Love Affair 1939

On a December transatlantic crossing, Michel Marnet, a celebrated French painter known for his wandering eye, meets Terry McKay, an American singer, aboard a liner. They are both already engaged—Michel to heiress Lois Clarke, and Terry to Kenneth Bradley—but their playful conversations and dinners together on the ship reveal a chemistry that makes them wary of prying eyes. To avoid gossip, they decide to dine separately and avoid further association while the voyage continues. In Madeira, Michel’s grandmother Janou welcomes Terry and seems to approve: she encourages Michel to settle down.

At New York’s port, they arrange to meet again in six months, atop the Empire State Building, giving Michel time to earn enough money to support a possible relationship. He struggles: his paintings won’t sell, so he takes a job designing advertising billboards around the city. Terry, meanwhile, breaks off her engagement and signs a nightclub contract in Philadelphia to perform through June.

When the rendezvous date arrives, they head to the Empire State Building; but a car accident injures Terry and doctors warn she may be paralyzed, though the outcome won’t be known for six months. Not wanting to burden Michel, she conceals the severity and doesn’t contact him. Michel, waiting until closing time, travels to Madeira only to learn that his grandmother has died; he continues working in New York City. Terry, during her physiotherapy, is overheard singing in the garden by the owner of a children’s orphanage, who hires her as a music teacher.

Months pass; on Christmas Eve, during Terry’s first outing since the accident, they cross paths at a theater; Terry is seated, concealing her disability. The next morning, Christmas Day, after the children visit Terry at her apartment, Michel makes a surprise visit and learns the truth. Terry, happy that Michel has changed, says it’s her turn to prove she can change as well, but Michel reassures her that they will be together no matter what the diagnosis.