Writers: Delmer Daves, Leo McCarey, Mildred Cram
Director: Leo McCarey
Cast: Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Richard Denning, Neva Patterson, Cathleen Nesbitt, Robert Q. Lewis, Charles Watts, Fortunio Bonanova
Rating: Not Rated
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Release Date: January 15, 2008

Our Love Affair is a Wondrous Thing… That We’ll Rejoice in Remembering…

That enchanting song gets in my head and brings to life wonderful memories of one of my favorite movies. I would say that Cary Grant is at the top of my list of favorite actors and his performance in An Affair to Remember only strengthens my belief that he is one of the greatest actors of all time. All of the credit cannot go to Grant though. The elegant and talented Deborah Kerr, with whom Grant has such amazing chemistry, puts in the performance of a lifetime. Now, I have the ultimate An Affair to Remember DVD to keep the memory of their performances, and one of the only love stories I think is worthy of watching, alive.

New generations will fall in love with this classic, which their mothers/fathers and even their grandparents once loved so dearly. Every time I review a classic film that is as superb as An Affair to Remember I say ‘they don’t make movies like this anymore’. Well I’m saying it again. Not one of the new films I’ve seen this year can hold a candle to the magnificent creations of old Hollywood. Actors were held to a higher standard and that standard typically demanded that not only would the story be of a higher caliber, but the actors and directors would be held to the highest level. I remember watching An Affair to Remember as a teenager and truly enjoying the story. I feel the same way about it today.

Release Information:
An Affair to Remember originally aired in theaters on July 11, 1957. It’s hard to believe it’s been 50 years. So much has changed in the way movies are made and in the quality of films. 20th Century Fox decided to release a 50th Anniversary Box Set to commemorate this outstanding film. This is a two disc box set of An Affair to Remember and it’s well worth the purchase, even if you own the 2002 copy of the movie. With the enhanced quality and bonuses that have been included in this set, there has never been a release of An Affair to Remember quite like this one.

An Affair to Remember – 50th Anniversary Edition will be available at local and national retailers on January 15, 2008. The standard price for the DVD will cost around $14.99 at a retailer such as Amazon. You can’t get a better deal than this for such a remarkable edition of one of the greatest films of all time.

The An Affair to Remember Plot
An Affair to Remember is considered one of the best classic love stories to ever be filmed. Wealthy playboy Nickie Ferrante (Grant) and beautiful, former nightclub singer, Terry McKay (Kerr) just happen to be on the same cruise that is heading from Europe to New York. Ferrante has finally settled down and is engaged to a very wealthy heiress, Lois Clark (Neva Patterson) and Terry is engaged to a wealthy man named Kenneth Bradley (Richard Denning) who is quite devoted to her. After a mix up with Nickie’s missing cigarette case, which ends up in Terry’s possession, the two, who initially seem to dislike one another, end up becoming quite close.

After a visit to a villa located on an isolated hill in a small French village, where Nickie’s Grandmother Janou (Cathleen Nesbitt) lives, Terry and Nickie realize they have feelings for one another and the rest of the trip they spend together, having an unconsummated but otherwise intense love affair. As the boat approaches the New York harbor and their love affair is set to end, the lovers agree to get all of their affairs in order, end their current relationships, and meet again in six months, at the top of the Empire State Building.

For those who have never seen this but have seen the Nora Ephron film, Sleepless in Seattle the Empire State Building was chosen because of the movie An Affair to Remember. The entire film was used as the muse for Ephron’s film. In fact, there are many deliberate parallels between the two films.

While it looks as though Nickie and Terry are destined to be together, the inevitable happens when an accident causes one of the lovers to re-evaluate their relationship. Ultimately, it is a film about the ultimate love, denial and humanity all rolled into one. Just when you expect something is going to happen, it doesn’t and the story flows from each unexpected moment to the next. This is a film you can watch over and over again without growing tired of the story or any other element of this film.

An Affair to Remember has an amazing cast. There is no one quite like Cary Grant. He can be humorous. He can be charming. He can be dramatic. He can even be dark and brooding. The excellent thing about Cary Grant is he was unable to be typecast because there were so many facets to his career and so many different roles he played. In An Affair to Remember, he goes from tender to tart, charming to sensitive, heated to charismatic and that’s just the half of it. When paired with Kerr, the two have this embroiled chemistry that is as smoldering on the screen as some of the hottest sex scenes of today without the two having to remove any of their pieces of clothing.

