Coming up next is 1957's "An Affair To Remember", a remake of the film "Love Affair", where a man and woman fall in love on a transatlantic crossing. An accident threatens to end their love story, set to begin on top of the Empire State Building.
The film's cast includes Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning, Neva Patterson, Cathleen Nesbitt, Robert Q. Lewis, Fortunio Bonanova, Geraldine Wall, and Jesslyn Fax.
On a ship bound from Europe to New York, playboy Nicky Ferrante and nightclub singer Terry McKay meet. The catalyst of their meeting is a lost cigarette case.
Their conversation turns into a dinner date, where they find they enjoy each other's company very much. "I must stay tuned into you," says Nicky to Terry.
They spend several days of the voyage together, learning more about one another, and drinking pink champagne.
On a stopover in Villefranche, Nicky invites Terry to join him on a visit to his grandmother. They journey to her secluded residence high above the town, and Terry is captivated by it.
And Nicky's grandmother takes a particular liking to Terry, and she eventually comes to believe that Terry is the right woman for her grandson.
Before returning to their ship, Nicky's grandmother (a former concert pianist) plays the piano for them, as Terry sings. (It's a very beautiful scene.)
When the time comes to say farewell, Terry can hardly make herself leave this enchanted world of Nicky's grandmother.
Back on board the ship, Nicky and Terry's relationship takes a romantic turn.
Because both are engaged to other people, they agree that it's best if they keep apart for appearance sake. They still manage small moments together in passing.
On their last night aboard ship, Nicky and Terry discuss their future. "Winter must be cold for those with no warm memories. We've already missed the spring," says Terry. "We'd be fools to let happiness pass us by," Nicky tells her. They come up with a plan to meet in six months, that way Nicky can find a job and they can both break off their respective relationships.
As the ship pulls into New York harbor the next morning, a hurried meeting sees Nicky and Terry making plans to meet on the top floor of the Empire State Building in six months. They part with a quick kiss.
Nicky is met at the dock by his fiancée, wealthy heiress Lois Clark. ("Lois and her lovely six hundred million bucks. What a deal. Not only all that lettuce, but a beautiful tomato, too," comments a reporter.) After an uncomfortable TV interview, Nicky breaks things off with Lois.
And Terry arrives home to break things off with her boyfriend, Ken.
Nicky gets right to work painting. He's pretty good, though his dealer says he would do a lot better if he signed his real name instead of a pseudonym.
Terry goes back to work in a nightclub. Her farewell song is "An Affair To Remember".
On the day they are supposed to meet at the Empire State Building, Nicky gets there early. However, he waits and waits for Terry, who never comes.
It turns out she was there that day, but as she was looking up she was hit by an automobile. Confined to a wheelchair, she doesn't want Nicky to know about her condition.
Saddened, Nicky takes a trip to Europe to visit his grandmother. Upon arrival, he finds out that she is dead. A caretaker gives him a shawl that his grandmother wanted Terry to have. Nicky paints a picture of his grandmother and Terry. And he eventually has his dealer give it to a woman in a wheelchair because she falls in love with it.
After recovering her strength (though still unable to walk), Terry gets a job as a music teacher, teaching inner city kids to sing songs such as "He Knows You Inside Out".
On a visit to the ballet with his former fiancée Lois, Nicky bumps into Terry, who is there with her old boyfriend Ken. Nicky doesn't say anything to Terry, and all she can say is "hello".
Days later, Nicky arrives unexpectedly at Terry's apartment and gives her the shawl his grandmother left to her. He begins to get suspicious about why Terry doesn't get up from her seated position.
He tells her that he painted her wearing the shawl. As he tells her the story, Nicky begins to put two and two together. He searches the apartment and finds the painting, now realizing that Terry was the woman in the wheelchair who wanted it. The two fall into each other's arms and begin their relationship again.
And that's all for An Affair To Remember. This movie was voted the #5 greatest romance of all time by the American Film Institute. Though it depicts New York and the south of France, the film was actually shot mostly in Hollywood. When Cathleen Nesbitt's friends asked her how she liked shooting her scenes with Cary Grant in France, she had to inform them that the filming was done on the backlot at 20th Century Fox. Cary Grant was only fifteen years younger than Nesbitt, who played his grandmother.
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