Editing Love Affair (1939 film) (section)

== Reception ==
[[File:Love Affair (1939) by Leo McCarey.webm | thumb | 250px | thumbtime=13 | upright=1.5|''Love Affair'']]
The praise for ''Love Affair'' among film critics was reflected in Clark Wales' quip: "Recommending a Leo McCarey production is something like recommending a million dollars or beauty or a long and happy life. Any of these is a very fine thing to have and the only trouble is that there are not enough of them."<ref>{{cite magazine |author1=Clark Wales |title=''Love Affair'' review |magazine=[[Detroit Free Press]]: [[Screen and Radio Weekly]] |date=March 1939 |page=5}}</ref> [[Liberty (general interest magazine)|''Liberty'' magazine]] wrote "a pleasant little {{not a typo|[[dramedy|seriocomedy]]}},"<ref>{{cite magazine |title=[''Love Affair'' review] |magazine=Liberty |date=February 25, 1939 |page=55}}</ref> ''[[New York World-Telegram]]'' called the film "the most absorbing and delightful entertainment of its kind [in] a long time"<ref>{{cite news |last1=Boehnel |first1=William |title=''Love Affair'' Seen as Outstanding Film |work=New York World-Telegram |date=1939-03-17 |page=23}}</ref> and ''New York Daily News'' called the film "tender, poignant [and] sentimental without being gooey".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Cameron |first1=Kate |title=Exquisite Romance on Music Hall Screen |work=[[New York Daily News]] |date=1939-03-17 |page=48}}</ref> "Put this one down among the contenders of the Academy Awards of 1939," declared ''[[Associated Press]]'', "and [one] of the most satisfactory movie endings."<ref>{{cite news |title=[advertizing spread] |url=https://archive.org/details/filmdaily75wids/page/n543/ |work=The Film Daily |date=1939-03-14|pages=8–9}}</ref>

"The screenplay is an exceptionally intelligent effort," wrote the ''Box Office Digest'', "[and] McCarey's skill in handling individual scenes with the old [[Hal Roach|[Hal] Roach]] technique carries through this tough spot and on to a grand climax,"<ref name="box"/> but the review added: "It must be unfortunately recorded that there is a let down in interest for a half reel when [Michel and Terry] are separated."<ref name="box"/> Meanwhile, ''[[The Charlotte Observer]]'' found the movie refreshing, describing it as "outdoing" other romances that are "slap-happy wherein boy spanks girl or shoves her into the fish pond by way of displaying his affections."<ref>{{cite news |title=Honest Love is New Trend |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/70313053/ |work=The Charlotte Observer |date=5 February 1939 |page=4}}</ref> [[Pare Lorentz]] described the film as "a mood, rather than a story" as McCarey effortlessly balanced the conflicting tones of comedy and melodrama, "[keeping] it alive by expert interpolations."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Sarris |first1=Andrew |title="You Ain't Heard Nothin' Yet": The American Talking Film, History and Memory, 1927-1949 |date=1998 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |isbn=978-0195038835 |page=339 |url=https://archive.org/details/youaintheardnoth00sarr/page/338/}}</ref> ''Stage'' also praised the direction: "McCarey is the man responsible for shifting, with no detectable trickery, from the brittle comedy of the early sequences to the genuine emotionalism of the later. It is superior entertainment all the way through."<ref>{{Cite magazine|title=[''Love Affair'' review]|date=1939-03-15|magazine=Stage}}</ref>

