Love Affair story
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.
19 total · 3 choice · 8 major · 8 minor
| Theme | Level | Motivation |
|---|---|---|
| choosing between lovers | choice | Both Michel and Terry were short on cash but had gotten engaged to wealthy partners. When they fell in love with each other both Michel and Terry had to consider carefully whether they would forego a lavish lifestyle with partners they didn't love, in order to have true love with each other. |
| love vs. material gain | choice | Both Michel and Terry were short on cash but had gotten engaged to wealthy partners. When they fell in love with each other both Michel and Terry had to consider carefully whether they would forego a lavish lifestyle with partners they didn't love, in order to have true love with each other. |
| romantic love | choice | The story is one of two people falling madly in love and resolving to do just about anything to be with each other. |
| coping with being ill and indisposed | major | Terry underwent a lengthy recovery after sustaining serious injuries from his by a car. It was up in the air whether she would ever walk again. |
| coping with heartbreak | major | Michel was brokenhearted when Terry no-showed their long-anticipated meeting on the Empire State Building observation deck. Unbeknownst to Michel, Terry was hit by a car on her way there. |
| gold digging | major | Both Michel and Terry revealed that they had engaged themselves with their respective partners for the prospect of money, and pink champagne. |
| mobility impairment | major | Terry became wheelchair bound, possibly for life. |
| pride | major | When she became an invalid, Terry resolved not to let Michel know because she didn't want him to marry her out of pity. She was adamant that she'd pay her own way and get better, or failing that never see Michel again. |
| romantic infidelity | major | The story concerns two people who embark on a love affair despite each being engaged to someone else. |
| the Casanova stereotype | major | Michel, a Frenchman who was apparently irresistible to women, well known rake. He told Terry that he was on his way back to his fiancée in New York after having enjoyed a tryst with said fiancee's sister in Italy. |