Through the years the original 1939 film of Love Affair, has been remade twice. First as the equally beloved An Affair to Remember, then later as the certainly less beloved Love Affair of the same name from the 1990’s. I have always found in the sense of the similarities and differences, this to be a very interesting and entertaining triple bill of films that all have their merits certainly. It all began in 1939, more than forty years prior to its most current screen iteration.

Love Affair (1939, Directed by Leo McCarey, Written by Delmer Daves, Donald Ogden Stewart, from a story by McCarey and Mildred Cram)

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This first film in this triple bill is of course this beautiful classic original of 30’s cinema, that in so many ways epitomises the best of the era as much as with many of its plot details subverts and challenges common forms of the time. The story in all these films in its simplest form is that of two already engaged individuals falling in love, in this case aboard a ship as they return to America, before planning to meet each other once more a period of months later, to allow a graceful split from those they are currently involved with. Simple enough, however of course the nature of the beast here is the fact of their prior engagements, which led by studio notes that this sort of act cannot go unpunished, leads to the factor of tragedy that punctuates and sadly informs the final act of the film. This film features in these archetype roles the stars of Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer, both of whom have commented through the years that this was a particular favourite amongst the films they made. Dunne and Boyer are stunningly charismatic in their own rights here as a French playboy and an American nightclub singer, but together their chemistry is stunning and very mature and adult I often find. This is not some first love fling, this is two adults grasping with the choices they will soon make based upon an implicit and beautiful new found connection – and yes, love. Dunne is the prevailing force of the film, not that Boyer is anything short of wonderfully dramatic and intensely charismatic, but Dunne has more to do as the piece goes on and certainly a more varied array of emotions to deliver, whereas for the most part Boyer is in a blissfully simple on the bottom line love haze. The film does have a very of the era aesthetic which works in it’s favour in making this sudden love affair believable and effecting, also punctuated with some really quite stunning superimposed photography and matte painting work, even the very start of the film has a radio play nature to it with its delivery of certain expositions. Dunne and Boyer even went on to reprise their roles in a full radio play dramatization. The film’s script with its many different credited writers and story credits is also an incredibly swift piece of writing, with each sequence and scene leading into the next with a great quality of movement, whilst still allowing nice stretches of time when it comes to the initial flirtations of our pair of lovers; Dunne’s Terry and Boyer’s Michel. The French frankness of Boyer also wonderfully informs the character, Michel is a charming cad and a playboy and the joy of the relationship with Dunne is that this factor is never a point of contention or surprise, as a matter of fact it’s one of the first things she learns of him, with some wonderfully typical of the era stichomythic dialogue. Dunne too had her real life singing talents brought into the role and her performances in the film are all wonderful. As a matter of fact everything in McCarey’s original film here is rather wonderful, it’s such a swift and lean piece of film perfect in nature and so of its time in a good way, that Love Affair is a perfect dose for any romantic who likes this sort of feature.

An Affair to Remember (1957, Directed by Leo McCarey, Written by Delmer Daves, Donald Ogden Stewart and McCarey)

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More or less at times a shot for shot, line for line remake of McCarey’s original, An Affair to Remember falls into the same path as films such as The Man Who Knew Too Much, where directors return to their early black and white earlier efforts with larger budgets and the advent of technicolour and make their moves for remaking their classics in a new guise. Now this has weirdly led to more good film products than it has bad or pointless ones. An Affair to Remember is one such example. Now the merits of the first film are many as I have already commented upon, however there is just something about the beauty, the performances, the technicolour even of this compared to the original that takes it up a notch. Now things also are extended, the tight efficiency of the first film’s 80 minutes are gone, and here instead replaced by a two hour run-time, but the additions work, even if overall it is just not as tight a piece. Now this is actually for the benefit of this film with its two chief performances being of such a standard, that spending more time with them is elemental to the films success. It is to get out of the way now in this writing, that the film is more or less exactly the same. Every beat, much of the dialogue, much of the direction. It’s simply that here there is an intangible quality, more or less purely sourced with our two chief performances in Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, that an elevation occurs. Personally, that is. Grant is so much more aged in this film than Boyer seemed and instead of that working against me in a typical old Man-Young woman trope of old Hollywood, it all just adds to this films general sense of ‘last chance romance’. There is a quality to this film that leads one to believe wholly that this could very well be these peoples last chance at romance, that makes things all the more impactful and effecting. Deborah Kerr too is sensational here. Her chemistry with Grant is on another level, with sublime levels of believability and truth, fuelled by McCarey’s own admission by an awful lot of improvision on the set. But also Kerr naturally excels in the scenes of solitude and of course tragedy as the film takes the root it must always take, going the way of bleakness before hope. This film is intrinsically linked with me to Nora Ephron’s masterpiece Sleepless in Seattle, in which much of the film is built around a commentary and reflection of this film, upon rewatches however, images of Rita Wilson jokingly through tears relaying the film disappear and are blinded by this film’s absolute sincerity instead. Affair is a beautiful film that stays in a vein of sincerity despite the melodrama of many of its narrative elements and holds a strong and impactful punch that does wonders to the emotionality of its audience. A beautiful film that betters the original in many ways, and where it does not, simply does just as good in beautiful technicolour. Ultimately I feel it comes down to dealer’s choice between what you prefer between these first two great films.

