Cary Grant
Deborah Kerr
____________________

Grant and Kerr star in this syrupy remake of LOVE AFFAIR/1939, which featured Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne. Grant, a debonair bachelor, romances former cafe singer Kerr aboard an ocean liner. The film begins as a comedy, turns into a tearjerker, and - of course - ends happily. Also includes Cathleen Nesbitt, Richard Denning, and Neva Patterson.
Director - Leo MaCarey
approx. film running-time 119 minutes

* This movie is available on videotape

IT HAS often been said, in explanation of what are sometimes painfully obvious similarities between one picture and another, that there are really only seven basic storysituations anyway. With Hollywood alone turning out about 300 pictures every twelve months, a certain amount of duplication is to be expected - especially after all these years. And so, combining this logic with commercial cunning, the studios today are turning back to earlier successes, refurbishing them with (as Cole Porter put it) "Technicolor, CinemaScope, and Stereophonic Sound," and sending them forth anew with titles like "An Affair to Remember," "Silk Stockings," or "Interlude" so that the public won't confuse them with "Love Affair," "Ninotchka," or "When Tommorrow Comes" - the originals.
Far more successful is Leo McCarey's re-working of "Love Affair," which now has Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in the roles originally created by Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne. (There was a time when it seemed that every movie starred Irene Dunne.) McCary has had the good sense not to pretend that this romantic comedy is ever anything more than that, meanwhile exploiting a quality so long absent from the screen that it comes through with all the force of a brand new discovery - namely, charm. Jerry Wald, the producer of "An Affair to Remember," stopped off in New York long enough recently to observe that one reason there were so few real love stories being made any more was because there were so few actors who could play them convincingly. "Today's actors," he said, "either look good and talk lousy or they look lousy and talk good." Well, Cary Grant, an early exponent of cinematic charm, still looks good and talks good - and his graceful performance as an indigent playboy who falls in love with another man's mistress is one good reason for seeing this film.

The pattern of romance is noticeably changing in motion pictures. Now it is more likely that boy will meet middle-aged woman, or girl will meet gentleman past his prime, or well-preserved man will meet well-preserved woman. The dependency of Hollywood on its big box-office names has delayed the retirement plans of a good many leading men and ladies, even though they may soon be eligible for social security payment. It has also changed the scripts. A good instance of the new kind of romance is that between Cary Grant (whom we all know to be in his fifties) and Deborah Kerr (an attractive and youngish matron) in "An Affair to Remember." They meet on shipboard, and throb for a while with highly restrained passion before settling down. While both are charming, we cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, consider them young lovers.

LAUGHTER AND HEARTBREAK

Here is a movie so smoothly assembled, so deftly operated, and so mercilessly purposful that it almost seems crooked. There is nothing new in it, but almost everything old in it is so tried and true and so carefully adjusted to today's tastes that, hokey as the whole thing is, it is impossible not to respond.
Cary Grant is an international charmer loping easily around the decks and saloons of a transatlantic luxury liner. Deborah Kerr is aboard, looking not only charming but intelligent, affectionate, and humorous. A romance gets under way which begins - and stays for a long time - at arm's length, unacknowledged, only half-recognized, and gently playful. The players are so expert with each other and so engaging, that one is rendered completely relaxed and, therefore, completely defenseless against the unthinkable reality that suddenly, at length, intrudes. From here on out the shattering misfortune that overtakes this charming couple simply has its way unhindered with one's silly old heart, and the moviegoer crawls out of the theater stricken to the point of embarrassment.
This neat exploitation of laughter for heartbreak has not much been used by the movies lately. It was used back in 1939, in "Love Affair" (with Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne), of which "An Affair to Remember" is a remake.

* Summing Up: A very good cry.

"QUOTABLE"  QUOTES

"Being a woman, I'm more cautious and I can think more clearly when you're not around. So you go think in your room and I'll think in mine."

" I want something irresistible, inexpensive . . . and pink. " 

--- Terry McKay ( Deborah Kerr )