“Having
married and divorced the man
who discovered her, a New York actress
embarked on a series of relationships;
but when she is about to remarry, her
prospective husband begins to doubt he
really knows his fiancée in the romantic
comedy The Affairs of Susan...”
ALTHOUGH SHE HAS KNOWN HIM FOR JUST A FEW WEEKS, divorced New York actress
Susan (Joan Fontaine: Rebecca) agrees to marry businessman Richard Aiken
(Walter Abel: Holiday Inn).
Richard organises a party to celebrate their forthcoming marriage and Susan
invites all her friends, including her former husband and the two men she dated
after her marriage was over — but, as Richard will discover, there
is more to Susan than meets the eye. For starters, she neglected to tell him
she had been married before until he saw photographs of and gifts from the three
men in her apartment.
“This
quirky romantic
comedy from 1945
is highly watchable and
amusing, with Joan
Fontaine making the
most of the humour
in her role as the
enigmatic Susan...”
When
Richard takes the three men to one side and asks them to describe their lives
with Susan in an attempt to get to know her better, he finds that each of the
three men seem to be talking of a different Susan — not only of
the Susan he is still getting to know, but also to the Susan the others knew!
Susan's husband, filmmaker Roger Berton (George Brent), sees Susan as a sweet,
naïve country girl who very reluctantly became an actress when he persuaded
her to take the lead part in his production of Joan of Arc.
Lumber tycoon Mike Ward (Don Defore), to whom she was engaged, sees Susan as
a glamorous, fun-loving party girl; while novelist Bill Anthony (Dennis O'Keefe)
recalls her as intellectual.
To throw more spanners in the works, Richard has been offered a new position
in Washington and wants Susan to go with him as his wife. But does Susan really
want to marry Richard — and who is the real Susan anyway?
Nominated for an Oscar in 1946, The Affairs of Susan is a thoroughly
entertaining romantic comedy with Academy Award-winning movie icon Joan Fontaine
in the title role.
This quirky romantic comedy from 1945 is highly watchable and amusing, with
Joan Fontaine making the most of the humour in her role as the enigmatic Susan.
Ruth Roman is notable in a support role as the Girl at the Bright Dollar and
Ruth went on to more substantial roles in films such as Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers
On A Train (1951) with Farley Granger and Robert Walker and the Western
The Far Country (1954) with James Stewart.
The Affairs of Susan also features: Rita Johnson being deliciously conniving
as Mona Kent; Byron Barr as Chick; and Mary Field as Susan's maid Nancy.
Music Score is by Frederick Hollander; Director of Photography is David Abel
ASC; Original Story by Thomas Monroe and Laszlo Goros; Screenplay by Thomas
Monroe, Laszlo Goroy and Richard Flournoy; Produced by Hal B Wallis; and Directed
by William A Seiter.
*
Arriving
on DVD for the first time in the UK, courtesy of Simply Media, The Affairs
of Susan is released on 21 March 2016. Certificate: PG | Running Time: 110
Minutes | Catalogue Number: 164445 | RRP: £12.99.
"The Affairs of Susan… This quirky romantic comedy from 1945 is highly
watchable and amusing, with Joan Fontaine making the most of the humour in her
role as the enigmatic Susan" —Maggie Woods
“Having
married and divorced the man