Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13243 in DVD
• Brand: Alpha Video
• Released on: 2003-09-09
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Black & White, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 87 minutes

Customer Reviews

Pink Champagne
The depth and charm of Leo McCarey's 1939 film, Love Affair, places it far above most love stories and miles ahead of his own remake in later years. Irene Dunne would certainly have taken home the Oscar in any other year as she had many fine performances which were deserving. A fine script by Delmer Daves and Donald Ogden Stewart takes us from sparkling wit to bittersweet love with ease, thanks to McCarey's fine direction and the performances of Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer.

Terry McKay (Dunne) and Michel Marnet (Boyer) are aboard the S.S. Napoli on an ocean cruise contemplating their impending marriages; she to a decent fellow who is more a friend than anything, and he to a very wealthy industrial heiress who doesn't excite him much but can afford his playboy lifestyle. They meet by chance when she reads his cablegram to a girl other than his fiance by mistake and teases him about it. They must avoid prying eyes aboard ship when a charming romance takes shape, as his engagement is in all the society papers.

Dunne is a witty hoot as the American girl from New York, Terry McKay, and Boyer gives a very charming performance as Michel Marnet, a man with talents who spends most of his time living it up rather than doing something with his life. Terry gets a glimpse of what he might be when she meets his charming elderly grandmother on a stop in Porto Santo, Madeira.

A beautiful rose covered villa with a chapel which makes Terry want to whisper is Janou's home. She and Janou make a connection when the old woman sees that she may be the good woman who could make Michel's life right. She fears a bill may be coming for all Michel's living which he can not pay. There is a beautiful scene in the chapel Michel will paint from memory when the two part.

But they promise to meet in six months on top of the Empire State building at 5:00 to see if Michel can earn a living through his painting and be worthy to ask her hand in marriage. But he waits until midnight in the pouring rain and Terry does not come. What he doesn't know is the sirens he heard below at 5:00 were for Terry, who had been struck down crossing the street and crippled, perhaps for life.

Terry doesn't want Michel to know her fate and he returns to his former life in a half-hearted attempt to drown thoughts of what might have been. Terry, who was a singer, falls into a job as music teacher for the orphanage next to the ward where she was treated and tries to make a life for herself. Michel sees her in a theatre not knowing a wheel chair outside the theatre doors is the reason she did not meet him.

When his grandmother passes on, he uses the gift she wanted Terry to have as an excuse to track her down and discover why she abandoned their chance at love. Terry keeps a shawl over her legs but a painting he had only recently decided to sell because the buyer was poor and crippled will bring things all into focus.

A love story of rare beauty, this is a neglected treasure in American cinema. Most prints of this film are decent but it would be wonderful to see it restored to the original luster it must have had when released to theatres in 1939. Dunne sings "Spring in My Heart" and the Oscar nominated "Wishing" is sung by her group of orphans. A nice score by Roy Webb enhances the mood of another RKO classic. A memorable romance with charm that is perfect for a rainy day.

Little love affair
Later remade multiple times, "Love Affair" is a semi-forgotten little romance movie from an earlier age of moviemaking. The plot is as simple and sweet as the title, with its tale of true love found, disrupted, and found again -- the sort of love affair we all wish we could have.

Playboy Michel (Charles Boyer) encounters nightclub singer Terry (Irene Dunne) and flirts with her, but backs away when she says that she's engaged. He is too. But they keep bumping into each other, and their friendship grows as their feelings do. As the voyage ends, they promise to meet in six months at the Empire State building, to see if Michel can be a responsible husband.

In the six months that follow, he does become a successful sign painter -- then a portrait artist. But on the day they're supposed to meet, Terry is run down by a car and may be crippled for life -- and the heartbroken Michel thinks she has dumped him. It will take another twist of fate to bring them back together.

"Love Affair" has been remade at least three times, including as the classic "Affair to Remember" and the blockbuster "Sleepless in Seattle." But though the original is the least known, it's still the most enchanting -- you can almost forget that you're watching a pair of actors doing their job. Most onscreen romances can't boast that.

The charm of their love affair is that it's so simple. They talk awkwardly, visit Michel's kindly old grandmother, and even pounce on a paparazzi who photographs them. The are obstacles, but director Leo McCarthy doesn't throw any strained artificial twists into the storyline. The whole crippled-by-a-car thing could have taken the movie into soapy-melodrama territory, but it's handled pretty matter-of-factly.

And Boyer and Dunne really make this movie. They actually act like a couple falling in love despite themselves -- awkward, a little chattery, thinking just of each other. As the movie wears on, they grow more comfortable with each, and it becomes clearer why the feisty American girl and the idle Frenchman are falling for each other. Both do an amazing job, especially Boyer in the final scene, when he realize.

It should be noted that there aren't currently ANY good prints of this movie available for purchase, and this is no exception. It desperately needs to be cleaned up, remastered and reissued, but until that happens, expect somewhat blurry pictures and slightly crackly sound. Iy's a credit to the movie that its enjoyability isn't affected by the bad copies.

"Love Affair" is one of those really magical love stories, with its simple story and amazing acting. Romantic, beautiful and sweet, this is definitely a must-see.

The Original and Still Best Version of the Classic Tearjerker
Directed by Leo McCarey, this 1939 romantic classic is the first and best version of the old warhorse of a fateful shipboard romance between an aimless playboy and a nightclub singer, both engaged but appearing to be destined to reunite on the top floor of the Empire State Building. The elaborate, shot-for-shot 1957 remake again directed by McCarey with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr is much better known, and Warren Beatty even saw fit to remake it yet again with his wife Annette Bening for a 1994 update featuring an 87-year old Katharine Hepburn in her last film role.

But it all started with this more modest film starring a smart, luminous Irene Dunne as Terry McKay and Charles Boyer all continental charm as Michel Marnet. The story is as contrived as ever, but the script co-written by McCarey, Mildred Cram, Delmer Daves and Donald Ogden Stewart is full of clever dialogue to go with the soap opera elements. It's too bad the print condition is so bad given that it has fallen into the public domain, but you can still get a strong sense of the craftsmanship behind the film, especially Rudolph Maté's soft-focus cinematography.

Even though Maria Ouspenskaya gives her most sympathetic performance as Grandmother Janou (she was wonderfully malevolent in "The Wolf Man"), it's really the chemistry between the two stars which keeps this afloat, especially Dunne who was so dexterous in comedy and drama in her prime that she is far superior to either Kerr or Bening. She even gets to sing two songs most winningly, one a Harold Arlen gem called "Sing My Heart". Even though you are likely to know every scene by heart from the 1957 remake, it's still quite worthwhile to enjoy the antiquated charms of the original.