User reviews

Two years before Audrey Hepburn and Gregory Peck tripped the light fantastic in Roman Holiday, Paramount was already exploring the possibilities of shooting in Italy with September Affair. One only wishes that Paramount had splurged for color the way 20th Century Fox did in Three Coins In A Fountain.

Using the Kurt Weill-Maxwell Anderson as a theme, a pair of mature individuals have a mid life fling in Italy. What Joseph Cotten and Joan Fontaine are handed is a one in a million chance to escape their lives and responsibilities when they miss an airplane flight going to the United States and their families and friends think they've died.

Cotten is an engineer who is going through his usual midlife crisis as his marriage to Jessica Tandy has grown stale. Fontaine is unmarried and has not seen America since 1938. She's devoted herself to preparing for a career as a concert pianist. I wish the film had devoted some explanation as to why she was stuck in an enemy country during World War II and what she did to survive. They meet on the plane, but don't reboard when it comes down in Naples for repairs that obviously were not successful.

In order to support them. Cotten pre-dates a check to Francoise Rosay who is Fontaine's mentor for a large palazzo in Florence. Pre-dates to before the crash and when the estate is being tallied up, Tandy notices it, but let's it slide through.

It's an idyllic setting for lovers, but pretty soon conscience calls and it practically shouts when Tandy and their son Robert Arthur visit Italy.

September Affair is a wonderful picture about mature people for mature people. Cotten and Fontaine have a wonderful chemistry and Jessica Tandy's performance is pure poignancy. It holds up very well after 60 years.

Just wish it was in color.

This is my favourite movie of all time.

I often watch this with friends and family who have never seen the movie and I dare not tell the ending. It is very romantic and at the same time a bit sappy as hollywood Romance movies go.

This movie along with An Affair To Remember and Imitation of Life will have most of you in tears. A great 3-pack weekend tear-jerker selection.

September Affair is unique in the sense that even though the plot line seems far fetched...It actually could happen and has probably crossed a few peoples minds at that. This movie is not to be missed.

Do not Rent this one, purchase it and I assure you you will watch this one over, and over again. I give this movie a 10 out of 10.

Enjoy all you lovers.

Peter.

An unhappily married industrialist and a pianist engage in a passionate romance after they are presumed dead in a plane crash. It gets off to a slow start, with the early scenes feeling more like a travelogue than a drama, as the lovers take a tour of Italy. However, things start to get interesting about half way through as the plot thickens. Fontaine and Cotten are charming as the lovers who find a second chance for happiness. A young and pretty Tandy plays Cotten's long-suffering wife. Given all that has transpired, the ending seems contrived and unsatisfying, perhaps restricted by the censorship in effect at the time. Rachmaninov's second piano concerto is effectively used as Fontaine's signature piece.

Eerily similar in storyline and backdrop to William Wyler's 1936 masterpiece, Dodsworth. It's not so much the script or the direction that doom this film, it's the premise and its execution. Don't get me wrong; I like the film. However, it could have been much better. As other reviewers stated, the actors, their chemistry were excellent. It's the character development that's faulty.

Whereas in Dodsworth the triangle is played out logically, along the lines of solid character development so that the hero ends up in Naples with the other woman; in September Affair (1950), love takes a back seat to 1950's morality, or "family values" which state that if you sin, you must pay.

To represent this on the screen, the screenwriter uses the deus ex machina device of having the wife morph from shrew to martyr, not by showing us, as a film should do, but by telling us, in a letter no less, that she won't agree to a divorce. But when we actually see her, she doesn't seem all that bad a person. She's not like the woman in the letter and she's not the woman Cotten makes her out to be. With Ruth Chatterton (star of Dodsworth), the character development progressed faultlessly. In September Affair, the wife's character arc is unbelievable. Which is she? A shrew or a noble, long-suffering wife? If the latter, the film couldn't end with Joseph Cotten walking away from that sort of woman. He would have lost favor with the audience.

That means forcing credibility to depend on us buying the unbelievable character arc of the wife who somehow morphs from meanie to martyr.

