Too much of everything

That was an excellent one.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Later remade as An Affair to Remember (1957) with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, this original version (which stars Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne) is quite good, yet another great one from that golden year. Dunne and Maria Ouspenskaya (who plays Boyer's Grandmother) received Oscar nominations, as did Director Leo McCarey's film and Original Screenplay.Boyer is a playboy who meets Dunne on a transatlantic cruise. They fall in love, but keep their romance a secret. At the end of the voyage, they plan to meet six months later at the Empire State building.Boyer needs to find a way to make a living before he can propose to Dunne. Turns out, he's a pretty good painter. Unfortunately, on the way to meeting him, she has an accident and is hospitalized. When she learns that she's been crippled, she decides not to burden him with it and never contacts him. Clueless to what's happened, he loses track of her, though he's painted a picture of her, as he remembers her, that will bring them back together.

French painter Michel Marnet (Charles Boyer) and American singer Terry McKay (Irene Dunne) fall for each other on the Atlantic crossing. He is engaged to heiress Lois Clarke (Astrid Allwyn) and she to Kenneth Bradley (Lee Bowman). They stop at Michel's grandmother Janou (Maria Ouspenskaya) in Madeira which solidifies the relationship. As they get to NYC, they agree to clear up their lives to meet 6 months later at the top of the Empire State Building. Michel abandons the life of a playboy for a simple billboard painter while Terry is struck in the streets on the way to the Empire State Building.The movie starts with a questionable premise because the two leads are having a love affair. The fact that this movie works so well is that they are able to maneuver around that. Irene Dunne is absolutely winning and that is a large part of its success. This isn't all gloom and doom. The movie has some very funny lighter moments. The later encounters between the lovers are heart-breaking and that's what put the movie over the top.

My observations: Scotty Beckett and Maria Ouspenskaya both in this movie. I had seen them in "Kings Row", again with Ouspenskaya as the grandmother but with Scotty as the grandson. I like them in both movies.I like Irene Dunne in "Show Boat" and "Love Affair". She was lovely, and wonderful singer.Charles Boyer; what can I say? He always appeared so cultured and debonair.Ouspenskaya was the first teacher of Stanislavki in this country. She taught Lee Strasberg. Her teacher was Konstantin Stanislavski himself.

While it is true that Irene Dunne and Charles Boyer lit up the screen with their chemistry in this 1939 film, the remake with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in 1956's "An Affair to Remember," was even better.Talk about repeating one's role, Maria Ouspenskaya was nominated for her second best supporting actress Oscar as a grandmother giving great advice to Dunne. 3 years before, Ouspenskaya received a first nomination for a very similar part in "Dodsworth."Love was better than ever in this film. Boyer is the playboy who is forced to come to terms with doing something productive so that he can win the love of Dunne.Only in Hollywood could tragedy be brought together and happiness ultimately found.