Love Affair is a 1939 American romance film, co-starring Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne, and featuring Maria Ouspenskaya. It was directed by Leo McCarey and written by Delmer Daves and Donald Ogden Stewart, based on a story by McCarey and Mildred Cram. Controversial on concept, the official screenplay was re-tooled and rewritten to appease Hollywood censorship and relied on actor input and improvisation, causing long delays and budget extensions.
The movie became a surprise hit of 1939, showing McCarey's versatility after a long career of comedic films, and launching the surprising team-up of Dunne and Boyer. Academy Award nominations include Best Actress for Dunne, Best Supporting Actress for Ouspenskaya, Best Original Song, Best Writing (Original), and Best Picture. Its popularity was later dwarfed by McCarey's 1957 remake An Affair to Remember, which spawned its own remakes with 1994's Love Affair and a few Indian adaptations.
Plot
One December, French painter (and famed womanizer) Michel Marnet meets American singer Terry McKay aboard a liner crossing the Atlantic Ocean. They are both already engaged, he to heiress Lois Clarke, she to Kenneth Bradley. They begin to flirt and to dine together on the ship, but his worldwide reputation makes them conscious that others are watching. Eventually, they decide that they should dine separately and not associate with each other. At a stop at Madeira, they visit Michel's grandmother Janou, who bonds with Terry and admits wanting Michel to settle down.
As the ship is ready to disembark at New York City, the two make an appointment to meet in the new year, six months later on top of the Empire State Building, giving Michel enough time to decide whether he can start making enough money to support a relationship with Terry. His paintings fail to sell, so he finds work designing advertising billboards around the city, while Terry breaks off her engagement to Kenneth and successfully negotiates a contract with a Philadelphia nightclub to perform through to June.
When the rendezvous date arrives, they both head to the Empire State Building. However, Terry is struck by a car on a nearby street and is told by doctors she may be paralyzed for the rest of her life, though that will not be known for certain for six months. Not wanting to be a burden to Michel, she does not contact him, preferring to let him think the worst. Meanwhile, Michel, who waits until closing time, travels to Madeira to discover his grandmother has recently died, and continues working in New York City. Terry is overheard singing in the garden of her physiotherapy by the owner of a children's orphanage, who hires her as a music teacher.
Six months pass by, and during Terry's first outing since the accident, she and Michel meet by accident at a theater on Christmas Eve, though since she is already seated, Terry is able to conceal her disability. The next morning on Christmas Day, after the children visit Terry at her apartment, Michel makes a surprise visit and finally learns the truth. Terry, delighted Michel proved he had changed his ways, tells him it is her turn to prove she can change hers, but Michel assures her that they will be together no matter what the diagnosis is.