On characterization, ''[[The New York Times]]'' remarked on "the facility with which [Boyer and Dunne] have matched the changes of their script—playing it lightly now, soberly next, but always credibly, always in character, always with a superb utilization of the material at hand."<ref>{{cite news|author1-link=Frank S. Nugent |last1=Nugent |first1=Frank S. |title=Love Affair |work=[[New York Times]] |date=1939-03-17 |page=26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201007135206/https://www.nytimes.com/1939/03/17/archives/the-screen-love-affair-a-bittersweet-romance-opens-at-the-music.html|archive-date=2020-10-07|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1939/03/17/archives/the-screen-love-affair-a-bittersweet-romance-opens-at-the-music.html}}</ref> Leo Mishkin added: "Certainly, this Terry McKay of Miss Dunne's is one of the greatest things she has ever done on the screen[.]"<ref>{{cite news |last1=Mishkin |first1=Leo |title=''Love Affair'' a Music Hall Winner; Irene Dunne, Charles Boyer Superb |work=[[The New York Telegraph]] |date=1939-03-18 |page=2}}</ref> ''[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]'' described Boyer's performance of Michel as "a particularly effective presentation of the modern [[Casanova]];"<ref name="Variety">{{cite news|date=1939-03-15|title=Love Affair (with Songs)|page=16|work=Variety|url=https://archive.org/details/variety133-1939-03/page/n135}}</ref> "Under no circumstances miss it," said Jesse Zunser, "Mr. Boyer proves beyond the shadow of a cinematic doubt that there are few better players on the American dream[.]"<ref>{{cite news |last1=Zunser |first1=Jesse |title=[''Love Affair'' review] |work=Cue |date=March 18, 1939 |page=44}}</ref> ''Box Office Digest'' wrote, "[Boyer and Dunne have] never done more delightful work, and to say that they step along in stride — step for step, is a tribute to either one in red hot competition."<ref name="box">{{cite magazine|title="Love Affair" Shows Dunne-Boyer at Best |url=https://archive.org/details/boxofficedigest100nati/page/n117/ |magazine=Box Office Digest |publisher=Los Angeles, National Box Office Digest |date=1939-03-11 |page=7}}</ref> ''[[The Film Daily]]'' described the performances as "gorgeously acted" and "stand[s] out as the best of many months",<ref>{{cite news |title=''Love Affair'' with Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne |url=https://archive.org/details/filmdaily75wids/page/n533 |work=The Film Daily |date=1939-03-13 |page=10}}</ref> and ''[[Photoplay]]'' remarked that Maria Ouspenskaya's "extraordinary" performance "stole" the scenes in Madeira.<ref>{{cite news |title=[''Love Affair'' review] |url=https://archive.org/details/motionpicturerev04hwwi/page/n205/ |work=Photoplay |date=June 1939}}</ref> The only notable criticism of characters came from Dunne herself, who told ''[[Silver Screen (magazine)|Silver Screen]]'' years later: "If I had been in that girl's place, far from hiding, I would've trundled my wheelchair up and down the sidewalks of New York looking for [Michel]."<ref>{{cite magazine |author1=Faith Service |title=My Screen Selves and I |magazine=[[Silver Screen (magazine)|Silver Screen]] |issue=August 1944 |pages=60–61|year=1944}}</ref>

''Love Affair'' was RKO Pictures' second-most popular film, after ''[[Gunga Din (film)|Gunga Din]]''.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1939-04-03|title=RADIO'S "LOVE AFFAIR" HITS AT BOX OFFICE; PARAMOUNT'S "MIDNIGHT" IN SECOND SPOT|volume=9|page=5|work=Box Office Digest|issue=9|url=https://archive.org/details/boxofficedigest100nati/page/n163}}</ref><ref name="mistress"/> It was colloquially classified as "Mature."<ref>{{cite news |title=[''Love Affair'' review] |work=[[National Legion of Decency]] |date=1939-03-23 |quote=Adults.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=[untitled] |url=https://archive.org/details/motionpicturerev04hwwi/page/n203/ |work=[[Christian Century]] |date=1939-04-05 |page=462 |quote=A: very good; Y & C: no.}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=[''Fox West Coast Bulletin'' review] |work=[[General Federation of Women's Clubs]] |date=1939-04-01 |quote=Material so deftly and delicately handled that the picture will be greatly enjoyed by young people as well as adults.}}</ref>