Classic Movie Trivia

 Because of the references to An Affair to Remember that were featured in Sleepless in Seattle, it revitalized interest in the film and VHS sales for the 1957 film skyrocketed. 

 An Affair to Remember is the second of three movies starring Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant. During the filming they improvised many of their scenes, and numerous lines in the film are the two improvising. 

 Deborah Kerr’s singing was dubbed in this film by Marni Nixon. Nixon also dubbed Kerr in The King and I a year before An Affair to Remember. 

 An Affair to Remember is a remake of the film Love Affair. Both are directed by Leo McCarey. In the original Terry McKay was played by Irene Dunne. The year before An Affair to Remember was made Deborah Kerr played Anna Leonowens in The King and I. Irene Dunne played the same role in Anna and the King of Siam, of which The King and I is based. 

 Originally cast as Terry McKay in An Affair to Remember was Ingrid Bergman. 

 The famous ballet number at the end of the film took an entire month to film and cost approximately half a million dollars.

 In November of 1950 there was a break in filming until December. During this time Gene Kelly rehearsed the large ballet choreography for the films finale. While Kelly rehearsed this number director Vincente Minnelli directed Father’s Little Dividend with Spencer Tracy and Elizabeth Taylor. 

 Cyd Charisse discovered she was pregnant during pre-production of An American in Paris and Leslie Caron was brought in to replace her by Gene Kelly. She had been malnourished during World War II and since it was her first film she was not used to the long schedule, so she would tire easily and could only every other day.

 Gene Kelly was a major part of production on An American in Paris. Originally he pushed MGM for the film to be made in Paris (this did not happen), he also gave Leslie Caron her part in the film after seeing her perform a ballet in France, and as he did in almost all of his films he choreographed the dances for the film. 

 Gene Kelly screened The Red Shoes for the MGM executives to convince them to back An American in Paris as a dance film. 

 During one of their weekly pool games game Arthur Freed and Ira Gershwin made an agreement on the price for the rights to George Gershwin’s An American in Paris-A Tone Poem for Orchestra. The film rights were bought for $158, 750 and Ira received $56, 250 to be a consultant to write any new lyrics for the songs (if they needed any).  

 The scene in which Sky (Brando) and Nathan (Sinatra) first meet was filmed numerous times. They had to stop after Frank Sinatra said he could not eat another bite of cheesecake. Marlon Brando knew Sinatra did not especially like cheesecake and purposely messed up his lines every time that day. Then the next day he did the scene perfectly on the first take. 

 Frank Sinatra, Gene Kelly, and Clark Gable were all original choices for the role of Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls before Marlon Brando. Sinatra wanted the role badly and contested the decision to cast un-musical Brando. As almost a consolation prize Sinatra was cast in the role of Nathan Detroit. 

 The music you hear during Miss Jones’ first entrance in the film was the same music used for the Penguin’s Theme in the original Batman series.