An Affair To Remember (1957)

A playboy (Cary Grant) and a singer (Deborah Kerr) meet aboard a Transatlantic luxury liner going from Europe to New York. Though both are engaged to marry others, they find themselves reluctantly falling in love. One of the most beloved romance movies, this is the second incarnation. It was previously filmed in 1939 by Leo McCarey (who also directed this version) and it was remade again in 1994 by Glenn Gordon Caron. But this is the one everyone remembers and seem to love (it was an inspiration for SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE). Truth to tell, I don't think any of the three versions are particularly good but this has a bit more going for it. Notably, Grant and Kerr who are attractive and appealing and play off each other nicely. The first half of the film is actually good but after Kerr's accident, the film flounders. It becomes rather treacly and there are a couple of sequences with singing schoolchildren that are so cringe inducing that they make THE SOUND OF MUSIC look like a Tarantino film. The title song, sung over the credits by Vic Damone, is rather lovely though. With Richard Denning, Neva Patterson, Cathleen Nesbitt and Fortunio Bonanova.