The Affair

THE AFFAIR is a very bad TV movie from the 1970s starring the then-husband-wife team of Robert Wagner and Natalie Wood as hesitant lovers. She has polio and leads a reclusive existence as a pop song writer. He's an ambitious lawyer who is very outgoing and absolutely smitten with her. Their affair, such as it is, is doomed from the start, and she knows it, but goes along with it anyway. Two things to watch for if you are trapped into watching this: Wood's Jane Fonda hairdo that is never mussed, no matter what, and a tune she sings early in this dreadful flick. She sings it for four or five or six minutes, so you know it's classic padding between commercials. It also is one of the worst songs ever written, and the woman doing Wood's singing voice should have been shot and put out of her misery. Also, keep an eye out for all the peasant tops and dresses. By comparison, Wagner looks relatively timeless, with close-cropped hair and sporting a series of classic suits.

Natalie Wood portrays Courtney Patterson, a polio disabled songwriter who attempts to avoid being victimized as a result of involvement in her first love affair, with her partner being attorney Marcus Simon, played tepidly by Wood's real-life husband, Robert Wagner. The film is cut heavily, but the majority of the remaining scenes shows a very weak hand from the director who permits Wagner to consistently somnambulate, laying waste to a solid and nuanced performance from Wood, who also proffers a fine soprano. The script is somewhat trite but the persistent nature of Wagner's dramatic shortcoming is unfortunately in place throughout, as he is given a free hand to impose his desultory stare at Wood, which must be discouraging to an actress. The progression of their relationship is erratically presented and this, coupled with choppy editing, leads the viewer to be less than assured as to what is transpiring, motivation being almost completely ignored in the writing. Although largely undistinguished, the cinematography shines during one brief scene when Wood is placed in a patio and, following the sound of a closing door, remains at the center while the camera's eye steadily pulls away demonstrating her helplessness and frailty. More controlled direction would have allowed the performers, even the limp Wagner, to scale their acting along the lines of an engaging relationship; as it was released, there is, for the most part, an immense lack of commitment.

These are the first words of Natalie Wood concerning Robert Wagner as a visiting lawyer at her father's house, who later on will make himself her first lover. Of course it is utterly irresponsible to engage in a love affair with a polio cripple, but she has no experience and falls for him, which leads to consequences. Too late he realizes his own mistake and just leaves her, which of course is the worst thing he could do. Natalie Wood's performance is as sensitive and endearing as ever, while you must hate Robert Wagner for his wooden dullness and shortness of character. Natalie Wood deserved a better husband, they tried to divorce, but just like that other fatal marriage between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, they just had to do it again, and as everyone knows, that marriage ended by Natalie Wood's accidental death. We have never learned the entire truth about it from Robert Wagner, her death remains an unfinished affair, but as you see them together in a love affair like in this film, he certainly is not good for her. She plays a composer who writes and sings her own songs, and the great song she is performing in the beginning she actually sings herself, perfectly in tune and in perfect pitch - some regard this film as her swan song, and as such, it is perhaps a final emblem of a tragically precious actress.

I think this is a very sensitive performance by Natalie Wood. She had any great roles but this one showed a depth of character not seen in her larger studio films. I enjoyed it very much and encourage those sho have doubts to watch it through to the end.

32-year-old lady songwriter, on crutches due to polio, begins an affair with a divorced lawyer with two young boys, but she's on her guard (he tells her "I love you" to which she replies, "I know...thank you"). Aaron Spelling-Leonard Goldberg movie-of-the-week gently exploits the reunited Hollywood couple Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner, who had just married for the second time. This is a cordial, polite and sensitive love affair with the usual self-doubts and complications of a new relationship, presented in soft focus. Still, knowing how this union turned out in real life tends to mar one's enjoyment. Wood does well in a handful of dramatic scenes, but when Wagner searches his soul and his conscience it does nothing but make us uneasy. ** from ****