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Affairs of Susan (The)
R2 - United Kingdom - Simply Media Review written by and copyright: Matthew Crossman (24th March 2016). |
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The Film
 We first encounter Susan (Joan Fontaine) as she disembarks from an aeroplane having travelled the World on a tour. Susan is a actress and she has been away entertaining the troops in the United States Army. She is met from the plane by her boyfriend Richard Aiken (Walter Abel). Walter has only known Susan for seven weeks, four of these whilst she was away on her tour, but Walter is smitten with Susan and proposes to her in the taxi ride from the airport to her apartment in New York. Susan is, at first, coy about the subject of marriage and suggests that Walter does not know enough about her and her past. Walter disagrees and tells Susan that he will love her, will always love, regardless of her past. Once back at Susan’s apartment, a place Walter is visiting for the first time, Walter sees pictures of three men from Susan’s past. She explains to Walter whom each man is, one of which being her ex Husband and they others all former fiancés or boyfriends. Susan agrees to marry Walter and Walter throws a party to celebrate. Attending the party are the three former beaus of Susan. Each former partner of Susan takes it upon himself to introduce himself to Walter and each man imparts knowledge about Susan. Walter realises that they all seem to be talking about a different woman than the Susan he knows and Walter comes to the conclusion that he does indeed know very little about his Wife to be. Walter the asks the three men to tell him about how they all met Susan and how they fell in love with her so Walter can gain a better understanding about his betrothed. The first to talk to Walter is Roger Berton (George Brent). Roger is a Broadway producer of plays. When Roger met Susan he was escaping the pressures of the theatrical world by taking a holiday on a small, almost deserted island. Roger manages to find lodgings on the island with an old man and then Roger discovers Susan, the old man’s niece. Roger is astonished to find that Susan has not heard of him and is charmed by Susan’s innocence and constant truth telling. Roger then casts Susan in his upcoming play about Joan of Arc and along the way Susan loses her innocence as Roger teaches her that often her constant truth telling will hold her back in the world of acting. The next former partner of Susan’s to speak up is Mike Ward (Don DeFore) and he is soon followed by Bill Anthony (Dennis O’Keefe). Each man has a similar story to tell and their actions whilst with Susan have al impacted the way she has led her life. When each man finally concludes revealing their stories about Susan Walter realises that Susan is not an easy woman to understand. Walter must make a decision about his future but will Susan’s decision about Walter prove to be the best for both of them? It’s quite unusual to see Joan Fontaine in a comedy such as this as most of her previous films had been serious dramas but she shines in ‘The Affairs of Susan’ and is clearly the star of the show. Her four suitors in the film are ably played but in comparison to Fontaine they really do come across as drab. Most of them seem almost identical with their pencil thin moustaches and grey suits and it is a wonder how Susan ever saw anything in them in the first place. Whilst this movie is definitely played as a comedy I think it’s fair to say it’s a gentle one at that. Perhaps surprisingly the movie was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Story at the 18th Awards ceremony before ultimately losing out to ‘The House on 92nd Street’. Whilst ‘The Affairs of Susan’ is an enjoyable romantic comedy romp it suffers from it’s excessive running time. The film runs for 110 minutes and as the stories of the men’s interactions with Susan are fairly similar it could, and perhaps, should have been trimmed down at the scripting stage. The direction of Walter A. Seiter is workmanlike rather than anything approaching inspired. ‘The Affairs of Susan’ is good, Sunday afternoon fare for those who like their monochrome cinematic pleasures to be on the gentle side.
Video
This DVD from Simply Media presents the film in it’s original aspect ratio of 1.37:1 (The Academy Ratio). Once again Simply Media have included a prologue before the start of the film explaining about the archival nature of the footage and that defects to the print will be evident. Quite honestly they need not have bothered as the picture quality is perfectly acceptable. There is a hint of softness from time to time but otherwise it’s in pretty good shape with no scratches, splices or dirt visible. There is a hint of natural grain. For a black and white movie I would have preferred the blacks to have been a little deeper but overall I was fairly impressed for a film that is over seventy years old.
Audio
The film is presented with a dual mono soundtrack. This is the only option on the DVD. As you would expect all the soundtrack is completely centred with the sweeping score dipping in intensity during the moments of dialogue. It has the usual hollow and slight tinniness to the soundtrack that most films of this period has but this does not detract from the viewer’s enjoyment of the production. There are no subtitles available on the disc.
Extras
None.
Overall
Whilst ‘The Affairs of Susan’ is overlong and a tad wordy is still an enjoyable comedy. The performance of Joan Fontaine is the main reason to watch the movie and she shines in this production which is just as well as she features in nearly every single scene. The supporting cast to Fontaine does an able job but the men in the feature are all too similar. The movie has it’s faults but nothing that will de-rail the enjoyment of the picture.
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