Love Affair ***** (1939, Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Maria Ouspenskaya) – Classic Movie Review 2327

Director Leo McCarey’s heart-stoppingly gorgeous 1939 romance stars Charles Boyer as the rich, suave Gallic charmer French playboy Michel Marnet and Irene Dunne as the Big Apple lady Terry McKay he meets aboard an ocean liner on a trip from Europe to New York.

They fall instantly in love but of course their path to true love in a bed of roses is choked as ever with weeds and nettles. They decide to prove their love by a half-year separation, with Michel wanting to have a chance to earn a decent living. But, six months later, a car injury stops Dunne’s Terry from meeting up at the appointed spot on the Empire State Building, making Boyer’s Michel think that she doesn’t really love him after all…

Delmer Daves and Donald Ogden Stewart’s wonderfully witty screenplay, juggling sophisticated laughs with heart-tugging tears, is based on a story by director McCarey and Mildred Cram. It is played out to perfection by the charismatic, sparkling and intelligent star team, who know a good thing when they see it. Among the support, the great Maria Ouspenskaya is outstanding as Boyer’s canny granny, while also in the cast are Lee Bowman, Astrid Allwyn and Maurice Moscovitch.

And, above all, there’s the supremely confident, well-paced handling by director McCarey, who remade it as An Affair to Remember (1957) with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, the inspiration for Sleepless in Seattle (1993) with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

The Buddy DeSylva theme song, ‘Wishing’ was Oscar-nominated and Harold Arlen and Ted Koehler contributed ‘Sing My Heart’. There were five Oscar nominations, but alas no wins.

Dunne was put under contract to RKO Pictures in 1930. Her first film was Leathernecking (1930) and her next Cimarron (1931) was the first of her five Academy Award nominations, but she never won an Oscar, not even an honorary award. The others are Theodora Goes Wild (1936), The Awful Truth (1937), Love Affair (1939) and I Remember Mama (1948).

It was remade in 1994 with Warren Beatty, Annette Bening and Katharine Hepburn.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2327

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