The storyline for An Affair to Remember wraps up neatly with no loose ends. This is a simple story with many complex things happening to enhance the tale. This is the type of romantic film a man won’t have to be ashamed about watching with his girlfriend. I don’t believe there are very many films that this can be said for, so that’s definitely a compliment to the story, the writing, the plot, the acting, and the directing. All in all, the entire package is excellent and I really cannot complain about any of it.

Storyline/Plot:
Replayability:
Acting:
Directing:

Audio/Visual:
The biggest question those who already own a copy of An Affair to Remember will wonder about is how this version stacks up to the previous release, which was put out by Fox in 2002 and digitally remastered for that release. The results are quite similar, but this version seems to be a bit more vibrant. More color is brought out. There are slight differences and slight improvements, but the result of the 50th Anniversary Edition transfer makes the visual quality simply breathtaking. It is a slight improvement, and while this may not motivate buying the set on its own, there are other features that do make this box set worth the additional purchase.

The transfer for An Affair to Remember was done at a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. The film is in anamorphic widescreen and there are very few, if any visual errors. I didn’t find any even as I was looking for them. It truly is remarkable how smooth the transfer went for a film that is 50 years old. I would purchase the film for the quality alone, but then I didn’t happen to own the film on DVD, though I do recall having an old VHS copy despite no longer using my VHS player (or even having one), for the past 10 or so years.

The sound has been improved slightly from the original version, but not to the point of digitization. Everything sounds natural and there is no need for volume adjusting. The sound options on the An Affair to Remember – 50th Anniversary Edition DVDs include Dolby Digital Stereo Sound in both English and French and Dolby Digital Mono in Spanish. Closed Captioning is available and there are subtitles, which can be turned on and off in both English and Spanish.

Visual:
Audio:

Bonus Features:
While the last version of An Affair to Remember had several extras, some of which are included on the An Affair to Remember – 50th Anniversary Edition, there are so many extras included in this set that they had to be spread across two discs. To start with what was already on the 2002 edition DVD, the 50th Anniversary Edition features audio commentary with the singer behind the role of Terry McCay (she was the person who dubbed most of Deborah Kerr’s singing roles), Marnie Nixon.

The commentary also features Joseph McBride, a well-known film historian. There is a lot of interesting information to be learned about the making of An Affair to Remember and the portions with Nixon are of particular interest since at the time of its release, it wasn’t known that Marnie Nixon was the singing voice of Deborah Kerr.

Additionally, there is a program called “AMC Backstory”. This nearly half-hour long program talks about the making of the movie and provides insight into the backstory behind An Affair to Remember. This actually is a program that aired on AMC and it was placed on both the 2002 and this updated disc. There is also the original theatrical trailer for An Affair to Remember, Fox Movietone News coverage of the An Affair to Remember premiere, and galleries of posters and stills for the movie.

Then there are the new extras, which are only found on this disc. All of the following are featurettes. There is “Affairs to Remember: Deborah Kerr”, which is a profile that runs about five minutes in length on the actress behind Terry McCay and all of her various love affairs. There is “Affairs to Remember: Cary Grant”, which is a bit longer at a few seconds shy of ten minutes in length. This offers the same kind of profile of Cary Grant as the other featurette offered for Deborah Kerr. The featurette “Directed by Leo McCarey” examines the man behind this movie’s directing in a little over 20 minutes of time. The last two featurettes are “A Producer to Remember: Jerry Wald, which comes in at just over 15 minutes and the nearly ten minutes long, “The Look of An Affair to Remember”.

Finally, there is a paper insert included in the box set. This offers linear notes about An Affair to Remember and an envelope with postcard reproductions of movie theater lobby cards, which were made during the original release. The postcards (there are four of them) are in black and while.

Bonus Features:

Bottom Line:
I’m recommending An Affair to Remember – 50th Anniversary Edition for everyone regardless of age or gender. This movie is great. It has romance. It has humor. It has reality. There are so many movies that have been created thanks to An Affair to Remember. The legacy of this film will continue on as future generations fall in love with the movie the way Terry and Nickie fall in love with one another. You can’t go wrong with purchasing this DVD, so get it while you can.

Overall Rating:

Technorati Tags: An Affair to Remember, 50th Anniversary Edition, Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, Classic Film, Romantic Comedy, Love Story, Empire State Building

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