There was this thing, even more so than later on or today, from the 20s through at least the mid 50s, where almost everyone in film was hilariously wealthy. No real people went to clubs every day, or owned multiple tuxedos, but somehow we were to care deeply about the trials and tribulations of their lives. A few of these worked - Nick and Nora - because they were entirely charming and didn't much care for class so would talk to anyone. Or they were putting on airs - To Catch A Thief, for a Cary Grant vehicle comes to mind. Or there was some clashing of cultures - in Rear Window, Jimmy Stewart happens to have done well, but by the measure of a photog, and he lives in a very middle class neighborhood, but has a high class girlfriend. But this? What do I care of this situation, or know of these people? I don't even get why it's worth out loud chuckles that Cary Grant is having dinner with (gasp, I guess) not his fiancée, while on an unaccompanied ocean cruise? Do. Not. Care. But at least Grant is as flat and un-charming as he's been, and there's stuff like annoying musical interludes, plus it is filmed like an episode of Marcus Wellby, MD. Boring as hell. Do not care.

RELEASE DETAILS: New York opening at the Roxy: 19 July 1957. U.S. release: July 1957. U.K. release: 22 September 1957. Australian release: 17 October 1957. Sydney opening at the Regent. 10,312 feet. 115 minutes.SYNOPSIS: A shipboard romance seems doomed when the girl is crippled in a street accident.NOTES: Fox's 80th CinemaScope feature was nominated for the following Academy Awards: Photography (won by Jack Hildyard for The Bridge on the River Kwai); Music Scoring, Hugo Friedhofer (won by Malcolm Arnold for The Bridge on the River Kwai); Song, "An Affair To Remember" (won by "All the Way" from The Joker Is Wild); Costumes, Charles Le Maire (won by Orry-Kelly for Les Girls).Best Film of 1957 — Photoplay Gold Medal Award. Deborah Kerr, Best Actress of 1957 — Photoplay Gold Medal Award. Fox's top-grossing domestic release of 1956-57. A re-make of McCarey's own 1939 RKO picture Love Affair which starred Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne in a screenplay by Delmer Daves and Donald Ogden Stewart from the story by Mildred Cram and Leo McCarey. The Oscar-nominated McCarey produced as well as directed. COMMENT: This re-make of "Love Affair" is strictly a distaff offering. Femmes will enjoy weeping into their lace-edged handkerchiefs at love's labors lost and found — all against nice plush backgrounds and a heavy syrupy score. Cary Grant seems a trifle bored with the proceedings — and who will blame him? but Deborah Kerr seems right at home, jerking tears with a winsome smile. The color photography is as lush as the sets, and the direction is as dull as the script. Admittedly, it does not open too badly with some pleasant though mediocre shipboard banter between Kerr and Cary; but wait till you strike an extremely long and screamingly dull visit to Cary's aged grandmother, hammily acted by Cathleen Nesbitt! If you can sit through that scene and through two songs murdered by a typically freakish Hollywood group of school- children, the rest of the film is not too bad: Some very attractive color sets, some very pleasant color photography, an engaging theme tune, and directorial craftsmanship that would measure up to a third-rate Frank Borzage.