He goes back to his wife and I'll bet the first thing she does is revert to her original persona (you can't escape that easily) — her Ruth Chatterton ways, emasculating Cotten out of spite, and he'll end up with no way back to the woman he loves, who loves him because she's also foolishly played the martyr to the point of NO return.

The film is a cop out. No film should hinge on the changes in a minor character; it should be the leads whose actions set the course. In fact, the ending even goes against common sense:

1) the wife's new persona has accepted the split, so has the son. That he's alive is enough for her.

2) As for Joan, he loves her and Joan loves him. They've taken it to another level — like John Huston and Mary Astor in Dodsworth, a level the wife can't understand. They are clearly superior in their maturity, their lifestyles, their tastes.

Why not let them fade into the Florence sunset together, she with her piano, him with his engineering projects?

This is my first viewing so I can't start by saying it's a favorite, but with Joseph Cotten in the romantic lead and Joan Fontaine with all her charm and understanding, you really can't be far wrong to expect the best in a love story.

They meet on a plane flight, he as an untiring industrialist who has placed business and projects before his wife and son, and she as a concert pianist performing in various engagements on tour. An error in flight identity has these two fine people listed on a plane that crashed and they are mistakenly presumed dead. As their budding romance unfolds they both realize it's an opportunity for them to take hold of a new life together. That leads to complications of course, as we can expect.

I marvel at the way Joan (Manina) can reflect in her features so many subtle emotions, it's as if we can hear her unspoken words, the thoughts and agonies of a love that has many hurdles to overcome. That is great acting in my opinion.

A plot stretch too far to suspend disbelief! Acting is quite wonderful. Joan Fontaine is luminous. Italy is pulsatingly romantic.

I've been a Joan fan for a while now, so when I saw the laser disc for this movie I got it right away.

I was definitely not disappointed.

This movie has got a great story that could actually happen in real life.

Joan gives a great performance as usual, of course Joseph is also perfect as the man she falls in love with at the same time saving her life.

A great movie to watch if you like romance and a beautiful setting for a movie Italy.

In "September affair ",the real star is Italy :we are taken to a guided tour of Pompey (it was made before Rossellini 's "viaggio in Italia " starring Bergman and Sanders) , of Capri ,of Florence (so there are two David :Cotten's and Michelangelo's); what a pity it was not filmed in color :it would have been a feast for the eye,mainly the first part.

As for the story itself,it 's part soap opera ,part valid drama ; Dieterle is here on Douglas Sirk 's territory but less efficient than him in melos .The excellent cast is the main asset of a rather derivative screenplay , using hackneyed tricks (the plane crash) .Cotten is true to himself ,as good as a romantic man subject to the middle-age lust as he was the terrific wicked uncle in " shadow of a doubt" or the unfortunate deceived husband in "beyond the forest " ; Fontaine has always been the dainty heroine ,frail and coy ,but who hides a genuine strength under her angel face ("Rebecca" "suspicion" "letter from an unknown woman") ;and the French audience will be thrilled about Françoise Rosay's presence , an actress who played with the best French directors (Feyder ,Carné,Duvivier) and who played opposite both sisters (Joan in this movie, Olivia in "that lady") ;so did Cotten (see "hush hush sweet Charlotte ")

The title is well-chosen ;September is the end of Summer and indicates a new phase in someone's life ;Sinatra had an album called " September of my years" .Music plays a prominent part from Italian bel canto to American songs to classic music grand finale ;it recalls sometimes Borzage's "I've always loved you" (1946)

I can see by the reviews that most folks seem to have liked this film. Well, you can see me as an old fashioned and moralistic guy, but I strongly DISLIKED the movie because I felt the main characters were just selfish jerks and the picture seemed to make excuses for bad behavior.

The film begins in Italy. A man on business (Joseph Cotton) and a woman (Joan Fontaine) going to see a friend meet after the first leg of an airplane trip. Instead of waiting at the airport for their connecting flight, they take off together to see the countryside...and they hit it off very well. When they return to the airport, they see that their plane has already left. Soon, they get word that the plane has crashed and they are assumed to be dead. They decide that instead of telling everyone they are alive, they decide to use this opportunity to start new lives. After all, Cotten has been in a loveless marriage and he's sick of the corporate life. They settle down in a small Italian town and live an ideal life...that is, until his family learns, accidentally, that he is alive. To see what's next, see the film yourself....if you'd like.

