[6]

Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr meet aboard an oceanliner and fall in love, despite the fact they are both already in relationships with partners waiting for them stateside. I like the first half of An Affair to Remember. Grant and Kerr are playing it cool in traditional screwball comedy fashion during that part of the film. And as far as romance is concerned, I was feeling it (a rare fete)! But once they arrive in New York and make their promise of meeting at the Empire State Building after they close the books on their old love lives, things get a little too melodramatic for me. Kerr’s character goes a little nuts and starts to remind me of Natalie Wood’s in Splendor in the Grass, and that’s not a good thing. And while I love Cary Grant through-and-through, I have to say he did start phoning it in later in his career. There are moments here where subtlety registers, but there are also moments where I wish he’d been more charismatic. And then there are the horribly annoying and completely out-of-place musical numbers in the last half of the movie. Why are we stopping the movie to watch Kerr with a bunch of singing rugrats? Well, at least there’s the first half.

Directed by Leo McCarey (The Awful Truth, Make Way for Tomorrow).

Oscar Nominations: Best Score, Best Song, Best Costume Design, Best Cinematography