Love At the Movies

Our New Year's Day was spent at home wearing comfy clothes, snacking on leftovers from our New Year's Eve dominoes playing with friends, and watching binging on three films with a similar theme (mentioned in my last 2021 post). In short, we had a wonderful start to 2022. 

Several bloggers named a couple of the movies. Braggin' rights to Kathleen (Eggs In My Pocket) for naming all: Love Affair (1939) with Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne, An Affair to Remember (1957) with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, Sleepless in Seattle (1993) with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Coincidentally, the first two films directed by Leo McCarey, 18 years apart, followed a nearly identical plot and dialogue. (McCarey, who had taken a trans-Atlantic cruise with his wife, said that when he devised the storyline after seeing the NYC skyline on entering the harbor.)

Only the first two films are alike. Sleepless in Seattle was in no way identical or even similar to the earlier ones. Instead, it was a tribute to the 1957 version by director Nora Ephrom. Clips and mentions in her film lead to subsequent viewings and sales of the 1957 film. 

The 1994 Love Affair film (Warren Beatty and Annette Benning) while modeled after the 1939 and 1957 films, wasn't quite the same or as well done. In it, the couple meet on a plane vs. ship. There's an aunt vs. an elderly grandmother. Beatty's character isn't a playboy, but ex-football player.

What stayed the same in all versions was the name and career of the female lead: Terry McKay was a singer in all. However, the name of the male lead differed. In 1939, Boyer was Michel Marnet; in 1957, Grant was Nick Ferrante; in 1994, Beatty was Mike Gambril. In all three films, the lead characters were engaged to or involved with someone before the meet-cute. (In film and TV, it's when a future romantic couple meet for the first time, often under unusual, humorous, or cute circumstances.)

Love Affair (1939) with Charles Boyer Grant & Irene Dunne

Here's a synopsis of the 1939 film; watch it first and you'll know all about the 1957 film right down to the lines: French playboy Michel Marnet (Boyer) meets American singer Terry McKay (Dunne) aboard a transatlantic cruise. Both engaged to others, Marnet to an heiress, McKay to a businessman, they flirt and dine together and efforts to remain discrete don't go unnoticed by others. Stopping in Madeira, they visit Michel's grandmother, Janou, who tells Terry he's a talented painter who destroys paintings when they don't meet his standards. Disembarking in NYC, the couple plan to reunite at the observation deck atop the Empire State Building in July if they've ended other relationships. Michel says it will let him see if he can pursue painting. Terry continues a nightclub singing career. 

The date arrives, both head to the meet-up. In a crash scene, heard but unseen in both films, Terry is hit by a car. Told she may never walk again, she declines to contact Michel who had gone to the rendezvous, waited until closing and left. She begins therapy and teaches music as an orphanage (a school in the 1957 version). His grandmother dies, Michel returns to Europe. He's given a white lace shawl Terry had admired and which his grandmother wanted her to have.

Back in NYC, it's Christmas Eve and Terry's first outing since the accident. They meet after a theater performance both attended ends. She remains seated until he leaves and a wheelchair is brought out. Learning her address, he visits her apartment where she's reclining on a couch, legs covered. He brings up their failed meeting and asks if she went, lying that he did not. Terry evades the topic and never gets up. He gives her the lace shawl and getting ready to leave, tells her he painted her wearing it, and instructed the gallery owner to give it away (and was told he gave it to a woman in a wheelchair who admired it. Finally realizing why Terry has remained seated, he checks the apartment and finds the painting. Embracing her after realizing she was the woman in the wheelchair he asks: Why didn't you tell me? If it had to happen to one of us, why did it have to be you?

She replies: Oh, it's nobody's fault but my own! I was looking up... it was the nearest thing to heaven! You were there... followed by the famously remembered final line by a sobbing Terry: Don't worry, darling, if you can paint, I can walk.

Were those last few lines a tad overdone? 

You bet they were, but often quoted.

Were they favorites of movie goers then and now? 

Sure enough and they can buy the shirt too!

In 1940, Love Affair received 6 Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Actress in a Leading Role, and Best Original Song (Wishing) song by Irene Dunne in the 1939 film. 

