An Affair to Remember

An Affair to Remember is a 1957 American romance film directed by Leo McCarey and starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr. Filmed in CinemaScope, it was distributed by 20th Century Fox. It is considered one of the most romantic films of all time, according to the American Film Institute. The film was a remake of McCarey's 1939 film "Love Affair", starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer.
Plot.
Nickie Ferrante (Cary Grant), a well-known playboy, meets Terry McKay (Deborah Kerr) aboard the transatlantic ocean liner en route from Europe to New York. Each is involved with someone else. After a series of meetings aboard the ship, they establish a friendship. When Terry joins Nickie on a brief visit to his grandmother, Janou, while the ship is anchored near her home at Villefranche-sur-Mer on the Mediterranean coast, she sees Nickie with new eyes and their feelings become deeper. During their visit, Janou tells Terry that Nickie is a talented painter but destroys most of his paintings because they don't meet his standards. As the ship returns to New York City, they agree to reunite at the top of the Empire State Building in six months' time if they have succeeded in ending their relationships and starting new careers.
On the day of their rendezvous, Terry, hurrying to reach the Empire State Building, is struck down by a car while crossing a street. Gravely injured, she is rushed to the hospital. Meanwhile, Nickie, waiting for her at the observation deck at the top of the building, is unaware of the accident and, after many hours, leaves at midnight, believing she has rejected him.
After the accident, Terry, now unable to walk, refuses to contact Nickie because of her disability. Instead, she finds work as a music teacher. Nickie has pursued his painting and has his work displayed by Courbet, an art gallery owner. Six months after the accident, Terry sees Nickie with his former fiancée at the ballet, which she herself is attending with her former boyfriend. Nickie does not notice her condition because she is seated, and they both say hello to each other as he passes her.
Nickie learns Terry's address and on Christmas Eve pays her a surprise visit. Although he tries to get her to explain her actions, Terry dodges the subject, never leaving the couch on which she sits. He gives her a shawl that Janou left for her after she died. As he is leaving, Nickie mentions a painting that he had been working on when they originally met, and that it was just given away to a woman who liked it but had no money. He is about to say that the woman was in a wheelchair when he pauses, suddenly suspecting why Terry has been sitting unmoving on the couch. He walks into her bedroom and sees the painting hanging on the wall. The film ends with the two in a tight embrace and Terry saying, "If you can paint, I can walk. Anything can happen, don't you think?"
Production.
The film was a remake of McCarey's 1939 film "Love Affair", starring Irene Dunne as Terry and Charles Boyer, as the Gallic playboy Michel Marnet. Plans for a "Love Affair" remake were first reported in 1952, which had Fernando Lamas and Arlene Dahl attached to the project.
Cary Grant first worked with McCarey on "The Awful Truth" and did not like McCarey's improv strategies, but after eventually warming to it, he wished he starred in "Love Affair" and often visited the set during production. He enjoyed the movie when it was released, and convinced McCarey years later to remake it starring him in Boyer's role. McCarey eventually agreed, despite "Love Affair" being his favorite romance film, because he wanted to revive a better romance landscape: "[Hollywood films] all seem to be trying to find a trick way of saying 'I love you.' What are they trying to prove? Love is the oldest and noblest emotion," McCarey later explained. "An Affair to Remember" was almost identical to the original on a scene-to-scene basis. McCarey used the same screenplay as the original film, written by Delmer Daves and Donald Ogden Stewart; Stewart was not included in the credits because he had been blacklisted. Filming took place between February and April 1957.
Grant was reportedly grumpy during filming because his hypnotherapy with his wife was causing him to dislike smoking. Later, a childhood injury trauma caused a lump on his forehead that had to be operated on during production.
The theme song "An Affair to Remember (Our Love Affair)", composed by Harry Warren and with lyrics by Leo McCarey and Harold Adamson, was sung by Vic Damone over opening credits and by Marni Nixon (who dubbed Kerr) during the film.
Novelization.
In anticipation of the film's release, Avon Books published a paperback novelization of the screenplay. The byline "Owen Aherne" was a pseudonym for renowned American novelist R.V. Cassill.
Critical reaction.
Contemporary reviews were mixed. Bosley Crowther of "The New York Times" found the early part of the film fairly enjoyable, with "plenty of humorous conversation that is handled crisply" by the leads, but found that the picture went wrong after the couple got off the ship, writing: "The marriage pact seems ridiculously childish for a couple of adult people to make. The lady's failure to notify her fiancé of her accident seems absurd. The fact that the man does not hear of it in some way is beyond belief. And the slowness with which he grasps the obvious when he calls upon the lady is just too thick." Richard L. Coe of "The Washington Post" agreed, writing that the film "boasts early amusing reels that ultimately become unbelievably foolish in the quest for audience tears." "Variety" disagreed, calling the romance "never maudlin" and "wholly believable" in a positive review of what it called "a winning film" with "all the ingredients that should make it an ideal women's picture." "Harrison's Reports" was also positive, calling it "more enchanting and delightful than the original," and "so powerful in the closing scenes that one is unable to fight back the tears." John McCarten of "The New Yorker" was dismissive, writing that the actors were "tolerable, but the movie is really awfully maudlin." A generally positive review in "The Monthly Film Bulletin" called the film "a lush slice of Hollywood romanticism, unashamedly following most of the familiar conventions of glossy magazine fiction. To judge it on a higher level would normally seem unfair if it were not that here the script does succeed in cutting rather deeper. The relationship between Ferrante and Terry McKay is briskly developed, with an attractive, often touching humor."
The film holds a 65% rating on Rotten Tomatoes based on 31 reviews. In 1998, Jonathan Rosenbaum of the "Chicago Reader" included the film in his unranked list of the best American films not included on the AFI Top 100.
Awards and honors.
The film was nominated for Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Original Song and Best Original Score at the 30th Academy Awards.