While I could sympathize with Cotten wanting to make a new start, he just seemed very cowardly doing what he did. And, the film also seemed to highly romanticize and endorse this sort of behavior. So, while the film is slickly made and the acting is quite good, I just couldn't get it out of my mind that the pair were just selfish...and far from the sort of folks I'd want to see in a romance. Yes, call me moralistic, but this just seemed wrong and it hurt my enjoyment of the film. For a similar sort of theme, "Avanti" also wholeheartedly endorses hanging about in Italy and living the adulterous dream. Again, I find this less than romantic.

Now if you don't mind the sort of relationship that the film portrays, the film still is quite flawed. It strongly stretched the limits of believability, as the plot was, to put it mildly, quite far-fetched. Also, the film really didn't seem to know where and when to end and just went on and on AFTER the denouement AND the ending really made little sense. There are better ways to spend your time than watching this disappointing film.

All the comments about this film are favorable except for Mr. Neil Doyle's. I wonder what grumpy pill he took when he watched this or maybe he just isn't a romantic guy. Not one person said his review was "helpful."

This film is well-acted, scripted, and an interesting premise. The music is fabulous and the setting great. Like another reviewer said, Joan Fontaine's facial expressions say as much or more than the words she was given to speak. She is one excellent actress and Joseph Cotten is a veteran actor who once again turns in a fabulous performance.

I unconditionally recommend this movie to all classic movie lovers to fans of Joan Fontaine and/or Joseph Cotten and to all romantics everywhere.

After a rather lousy start, we are taken through an amazing bond between two people who truly love each other. And we can already see the foreshadowing of the final rupture, one way or another, for one reason or another.

This movie is full of scenery of Rome and Southern Italy, splendid landscapes, Naples, Capri, and a house like a dream. Somehow this house reflects their dreams, and the dream the two heroes are allowed to live throughout some months of happiness.

Paradies has been lost, so tells us the bible, and here we see yet another example why even true love can't last or keep the lovers together. Paradies is very time-limited.

What I liked personally about the plot was the parallelism of obstacles in their common path together. Had it not been the actually acceleration of problems by the visit at the house of the piano teacher, one of the other strings would have evolved, the other strings growing stronger. Different strings, but all pulling the two apart over the long run.

If these two can't make it, under these best case circumstances, nobody can.

(I don't think this is a spoiler. The title already gives away the outcome: an affaire. Should anyone disagree, just add 'spoilers' as attribute.)

Except for a haunting version of the title song sung by Walter Huston, this is a trivial romance about two people who decide to run away for awhile among some lovely Italian settings before reality sets in and they realize they must return to their banal domestic lives at home.

All of this happens after a plane crash finds Joan Fontaine and Joseph Cotten presumed dead, therein giving them a new start on their unhappy lives.

With a more polished script and inspired direction, this might have been worth seeing. Fontaine and Cotten do their best to be sincere and charming, but none of it seems to matter when the predictable outcome looms like an elephant in the living room.

Fontaine's career was approaching its gradual decline when she found herself trapped in this sort of banality that required nothing more than her still fresh looks and simple charm.

Not much can be said for Jessica Tandy as Cotten's shrewish wife, nor Francoise Rosay, Robert Arthur and Jimmy Lydon in thankless supporting roles.

Summing up: Trivial, pallid romance.

This is one of my very favourite films. It is about two people who are approaching early middle age having a chance at real unconditional love - and taking that chance. The casting is so wonderful and the setting is just beautiful. Although, it is an American film it has the ambiance of the post war realism of a an Italian film (Never Take No For An Answer also has this realism). The film is romantic and yet it is unsentimental. Both Joseph Cotton and Joan Fontaine are so very convincing as the lovers. On visits to Italy my wife and I have visited most of the films location. When there I just cant stop myself from singing September Song.

