This is another deathless love story (take that A STAR IS BORN), Hollywood has made three versions so far, and this 1957 version is Leo McCarey’s remake of his own LOVE AFFAIR (1939), a star vehicle for Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne, and the most recent one is Glenn Gordon Caron’s less fêted LOVE AFFAIR (1994), starring power couple Warren Beatty and Annette Bening, also marks Katharine Hepburn’s celluloid swan song.

Set on a transatlantic ocean liner from Europe to New York, newly engaged to a minted heiress Lois Clark (Patterson), the legendary rake Nickie Ferrante (Grant) meets cute with Terry McKay (Kerr), a former chanteuse who is set to tie the knots with her beau Kenneth Bradley (Denning). During their sea-bound voyage, the emotional unavailability of both is destined to be breached through their burgeoning mutual affection, most exuberantly and ebulliently coalesced with ribbing and flirtation, which they try to hide in plain sight among other voyagers, only their ham-fisted effort often comically boomerangs, it is just a too small world aboard.

What deepens their feelings, especially for Terry, as she is fully aware of Nickie’s erstwhile playing-the-field repute, is their layover in a Mediterranean coast town, where Nickie invites her to visit his grandmother Janou (a radiant and bilingual Nesbitt, yet who is merely 16 years senior than Grant) in her paradisal residence, grandma always knows the best, after striking a tacit rapport with her and knowing better about Nickie’s past (a perfectionist painter underneath his womanizer front), much obliged to Harry Warren penned theme song “AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (OUR LOVE AFFAIR)”, borrowing voice from a fruity Marni Nixon, Terry braves herself with a proposition when they are edging their destination, and Nickie concurs, as two grown-up inamorati, they allot each other six months to think over their romance and a possible future, topped off by a rendezvous on the top of the Empire State Building, to officially celebrate their union, all on the premise that if both appear on the occasion.

In the interim, both successfully break off their respective engagements, McCarey shows his partiality in fleshing out Terry’s case to tactfully bespeak the gender politics in that testing matter (how many girls would be lucky enough to be bestowed such a paragon of a supportive ex like Kenneth?). However, just when the cup of happiness overflows, sorrow follows, Terry misses their appointment right under the towering architecture, and it takes another six months for a dejected Nickie to confront her and seek out “why?”, while audience has been in the knowing all along, their final reconciliation is masterly contrived through Nickie’s ambulatory eagerness countering Terry’s sedentary passivity, and totally on the strength of the script’s sparkling wheeze, the cure to their lovelorn fix is right inside Terry’s bedroom (another scene where a key object is reflected through a mirror), Nickie must find out the truth by himself, this is the requisite of Terry’s self-inflicted test to cinch that their love will not be tainted by pity or sympathy, and furthermore, she needs this validation of the “anything can happen” motto to face the battle against her own adversity, it is that levelheaded perspective (besides two spellbound leading performances and McCarey’s grand narrative felicity) makes AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER such a potent romance, standing head and shoulders over anything of its ilk.

Both Grant and Kerr are immaculate in their designated allure of suaveness/demureness, also stoke a paramount impression of jocosity and tactile fondness, especially Ms. Kerr, acquits herself beautifully without an air of vanity and conceit, she is the ultimate nonpareil of a virtuous lady who can win over audience’s affection without being sexually objectified, and this performance should be irrevocably ranked as one of her highest achievements, which after leafing through her impressive résumé, is a blinder for all her worth. A funny thought stems from contemplating the juxtaposition of an over-tanned Grant with a pasty Kerr, maybe a miscegenation tale is not a bad idea for its next resurrection?

referential entries: Leo McCarey’s GOING MY WAY (1944, 7.1/10), Nora Ephron’s SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE (1993, 7.0/10).