Affair with a Stranger 1953

On a train, Bill Blakeley, a playwright, fends off the romantic flirtations of Janet Boothe, an actress from his play. But when wife Carolyn Parker decides not to join him, he accepts a dinner date with Janet, who plants a story with a gossip columnist about the Blakeleys possibly heading for a divorce.

Friends and acquaintances begin recalling how the couple met. Carolyn Parker was a fashion model who bought a Toledo, Ohio newspaper each day. Bill pretended to be from Toledo as well to get to know her, only to learn that Carolyn’s actually from England and has been buying the papers for a neighbor.

After their marriage, Bill’s struggles to find work, combined with his gambling, force Carolyn to support them. He finally takes a job as a waiter and slips a copy of a manuscript to a customer, a producer who makes Bill’s play a success.

One night, Carolyn must miss the opening of a play because she is having a baby. The child dies, and she can have no more. Bill is as supportive in her hour of need as she had been in his.

Concerned that he might be vulnerable to an ambitious actress, Carolyn takes the next train to New York. She runs into Bill at the station and into his arms. They both deny leaking the information. Bill realizes the trains are leaving and talks to the station master. Meanwhile, Carolyn looks at the hanky she used to wipe her tears. It has lipstick on it. As Bill returns to tell her there are no more trains and they will have to find a hotel, she drops the hanky into the garbage.