I've had the good fortune in my life to visit all of the major locations in this film at least once, and three times for two of them. How wonderful to revisit Capri through this film, albeit in black and white and decades before I traveled (which made the cinematography all that more interesting). But the film isn't a documentary (thank goodness with the understandable but annoying Italian clichés and stereotypes). . . so there's that troublesome plot with, as others have pointed out, some fundamental flaws that require an enormous suspension of disbelief. I just couldn't get past these challenges, nor could I find much to celebrate in two people abandoning all responsibilities to conduct an adulterous affair as "ghosts" of themselves. Despite very solid acting and an always lovely Joan Fontaine, I just could not be swept away be the charm and the fantasy and found myself squarely in line with the grande dame piano teacher as she chastises Joan's character for her behavior. I know many viewers adore this film, and I suppose at some level I can see why (even as I watched the film I had a brief urge to sell everything and go back), but the premise of the romance just doesn't work for me.

Joseph Cotton is "David", a wealthy engineer travelling post war Italy when he encounters concert pianist "Manina" (Joan Fontaine). They have some time to kill before their flight back to the US, so go exploring and manage to miss their plane. Serendipity takes a hand - the plane crashes - affording them the perfect opportunity to play dead and allow their burgeoning romance to develop... All seems to be going to plan until his wife "Catherine" (Jessica Tandy) and young son "David Jr." (Robert Arthur) decide to visit Italy and call upon her friend "Maria" (Françoise Rosay) and... Fontaine is good in this film, she always had an understated class that this role suits well. She has a chemistry with Cotton - never the most natural of actors in a romantic setting - and with some lovely Capri scenery (perhaps monochrome photography doesn't quite do justice to the "Blue Grotto") this makes for quite an engaging drama with a fine score from Victor Young and a charming refrain of Kurt Weill's "September Song" to add a maturity to this, admittedly rather thoughtless and selfish, love story.

This is one great romantic film. Joan Fontaine and Joseph Cotten who are presumed to be passengers on a ill-fated flight and, though listed as among the dead, are actually alive. They fall in love and spend time together in a villa in Florence. The wonderful "September Song" weaves its magic throughout the film. Joan Fontaine is vivacious, luminous and charming in her role as Manina Stewart and Joseph Cotten is great as David Lawrence. This is one of my all-time favorite films. It is available on video.

This was an okay romance...not a great one by any means. The main characters were such selfish and cowardly people, it was hard to like them. They thought of no one but themselves!

It was obvious the tourist board of Italy had a big hand in the funding of this movie, as the first half is mostly the main characters gadding about various tourist locales, complete with educational narration.

The movie is also peppered with stereotypes of Italians, depicted as loud, fat, and annoying ( except for the children, who are merely loud and annoying). There is an especially awful scene where some Italian children sing off key for what seems like an eternity.

It's not all bad - the story is somewhat interesting, and the supporting characters you can feel some sympathy for their situation. It's worth watching, but not as a thriller, just a "pass the time" romance.

If anyone thinks that Walter Huston's singing is the memorable aspect of this film, they are mistaken or just dead emotionally.

Yes, a small amount of disbelief, some details not developed but such a context for a love affair. Very Beautiful. A simple post WWII romantic film shot with wonderful Italian backdrops.

Joan Fontaine is of course the jewel in this film. Beautiful haunting displays of emotion and thoughts. A wonderful performance in a thought provoking film. If you ever had the opportunity, would you leave the life you live now for the life you imagine that would make you blissful?

What can I say? This is a wonderful, gentle film, the kind, sadly, Hollywood no longer makes. I saw it first twenty years ago, and it haunted me ever since; I try to watch it once every couple of years. Fontaine and Cotten are in top form here, as are all the supporting actors (especially Tandy). The plot is absolute escapist romantic fare, which I'll leave others to describe. While on the surface the main catch may seem far-fetched, it's handled with surprising credibility; one cannot help but feel caught up in the lovers' dilemma. Given their once-in-a-million opportunity, would any of us have done anything different? Can we judge them?

