An Affair To Remember

An Affair to Remember is a 1957 film starring Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, and directed by Leo McCarey.

The film is considered one of the most romantic of all time, according to the American Film Institute. The movie was a remake of McCarey's 1939 film Love Affair, starring Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer. An Affair to Remember was almost identical to Love Affair on a scene to scene basis. McCarey used the same screenplay as the original film, which was penned by Delmer Daves and Donald Ogden Stewart.

Contributing to the success of the 1957 film is its theme song "An Affair to Remember (Our Love Affair)' composed by Harry Warren with lyrics by Leo McCarey and Harold Adamson. The song is sung by Vic Damone during the opening credits and then sung later by Deborah Kerr's character, a nightclub singer. Kerr's singing was dubbed by Marni Nixon, who also dubbed for Kerr in the film The King and I.
Plot Synopsis

Nickie Ferrante (Grant), a well known playboy, recently engaged to an American heiress, meets Terry McKay (Kerr) on an ocean liner. After dinner and conversation, they decide that perhaps it would be best if they went their separate ways. However, they have a few mishaps, leading them to the final conclusion that they cannot avoid each other for the remaining few days aboard. When the liner makes port at Villefranche, a small town on the Riviera, Nickie invites Terry to come ashore with him, to meet his grandmother, a widow and retired concert pianist. This leads to a famous scene, where the theme "An Affair to Remember" makes its main appearance, with Jenou (the grandmother) playing, and Terry singing along. That night on the ship Nickie finds Terry, who has been crying, insisting, "That's what beauty does to me." It is here that they share their first kiss. However, since everyone aboard the ship knows who Nickie is, and his famous engagement, they have to keep their affair a secret, not seeing each other for two days. Finally, on the last day of the journey, a nosy traveler asks the pair to autograph some pictures that he bought from the ship's photographer, who is selling them on an upper deck. The secret is out, so Nickie and Terry make the most of their last night together. When they part, they don't know how things are going to work between them: they are desperately in love with one another, but Nickie doesn't have any money that's really his own, and neither does Terry. The next morning, as they are pulling into New York, Terry gives Nickie a note, which says they will meet in six months, when they have both been working and have broken up with their fiancees. Nickie suggests they reunite on top of the Empire State Building, and Terry enthusiastically agrees, saying "It's the nearest thing to Heaven we have in New York".