Love Affair

There are two movies airing back-to-back on TCM that are currently on my DVR and that I haven't blogged about before, which is why the first one is getting a mention a day and a half or more before it actually airs. That one is the 1939 version of Love Affair, which closes out what TCM considers its September 21 schedule at 4:30 AM September 22.

The movie opens with a bunch of radio broadcasters doing news reports on how a famous French artist, Michel Marnet (Charles Boyer), has gotten on a boat out of Naples heading for the US. There, the artist and playboy is finally going to settle down, as he's set to marry socialite Lois Clark. Also on the boat is an American nightclub singer, Terry McKay (Irene Dunne), although what she was doing in Europe is a bit of a question. She too is engaged to be married back in the US, to Kenneth Bradley (Lee Bowman).

As you can guess even if you haven't seen the famous remake An Affair to Remember, Terry and Michel are going to meet on the boat. This happens when Terry accidentally winds up with a radiogram that was addressed to him. She feigns not knowing him, and since the two are traveling alone, they decide to dine together. They even begin to fall in love, which is of course a big problem since they're both engaged to other people and because of how well-known Michel is; anything that could be seen as not being faithful could present huge problems for him once he gets to the States.

They do have a chance to spend some time alone, however, when the ship stops for an afternoon in Madeira, a Portuguese possession in the mid-Atlantic. There, Michel's grandmother Janou (Maria Ouspenskaya) lives, she having decided to remain there because her French diplomate husband died while serving in the French diplomatic corps. Janou and Terry talk, and the implication from the talk is that Terry and Michael are obviously right for each other, despite being engaged to other people. Grandma knows best, even when she knows nothing of outside pop culture.

But, of course, the two young ones are engaged to other people, so instead of breaking off their engagements forthwith they make an agreement to wait six months, and then meet each other on the observation deck of the Empire State Building to see if they're still in love. They are, but as Michel is on the observation deck, Terry finds herself unable to make the appointment because she gets hit by a car and seriously injured, with no way to contact Michel. She gets noticed singing while in a sanatarium recovering, which gets her work teaching music to children, and a bit of a life of her own. But of course she and Michel are going to run into each other again, aren't they?

The only real problem with Love Affair is the fact that it's one of those movies where pretty much everyone already knows what's going to happen because the movie itself is well-known, and has an even better-known remake, An Affair to Remember. I have a feeling that the movie would have carried a lot more emotional impact in 1939 when it was first released, both because of the relative originality and because the world was in a lot of tension with the run-up to World War II about to break out in Europe.

In any case, Love Affair is anchored by fine performances from both Boyer, who's excellent at romance, and Dunne, who could play either elegant or comedic. The supporting performance from Ousepenskaya is quite good too, and director Leo McCarey handles the material deftly. So despite the fact that Love Affair may suffer a bit from the weight of expectations, it's still an extremely good movie.