Love Affair

Playboy Boyer and initially sceptical Dunne fall in love on an Atlantic crossing, but they're both promised to others. As a test of their feelings, they agree to meet six months hence on top of the Empire State building, but fate has different plans. McCarey later remade this as the slightly stodgier An Affair to Remember; Warren Beatty tried and failed; Sleepless in Seattle played it for knowing irony; but the original remains supreme because the contrived storyline is very much a construct of old Hollywood and the casting unbeatable. Dunne, quite simply, is a marvel, deliciously caustic when required, genuinely illuminated by passion, touchingly stoic when events turn against her, while Boyer gains in humanity by using his suave Gallic charm as a mere cover for raging self-doubt. The constantly shifting emotions of their lengthy final scene make it a mini-masterpiece of acting, writing and direction.