Affair with a Stranger (1953)
Directed by Roy Rowland

Film Review

Affair with a Stranger makes a reasonable stab at straddling the divide between melodrama and romantic comedy but, lacking any real inspiration on both the directing and writing fronts, it cannot help ending up looking pretty slushy and anaemic.  You can imagine it taking off with a vengeance if Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn had been cast in the lead roles but the slightly eccentric pairing of Victor Mature with Jean Simmons doesn't quite convince, partly because Mature is cast against type as a likeable romantic rogue.  Both actors turn in respectable performances but there is a distinct lack of chemistry, for all the charm that fills the screen.

The film is able to disguise the fact that it is really just a lazy accumulation of clichéd situations by adopting a flashback narrative structure, à la Citizen Kane.  It's an odd device to use for such a humdrum little film and if it works at all can be put down to the presence of some superb character actors who momentarily steal the focus.   This was Jean Simmons' second feature as part of her reluctantly acquiesced to three-picture deal with RKO top honcho Howard Hughes, a slight comedown after her first, the excellent Angel Face (1952).  Here Simmons has the thankless task of playing a nice young thing who panders to the vanities of the man she can't help falling in love with.  The subject matter is shallow and trashy but the presence of Simmons and Mature, both at the height of their powers, makes it an entertaining time killer.

Film Synopsis

Successful New York playwright Bill Blakeley becomes the latest victim of a television gossip columnist when he is seen entertaining Janet Boothe, the lead actress in his latest Broadway play.  In fact Bill has no amorous designs on Janet and merely agreed to a dinner date with her when his wife Carolyn decided not to join him ahead of the opening of his new play.  Once the mischief-making gossip columnist has done her work it seems everyone is talking about Bill and Carolyn and wondering how their marriage could have hit the rocks...