Love Affair (1994, Directed by Glenn Gordon Caron, Written by Robert Towne, Warren Beatty [alleged script doctoring from Carrie Fisher])

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Now do I think that 1994’s Love Affair is one of the worst remakes of all time? Not at all, nor do I think it should be referred to in that way. Does it offer much of anything to the first two films? No, in so many ways it does not. But for me Love Affair offers the joys of theatre, in the ability to see this perfect story be brought to the screen again with another great performing pair of actors, in many ways in the same vein that screenplay wise Affair to Remember didn’t really bring much to it’s remaking. Now there is a modernisation here that lulls us perhaps into thinking that the film may have some possible shifts along the way and for me Terry’s character is certainly given a little bit more agency, but perhaps the biggest shock of 1994’s Love Affair is that it reaches a certain point where it entirely stops doing things different at all and begins to re-create exact later scenes down to exact certain shots. Even earlier in the film when we think the film is moving from boat to plane for this version, this plane section only lasts about fifteen minutes before the plane is forced to land and we end up on a boat just like the original anyway. All this is to say that if you like Warren Beatty and Annette Benning as I most certainly do, then Love Affair can be a very enjoyable film to slide into your Christmas viewing calendar. The film does boast an awful lot actually in my opinion. For one Beatty and Benning do have (one would hope) an epic amount of natural chemistry and Beatty playing into his playboy persona being disarmed for marriage by Benning is a fun meta-textual element that does indeed make the heart flutter in many ways. Beatty is his playboy charismatic self and is perfect for this version of the character, now an ex-football star, Benning as Terry remains a singer and who knew that Benning had such a lovely singing voice? To be honest it rings like Beatty did and proposed the idea of the film as to have Benning sing in it. This is not to take away any onus from Benning who is wonderful in the film, but it does to be honest feel like Beatty and his frequent friend and writing partner Towne working together to make the most elaborate honeymoon an acting couple could ever have. “Darling, let’s make a film”. I could of course be entirely, entirely wrong on this front of course and I’ll be the first to admit this leans into behind the scenes fan-fiction. The film’s beautiful score by Ennio Morricone (another boast the film has) even features a track on its soundtrack entitled “For Annette and Warren” – it just all feels in the most wonderful way that everybody involved just was in love and rooting for this newlywed couple, perhaps though I am bringing hope and romance to something that could have been as cynical as other casting gimmicks prior. Perhaps the films biggest thing of note is of course the fact that this marked Katherine Hepburn’s last on screen performance, here in the role of the one scene relative who bestows the wishes of love on the clearly enamoured couple. Hepburn manages in her few moments here to bring all the vim, wit and intelligence of her earlier roles here with that natural aged wisdom quality that that specific role must encapsulate so well. All in all it’s a beautiful film for a romantic and a lover of Beatty and Benning and this fashion of mid-90’s rom-com and for the cynic or the Beatty hater perhaps the most desperate and failed attempt at clout one could imagine. Take your pick, but even as an oddity of 90’s cinema in the sense that a film with so many incredible figures involved is so largely forgotten, it’s worth a watch surly for that.

-       - Thomas Carruthers