Welcome to February on the blog. In honor of Valentine's Day, for the next two weeks we'll be celebrating love. So, get ready for all your favorite ooey, gooey, romantic movies. To start things off, 1939's "Love Affair" tells the story of two people who meet on a trans-Atlantic crossing. After falling in love, they plan to meet on top of the Empire State Building in six months. Fate, however, intervenes, and throws their plans awry.
The film's cast includes Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Maria Ouspenskaya, Lee Bowman, Astrid Allwyn, Maurice Moscovitch, Joan Leslie, and Ferike Boros.
Suave international playboy Michel Marnay and American nightclub singer Terry McKay are traveling from Europe to New York. They meet on board ship one evening by chance. Having heard all about Michel's antics at a party on Lake Como, Terry is a little bit fascinated to meet the man in person. "Look, I'm in trouble, serious trouble," he tells. She looks at him and says, "Well, I could've told you, playing around Lake Como."
The two get to talking and discover they enjoy each other's company quite a lot. And they've got a delightful banter that goes back and forth.
They start spending all their time together and telling each other about their backgrounds. "What's the name of that strange place you came from?" Michel asks. "Kansas," says Terry proudly. In the evenings, they enjoy pink champagne before dinner (which became a very popular drink as a direct result of this film).
At a stopover in Madeira, Michel invites Terry to visit his grandmother, Janou.
Even though both are involved with other people back home, Janou takes an instant liking to Terry, and implies that she is the one for Michel. "There’s many a slip betwixt the lip and the
altar. And anything could happen on a boat," she says before the two head back to their ship.
On board the ship that night, Terry says, "I want to thank you for what was undoubtedly the loveliest day I've ever known." The two start a romantic relationship. "We're heading into a rough sea, Michel," says Terry. He agrees, "We changed our course today."
On the day the ship arrives in New York, Terry and Michel agree to meet in six months time on the top floor of the Empire State Building. If they can tie up all their loose ends and everything works out, they will be together.
During the months they are apart, Terry breaks up with her boyfriend and takes a job singing in a nightclub in Philadelphia. Michel breaks things off with his fiancée and takes up work as a painter.
On the day they are to meet, Michel is at the designated place waiting a little impatiently for Terry to join him.
Unfortunately, Terry has an accident as she attempts to enter the building and cannot make it. When she wakes up, she doesn't want Michel to be told of her condition. Michel, extremely hurt and upset, buries himself in his work. Eventually, his grandmother dies and he is given her shawl, which she wanted Terry to have after her death. Michel paints Terry with the shawl on. Through a dealer, he sells the painting to a woman in a wheelchair, whom he does not know.
As part of her recovery, Terry takes a job teaching music. She has her little group sing "Wishing Will Make It So". (In reality, Irene Dunne was told she could pick the song. She chose "Wishing" and it became one of the top songs of 1939.)
When Terry feels strong enough, she goes to the theater with her old boyfriend. There, she comes face to face with Michel. "Hello," she murmurs as he passes her the purse she dropped. He returns her greeting and walks out.
"It’s tough.
The first time you’re able to get out and you have to meet him," says her former boyfriend Kenneth. "All I could say was hello," sighs Terry.
Unexpectedly, one day Michel comes to visit Terry, who is lying on the couch. He tries to make sense of why she never came that day they were supposed to meet, but she refuses to answer questions. He gives her his grandmother's shawl and tells her that he painted her in it. He becomes very suspicious of why Terry does not get up from the couch and starts to walk around the apartment a bit.
He finds the portrait he painted that was sold to a woman in a wheelchair, and Michel realizes that Terry was the woman.
With tears in his eyes Michel turns to Terry and takes her in his arms. "If you can paint, I can walk," Terry says, and they share a laugh together.
And that's it for Love Affair. Both Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne later said that this was their favorite of any of the movies either of them made. It was remade in 1957 as "An Affair To Remember", starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, and again in 1994 as "Love Affair", starring Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, and Katharine Hepburn.
Since this movie is in the public domain, you can watch it in its entirety here.
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