The Affair Audiences Remembered

A 50's Romance That Still Floats

Leo McCarey had done for the 40's boxoffice what Frank Capra achieved in the 30's. As with latter, and historic hit that was Capra's It Happened One Night, McCarey touched patron reflex with two that showed grossing power of movies beyond all norm, Going My Way and The Bells Of St.Mary's. What made these remarkable was both coming fully of McCarey's showman brain, his a divining rod to lure millions that ordinarily had better things to do than sit in theatres. Pull them in and you had a blockbuster. McCarey magic was characters and situations that seemed like real life, letting scenes play for however long his people interacted like friends/neighbors we knew. Who else but McCarey would halt pace for a cute kid chorus in recital, twice in An Affair To Remember. For many then, and more so now, it's a slow-up, but The Bells Of St. Mary's took millions doing a same thing, so who at Fox could say no to an encore? Prestige McCarey earned saved his work from meddle by others, him a truer auteur than most who got, or claimed, the accolade. Trouble was erratic offscreen nature that made success, especially later on, isolated events. Safe harbor of remaking one of his own was insurance for An Affair To Remember in 1957. It would reunite McCarey with Cary Grant, add color/Cinemascope, and be another go at well recalled Love Affair from 1939.

McCarey developed the original story which had entered movie folklore, being of lovers who meet on shipboard, agree to rendezvous later atop the Empire State Building, and then ... Here was a most famous association the skyscraper had outside of King Kong. It would even be remade as recently as 1994. An Affair To Remember is best known of the so-far three versions, despite Love Affair being preferred by many, even as it vanished for decades other than PD dupes, a clean original only lately bowing at TCM. I assume Love Affair's negative reverted to McCarey after general release in 1939, and maybe his estate didn't renew. Anyway, it was a classic gone rogue where denuded picture/sound made status hard to uphold. An Affair To Remember, hobbled also by pan/scan on TV, got authority back via wide laserdisc, then DVD, later Blu-Ray, and now as roving theatrical ambassador for McCarey's legacy at Fathom/TCM events. Here's where new-won fans get benefit of his way with an audience, lines and gags, plus heart-wrench, nicely timed to reaction from a crowd. Wish now I had gone to see/hear how the 60-year old favorite plays, rather than solitary watch via HD Net (question to those who did attend: Were tears audible in the theatre?).

An Affair To Remember is among calcified Top Forty of old films, being one of limited group a general audience will sit willingly through. There are dated aspects, like later Breakfast At Tiffany's, Charade, others of romantic bent, but Affair, thanks to theme and Cary Grant as apex of old star appeal, is probably a most accessible of all 1957 Hollywood releases. I don't know another from that year revived so often, or to such crowd satisfaction. There was recent chat with a Shakespeare historian who complained of same plays done over and over, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, the usuals, while less noted of Bard backlog is never performed. It's that way with movies too, being finite list programmers use that seldom vary off Hit Parade agreed upon by most. Same way with music of course, songs I liked growing up are either in abundance, or nowhere to be heard. Is the Top Forty Film List indeed etched in stone? Fathom and TCM apparently work off it. We pretty much know the titles, as all are ubiquitous enough. Coming up for Fathom is Some Like It Hot. Yes, again. What other Marilyn Monroe is revived a tenth as much? Below summit of Top Forty is a Grand Canyon of obscurity where 99% of oldies dwell. Might the number swell to a Hot One Hundred? Probably not until they expand definition of "classics," though with Ferris Bueller's Day Off and ilk already there, it's unlikely more of older stuff will join the chosen.

If there's one film to sum up Cary Grant appeal, it may be An Affair To Remember. The Hitchcocks have more edge, most might prefer them, but Affair is the one to declaim, Yes, this is Grant as books and documentaries define him. He belongs more and more to a gone age. Women who dreamed of meeting someone like Grant know now that's beyond possibility. This was Mr. Ideal for a past century, better fit frankly to any century but our 21st. Query as to thought, if not expressed, by many watching An Affair To Remember today: Why aren't men like this anymore?, short answer being they never were, but at least in Grant's day, there seemed at least hope that one might turn up in real-life quest for love. His lending humor to the enterprise kept Grant clear of threat that a Clark Gable or others of he-men embodied. Grant indeed ages best of male leads from an era discredited for litany of social/political/cultural gaffes. You can show more of his with less concern of anyone calling Foul for insensitivity. Trouble was CG himself making so many wrong choices in prime, a disadvantage to being free-lance and relying always on your own judgment. For every Affair To Remember, there are three or four Houseboats, Kiss Them For Me ... and why he wouldn't do Sabrina will always baffle me (though I'm glad Bogart did).

Among gone specimen might be the "international playboy," Cary Grant's role in An Affair To Remember. They were media figures then, and aroused interest, especially where one would pluck a Rita Hayworth off vines, as did Prince Aly Khan. I doubt such roustabouts were so genteel as Cary Grant. Most were slippery as to ethics and not a few dealt contraband in addition to women they grazed on (see: friends of Errol Flynn). A still-enforced Code wouldn't let Grant's "Nicky Ferrari" be an outright seducer, which takes much of play out of his playboy, but Grant's image and appeal was always more about the run-up than consummation, so money's worth was had even for his "affair" bridled by censorship. Director McCarey was more invested in the humor plus tip to spiritual concern, as where Grant and Deborah Kerr break from romancing to pray in a chapel built by his grandmother, a scene from which I was distracted by wonder at any man Cary's age having a grandmother still above ground. Who knows but what the faith break was best received aspect of An Affair To Remember in 1957, or now. Later rom-coms would have single gal characters mooning over Affair clips and dreaming of perfect love for their own. Sleepless In Seattle in 1993 was built entirely around recall of An Affair To Remember. This may be the most venerable title Fox has in its 50's kit. Beyond expected DVD and Blu-Ray, there is the Fathom sit (some of theirs have widened out to 700 venues), and TCM current-plays An Affair To Remember in true HD, a long-awaited advantage for fans.