Year of Release: 1939Country of Origin: USA
Director: Leo McCarey
Cast: Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer, Maria Ouspenskaya
Plot outline: French playboy Michel Marnay meets American singer Terry McKay aboard a liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean. They are both already engaged, nonetheless they fall in love. They arrange to reunite 6 months later - but will it happen? (IMDb)
Love Affair has the surface appearance of a comedy and the inner strength and poignance of a hauntingly sorrowful romance. It is a technique or a mood-creation developed out of McCarey's past experiments, ranging from Make Way for Tomorrow to The Awful Truth. The formula would be comedy plus sentiment plus X (which is McCarey himself) equal such things as Love Affair. He must be credited primarily for the movie's success, but almost as large a measure of acknowledgment belongs to Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer for the facility with which they have matched the changes of their script - playing it lightly now, soberly next, but always credibly, always in character, always with a superb utilization of the material at hand. Scarcely less effective has been the contribution of the small supporting cast: Maria Ouspenskaya, Lee Bowman, Astrid Allwyn, Maurice Moscovich and the few bit players who have added their priceless touches of humor and pathos. He finds it amusing that Michel should become a sign-painter, Terry a night club singer as they put themselves on probation for six months to determine whether they are worthy of marriage. But he finds it touching, too. And, although he keeps reminding himself (and his audience) that life is a comedian, he finds tragedy in the accident that overtakes Terry on her way to the marriage rendezvous and pity in the misunderstanding that keeps his lovers apart so long. In a sense, his movie is a triumph of indirection, for it does one thing while seeming to do another. Its immediate effect is comedy; its after-glow is that of a bitter-sweet romance. A less capable director, with a less competent cast, must have erred one way or the other - either on the side of treacle or on that of whimsy. McCarey has balanced his ingredients skillfully and has merged them, as is clear in retrospect, into a glowing and memorable picture. (NYT)
My judgement: *** out of 4 stars
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