Sirk’s ‘An Affair to Remember’ a pinnacle of 1950s romance
This Douglas Sirk melodrama has come to be regarded as the emblem of a certain kind of ’50s melodrama, filmed in Technicolor and full of passion, nobility and sacrifice. Twenty-five years ago, it was a key reference point and an organizing principle for the Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan romantic comedy “Sleepless in Seattle,” from the late Nora Ephron.
In “Sleepless,” the running gag was that women tended to tear up just talking about this Cary Grant-Deborah Kerr film. It turns out that Ephron wasn’t joking, at least not about the movie’s emotional effectiveness for all kinds of people.