317. An Affair to Remember (1957)

Running Time: 119 minutes
Directed By: Leo McCarey
Written By: Leo McCarey, Mildred Cram, Delmer Daves, Donald Ogden Stewart
Main Cast: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning, Neva Patterson, Cathleen Nesbit

NICE STORIES DON'T ALWAYS MAKE GOOD MOVIES

On this, the one year anniversary of the beginning of my journey through film, I'm trying to squeeze in a few movies to commemorate the occasion. The second movie that I chose for the day was "An Affair to Remember" and after finishing it I can admit that, although the story was nice and romantic, the film itself failed to impress me.

Nickie Ferrante (Grant) is an infamous womanizer who has finally decided to settle down and make an honest woman out of young, beautiful heiress, Lois Clark (Patterson). En route from England to New York City, aboard the SS Constitution, where he will meet up with his bride to be, Ferrante meets up with another woman by the name of Terry McKay (the elegant Kerr) and although they squabble over Ferrante's lost cigarette case at first, she is ultimately invited to dinner on his behalf. Unable to pass up a beautiful woman, Ferrante turns on his charm and sweeps McKay off of her feet. During a five hour stop made by the ocean liner, Ferrante invites McKay to join him as he visits his grandmother on the Mediterranean coast. McKay immediately hits it off with Nickie's grandmother and learns that there is more to Ferrante than meets the eye, like that he has a knack for painting and playing the piano, but it's the things that he can't have that appeal to him the most, so he gave up talents that came so easy to him.

Back aboard the SS Constitution, Nickie and Terry realize that they've indeed fallen head over heels in love with each other and that their respective fiance's will have to fall to the wayside. There is only one problem and that is that they are both supported by said fiances and neither of them have done much real work in their lives and have come accustomed to living the swanky lifestyle. They decide to turn their lives around, get jobs and get out of their relationships and meet each other in six months time atop the Empire State Building, an agreement that is made as they reach New York and see the building towering over them. Six months go by, Nickie gets back into painting and manages to sell a few and Terry goes to Boston and revisits her roots, being a nightclub singer. The six months expire and they're all set for the big meeting. Terry is running late due to being stopped and questioned by her ex-fiance and runs into traffic, with only four minutes to spare before 5 o'clock, when she's to meet Nickie. As she races into traffic she is hit by a car and ends up in the hospital, leaving Nickie to his broken heart atop the Empire State Building.

As my headline eludes to, this is a nice story. In fact, when thinking of a single word to describe "An Affair to Remember" that's the one that kept popping to mind. It's not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, this movie takes you on a roller coaster ride of emotions. When we start out it seems as though the comedy is being laid on pretty thick, and Grant is shining as the funny man and Kerr is relatively charming, although there never seems to be any real chemistry between the two. Then we get to the grandmother scene, and to me this is a throw away scene, as nothing is really established here, except a few coincidental things that are eluded to later, like the song that the grandmother plays on piano and the shawl that she promises to send to McKay because she likes it so much. It's an entire segment of movie that could've easily been taken out, as it really slowed down the entire pace of the film and the movie, in my opinion, never picks back up.
Then the six month deal is struck, Terry gets hit by the car and the movie finishes off with some more throw away stuff that really doesn't work, like Terry turning some troubled youths into a choir and Nickie having a few dates with his ex-fiance.

It seems to me that Leo McCarey had a small idea for a film and instead of saying "I could never turn that small idea into a two-hour film", he instead just ran with it and the finished product is like going down a street and hitting all red lights, as every time the movie picks up a bit of pace, it is halted by yet another scene that is out of place and totally halts the flow of the film. The entire film hinges on the six month meeting and Terry getting hit by the car and basically everything else, outside of the first thirty minutes, is of no crucial importance, and we're forced to go through the motions until we get to the next crucial scene. And I've said it before and after all this time, I'll say it again...There is just something about Cary Grant that I don't like and I cannot for the life of me put my finger on it. He just has an air about him that doesn't appeal to me and unless the film is overly stellar, it is hard for me to settle into a film starring him.

RATING: 5/10 And that's being generous, but the first thirty minutes of the film were engaging and interesting enough to, at least, warrant that much.

MOVIES WATCHED: 142
MOVIES LEFT TO WATCH: 859

September 11, 2010 8:50pm