Unfortunately, it was in competition with other notable films, that year: Gone With the Wind, Goodbye Mr. Chips, The Wizard of Oz, Wuthering Heights. It was beat out by Gone With the Wind for best picture. The Wizard of Oz won for best song with Over the Rainbow.

An Affair to Remember (1957) with Cary Grant & Deborah Kerr

Director McCarey's 1957 remake, An Affair to Remember, is considered one of the top romantic films according to the American Film Institute. I read that it was renamed due a copyright on the original title. Unlike the 1939 version in which Dunne sang, Kerr's vocals was done by Marni Nixon, a “ghost singer” who didn't receive onscreen credit for her singing in famous musicals: Getting to Know You from The King and I, I Feel Pretty from West Side Story and I Could Have Danced All Night” and The Rain in Spain from My Fair Lady. 

An Affair to Remember (1957) with Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Cathleen Nesbitt

Comparing both films some 65 years later, the 1957 film is the hands-down favorite. Grant was considered more likable than Boyer as a romantic bachelor; Kerr's character, Terry McKay, was considered feisty and feminine. And, unlike the 1939 B&W film, this one was in full color CinemaScope. Further contributing to the film’s popularity was its popular Academy Award nominated theme, An Affair to Remember or Our Love Affair sung by Vic Damone at the beginning of the film. It didn't win and was beat out by All The Way from The Joker Is Wild.

Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

The 1993 film, Sleepless in Seattle, Meg Ryan (Annie Reed) and Tom Hanks (Sam Baldwin) focuses on what happens after a widowed man's son (Jonah) calls a Seattle radio talk show on Christmas Eve to discuss his father's depression. The show host persuades a reluctant Sam to talk on air about how he misses his late wife (Maggie).

Thousands of women hear the program and write to Sam including Annie, newly engaged to Walter but unsure of their relationship. After watching An Affair to Remember, she writes to Sam suggesting they meet atop the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day. Jonah, who reads Annie's letter, likes it but fails to persuade his father to do it, so Jonah replies to Annie as Sam and agrees to meet. Finding Jonah gone, a distraught Sam boards a flight and finds Jonah on the observation deck. Meanwhile, Annie in NYC with fiancé Walters sees the skyscraper from where their dining, ends their engagement, and rushes to the Empire State Building arriving moments after the elevator door closes with Sam and Jonah heading down. The deck is empty, she finds Jonah's backpack, pulling out teddy bear, Howard. Sam and Jonah emerge from the elevator to retrieve the backpack and they meet. Sam offers his hand to Annie, all three enter the elevator, the doors close with Jonah smiling; film ends. (A personal opinion is that Hanks isn't as good a romantic lead as Grant or Boyer.)

Love Affair (1994)

The 1994, Love Affair, has Warren Beatty (as ex-football star Mike Gambril) and Annette Benning (once again singer Terry McKay). They meet on a flight from New York to Sydney, Australia and, after an emergency landing, wait for repairs to be done. The couple visit Mike's elderly aunt Ginny, played by Katherine Hepburn in her last film role film role at 86. To shorten the tale, they fall in love, agree to meet in NYC, and split with their partners. She finds work as an advertisements singer. He quits his job as an LA sports announcer, becomes a school coach, returns to painting and paints Terry . . . you can figure out the rest of the movie.

Admittedly, I only saw clips and read online synopsis of this version, which were more than enough for me. I'm not a fan of either Beatty or Benning. This version wasn't well received by moviegoers. Its poor box office receipts seemed to reflect that the public's reaction was somewhat similar to my views. 

Your Turn — If you've seen one or more of these films, what's your favorite ?

This is a (very) long-ish post for the start of 2022 in keeping with my tendency to expand on a topic. We'd seen a couple of these films before. It was our first viewing of the 1939 Love Affair. Re-watching An Affair to Remember after, it was enjoyable to see the same storyline with two different actors, an updated setting and in color. Sleepless in Seattle, a romantic-comedy, is hardly on the same level. The Beatty-Benning film held no interest to watch entirely; however watched (too) many online clips and read several reviews, some favorable, others not-so-much.

This week, I'll be catching up on your end of 2021and/or start of 2022 posts. Grenville and myself hope it's a better year for everyone than the previous ones.