When you buy a Blu Ray edition of an old film, you never quite know what you're going to get, With the nice boxed edition put out by 20th Century Fox, you get some very nice extras, including some rather revealing interviews about Cary Grant's love affairs and about Deborah Kerr's love affairs. But, we don't really buy Blu Ray for the extras. We buy them for a sparkling version of a beloved film. This edition gets off to a bad start. The credits and initial wide shot of Manhattan included pinkish snow while Vic Damone is singing the theme song, and then very grainy photography. Not a good omen. The way transitions occur, it's clear there has been an attempt at some restoration. But it's somewhat uneven. Most of a scene is good, just a little odd and the beginning and end of some scenes. However, in this case it is a better print than the last DVD edition I owned.There are those who say that this is the film that turned Cary Grant into the Cary Grant we all remember -- the epitome of a suave sophisticate. Of course, Cary Grant was around and sophisticated long before 1957, but this film is pretty much how we remember Cary Grant.I have long loved this film, although it is not on my top 5 list...though certainly in my top 10. The question is why. But that's easy. A remarkably witty script for the first half of the film. A remarkably sentimental script for the second half of the film. An outstanding performance by Cary Grant. An outstanding performance by Deborah Kerr.For the witty and/or sentimental script we have Delmer Daves ("The Petrified Forest"), Donald Ogden Stewart (who helped write the original film version), and Leo McCarey (also the director and producer of this and the original film version).As mentioned, this IS Cary Grant. I remember reading that Cary Grant once said that he became the character he often portrayed on screen. And this film is the evidence for that statement. He's just fabulous here.Deborah Kerr was a wonderful actress, and at least for me, this is the film I most remember her for.And then there are "the others". The other man in love with Kerr is Richard Denning. He's good, rather sanitized, and you have some sympathy for his character. The other woman in love with Grant is Neva Patterson; tough role to be so unliked by an audience, but an audience never likes a witch (or something that rhymes with that). The other interesting and humorous addition to the supporting actors is Robert Q. Lewis, who takes a humorous tone to his interview with Grant and Denning. Fortunio Bonanova adds a nice touch as an art dealer.There are so many touching scenes in this film. In fact, perhaps the most touching film in any movie -- when Grant and Kerr visit Grant's grandmother in the villa. No matter how many times I watch it, it chokes me up every time. The wonderful actress who excelled so as the grandmother is Cathleen Nesbitt, who, though old, went on to live another 25 years. Her career in show business lasted 80 years! Another touching scene is when Grant encounters Kerr, not knowing that...well, no sense of ruining the scene if you've never seen the film.But the penultimate sentimental scene is the closing. Brilliantly conceived, well written, and the perfect mix of tragic realization and hope. If it doesn't get you, you have a heart of stone. I cry every time. In fact, it is reported that Cary Grant said that whenever he watched the film, he cried at the end! Is there anything wrong with this film. Well, yes there is, although it's a minor point. In several scenes we are brought up to date with Grant's character's history (at least superficially). We never quite get that with Kerr's character. Yes, we eventually find out she was a singer, but beyond that's it's pretty scant, and it could have been accomplished in a matter of just a couple of minutes. And, I'll forgive them for having 2 Black children tap dancing.I wonder. Was this the only film where Cary Grant cried? In sum, this is one of my two favorite romantic films, the other being "Random Harvest" with Ronald Colman. Both are quintessential examples of the genre. This is a classic, and the public knows it. VHS and then DVD sales were unusually high for a 1950s film. And it's no wonder. Grant (along with Spencer Tracy) was the best that Hollywood ever offered. Here, he and Deborah Kerr shine.

An Affair to Remember (1957): Dir: Leo McCarey / Cast: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning, Neva Patterson, Cathleen Nesbitt: Overrated yet entertaining romantic comedy about connection. It stars Cary Grant as playboy Nicolo Ferrante, and Deborah Kerr as nightclub singer Terry McKay. They are both engaged to other people but viewers are jerked around for much of the film as these two struggle to avoid each other. They are aboard an ocean liner going from Europe to New York but they have one pit stop where he takes her to visit his grandmother. When they get to New York they go with their fiancés, however they promise to reconnect in six months atop the Empire State Building. Tragedy strikes leading to an ending where one of the leads uses tactful methods to withdraw information that leads to the revelation. Formula but charming film directed by two time Oscar winner Leo McCarey who previously made The Awful Truth and Going My Way. Grant is charming as a guy who struggled to settle down until now. This is just the inspiration to bring him back to his previous passion of painting. Kerr is effective as a conductor for a corny youth choir. Other roles are not quite up to par. Richard Denning and Neva Patterson are absolute bores as the cardboard fiancés. Theme regards connection and relationships that shape up to last. Score: 7 / 10