seeing her laid out on the couch, he mistakes her inability to stand up and greet him as indifference, and lays out his feelings. Even now, alone with the man she loves, Terry still can’t reveal the truth to him. Nickie tells a story about how he had his agent give away one of his paintings to a woman in a wheelchair who liked it. Seeing that very painting on the wall in Terry’s bedroom, Cary Grant -- our suave, debonair Cary Grant -- stands with his back against the door, alone, closes his eyes and raises his head to the heavens as the emotion of the moment overcomes him, finally realizing the truth.
I love Deborah Kerr, who was just marvelous in "The King and I," but in "An Affair To Remember," her mannered approach doesn’t always work. Occasionally she drops her guard and the passion emerges. But on the other hand, in her big hospital scene, she plays it too broadly, and the scene borders on parody. Grant is the key to "An Affair To Remember." During filming, he was coming off an affair of his own, with the Italian star Sophia Loren. Loren was the one who had ended that relationship, and Grant was hurting. It’s hard to believe that the man who romanced so many women in the movies could be so unlucky in real life, but it’s right up there on the screen.
'AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER' ON BLU-RAY"An Affair To Remember" has been released on DVD before, but this is the first time the movie has been made available in a high definition format for home viewing. I didn’t notice much difference in the picture sharpness between my old DVD and the Blu-ray, perhaps because of the age of the film and the many process shots that occur in the picture. But the color is improved tremendously. Deborah Kerr’s skin tones look great, and the brief scene on the boat when she splashes into a swimming pool wearing a bright yellow bathing suit is an explosion of color. Extra features on the disc include an audio commentary featuring film historian Joseph McBride and singer Marni Nixon, who dubbed Kerr’s singing voice in both this film and "The King and I." There’s also an AMC documentary about the making of the film, and interviews with Kerr and Grant’s widows, who recall their lives with the stars. The disc comes in a handsome hardbound booklet. Great for any fan of the film!
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