But, despite the outstanding acting and story, the real stars here are the music and the Italian settings. The haunting song "September Affair," played in the film, was recorded shortly before Walter Huston's death and released posthumously; the poignancy of this fact, and the skillful usage in the film, made both a huge sensation. The captivating black-and-white Italian scenery, especially in Rome and Capri (check out the awesome sequence in the cave at Capri) is worth watching just by itself - much of the same would be captured later in Technicolor (but not as effectively) in the film Rome Adventure. An unforgettable viewing experience; if you love escapism and romance, don't miss this one.

Although the opening credits feature the beautiful and iconic "September Song", September Affair has nothing to do with the lyrics. I only rented the movie because I thought it was going to be a May-December romance that echoed the song. Unfortunately, the movie just cashed in on Walter Huston's recent and unexpected death, even playing his original recording during one scene in the film for no reason. In fact, the story is so irrelevant, perhaps there was a last minute change to the title after his death in order to gain ticket sales.

The plot, though different than I assumed, is extremely interesting. Joseph Cotten and Joan Fontaine meet while vacationing in Italy. He's a married man with children, but he falls in love with her - I really don't know why, since she doesn't give her character any presence or substance. In any case, they fall in love. They miss their return flight back to America, and when the plane crashes, their names are on the ticket list. They're given a second chance at life and at happiness, and they begin a loving relationship in the Italian countryside. It could have been another Now, Voyager type of romance that makes you cry, but there was something missing. Perhaps it was Joan Fontaine not seeming sincere in her love scenes, or perhaps it was the screenplay not really delving deep enough into their connection. Whatever the case, if you rent this movie, don't expect a huge tearjerker romance. Unless you love Joan, you probably won't cry.

I like both Joseph Cotton and Joan Fontaine and happened to pick up a VHS copy of this film (beautifully transferred). It is excellent on all accounts: well produced; sumptuously photographed; literate; well-acted; and moving. The story line is wildly romantic but keeps within the bounds of possibility, and Fontaine and Cotton are the perfect pair to play these mature lovers-- they're both subtle actors who manage to convey (especially Fontaine) the sub- text that lies beneath the situation in which the two find themselves. Jessica Tandy is also excellent. The location scenes filmed in Florence and Rome, while commonplace now, were not back in 1950, so it's a treat to see them here, with the cast actually roaming the streets of the two cities. Without giving the plot away, suffice it to say that the ending satisfies in a way that is believable as the story progresses. The beautiful "September Song" serves as a romantic motif throughout the film and is sung/played several times.

William Dieterle stands - to me - as a director who seldom fails. He may not have the genius of Hitchcock, Wyler or Truffaut, but no one can fault him for inconsistency. His quality touch, professionalism, and capacity to extract great work from his leads and camera directors is unsurpassable.

I think SEPTEMBER AFFAIR is his most rounded effort, of deep psychological insight, and a reminder to all of how selfish it is to deceive your spouse without ever sermonizing.

Joan Fontaine, one of the most beautiful actresses ever, delivers a performance of great perceptiveness and class. She is a woman in love but with a conscience. Joseph Cotten appears here a year after his career-best performance in THE THIRD MAN, and he also posts a highly credible and sensitive performance - though not as fine as Fontaine's.

Françoise Rosay, a grand lady of the French cinema, acts as a kind of Jiminy Cricket conscience to the two lovers - her performance deserves the highest plaudits, too.

As does the soundtrack. I never knew that Walter Huston, Director John Huston's father, could sing - but he certainly can deliver the right note in his rendition of the song, September. The Rachmaninoff concert is brilliantly rendered and the rest of the musical pieces in the soundtrack, including the wonderful Italian song, Santa Lucia, are immaculately played.

Photography and screenplay also rate among the best I have ever come across in romantic pictures.

How sad things change so much. That Italy of 1950 seems so much purer and more beautiful than today's Italy...

I have learned much from this film, even if I had already gleaned most of its lessons from my own life - nonetheless, it remains a powerful reminder of how easy it is to turn selfish and forget those you love, notably your children.

Highly recommended. 10/10.