An Affair to Remember

This wonderfully frothy 1950s confection famously inspired the climactic scene on top of the Empire State Building in the much-loved Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan film Sleepless in Seattle, yet the film itself was a remake of another McCarey production, 1939's Love Affair. The incomparable Cary Grant is at his slickly arch and urbane best as a wealthy, idle womaniser who meets his match in self-contained, sassy Deborah Kerr aboard a luxury liner. Director Leo McCarey dresses his sophisticated comedy of sexual manners in an atmosphere of rhinestone-encrusted dresses, impeccably pressed dinner suits and raised champagne glasses. The second half slips off the boil somewhat, but, thanks to Grant and Kerr, this remains a cinematic object lesson in the perfect rapier delivery of cut-and-thrust dialogue.