Classic Romance Movies: Love Affair / The Last Time I Saw Paris / Made For Each Other (1939)

Three classic romances from Hollywood's golden years.LOVE AFFAIR: The magic of a shipboard romance charms a Frenchman and American woman (Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne, respectively) into each other's arms, but promises made to other people and the notoriously fleeting nature of affairs convince the couple to part ways for six months and meet again atop the Empire State Building to see if their love is a lasting one. Although their hearts remain true, an accident and a misunderstanding might lead to heartbreak.LOVE AFFAIR was written, directed, and produced by Leo McCarey as his first major foray into drama after a successful directorial career in comedies, including projects with the Marx Brothers and Laurel and Hardy. McCarey remade LOVE AFFAIR almost 20 years later as the better-known AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER, with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr as the star-crossed couple. Film buffs continue to debate which film is the better, though viewers of either will be swept up by the timeless romance captured so effortlessly--twice!--by McCarey and his delightfully well-matched actors.THE LAST TIME I SAW PARIS: Based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald story "Babylon Revisited," this epic romance is a captivating blend of Parisian expatriate high society and the struggles in post-WWII Europe. When war writer and veteran Charles Wills (Van Johnson) meets the lovely and restless Helen Ellswirth (Elizabeth Taylor) in Paris after the war, the two strangers instantly fall in love, basking in the glory of a free Paris. Helen and her father, James Ellswirth (Walter Pidgeon), are eccentric American expatriates living life in high style but always on the brink of going broke. Charles is captivated with the Ellswirthses' reckless and fun-loving lifestyle, staying out all night, gambling and living life in the glory of the Left Bank artistic society. Charles and Helen get married and have a family, but life becomes more difficult as they continue on with their free-spirited and reckless adventure. Elizabeth Taylor is glorious as the lovely young ingenue Helen, who loves Charles in spite of herself. Her stunning costumes are shot beautifully, contributing to the glorious style of this beautifully rendered epic.MADE FOR EACH OTHER: Jimmy Stewart and Carole Lombard star as newlyweds in this delightful romantic dramedy. Stewart plays Johnny Mason, an amiable New York City lawyer who has put his career in jeopardy by refusing the hand of his employer's daughter. His beloved wife, Jane (comically portrayed by Lombard), is despised by Johnny's mother (Lucile Watson), who takes it upon herself to move in with the young couple. Things go from bad to worse when Jane gives birth to a child the family can ill afford. When the infant becomes sick on New Year's Eve, the pressure falls on Johnny to acquire medication from out of state in order to save both his child and his marriage. Impeccably directed by John Cromwell (GODDESS, ABE LINCOLN IN ILLINOIS), MADE FOR EACH OTHER combines laughter with tears in what is a classic, heartwarming example of true family entertainment.