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IMDbPro

The Affair

  • TV Movie
  • 1973
  • PG
  • 1h 14m
IMDb RATING
5.0/10
314
YOUR RATING
Natalie Wood and Robert Wagner in The Affair (1973)
DramaRomance

A crippled lady songwriter meets an older lawyer, who becomes her first love.A crippled lady songwriter meets an older lawyer, who becomes her first love.A crippled lady songwriter meets an older lawyer, who becomes her first love.

  • Director
    • Gilbert Cates
  • Writer
    • Barbara Turner
  • Stars
    • Natalie Wood
    • Robert Wagner
    • Bruce Davison
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • IMDb RATING
    5.0/10
    314
    YOUR RATING
    • Director
      • Gilbert Cates
    • Writer
      • Barbara Turner
    • Stars
      • Natalie Wood
      • Robert Wagner
      • Bruce Davison
    • 13User reviews
    • 2Critic reviews
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • See production info at IMDbPro
  • Photos13

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    Top cast21

    Edit
    Natalie Wood
    Natalie Wood
    • Courtney Patterson
    Robert Wagner
    Robert Wagner
    • Marcus Simon
    Bruce Davison
    Bruce Davison
    • Jamie Patterson
    Jamie Smith-Jackson
    Jamie Smith-Jackson
    • Jennifer
    • (as Jamie Smith Jackson)
    Pat Harrington Jr.
    Pat Harrington Jr.
    • Frank
    • (as Pat Harrington)
    Kent Smith
    Kent Smith
    • Mr. Patterson
    Paul Ryan
    Paul Ryan
    • Bobbie
    Frances Reid
    Frances Reid
    • Mrs. Patterson
    Mark Roberts
    Mark Roberts
    • Howard
    Anna Aries
    • Annie Simon
    Steve Riskas
    • Peter
    Brett Ericson
    • Evan
    Robert Stull
    • Michael
    Anna Karen
    Anna Karen
    • Willa
    Paul Pepper
    Paul Pepper
    • Engineer
    Suzanne Taylor
    Suzanne Taylor
    • Hostess
    • (as Sue Taylor)
    Victoria Carroll
    Victoria Carroll
    • First Man's Wife
    Keith Walker
    • First Man
    • Director
      • Gilbert Cates
    • Writer
      • Barbara Turner
    • All cast & crew
    • Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

    User reviews13

    5.0314
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    Featured reviews

    7enjoyce2

    Great Natalie Wood performance

    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.
    5moonspinner55

    Not a great dramatic vehicle for either Wood or Wagner, but she excels in a handful of scenes

    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 ****
    3xredgarnetx

    Waste of time and talent

    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.
    10whpratt1

    Natalie Wood & Robert Wagner Were Magic !

    Over the years I missed this TV Film and was completely surprised by the great performance of Natalie Wood,(Courtney Patterson),"Meteor",'79, a cripple who was taken advantage of by Robert Wagner (Marcus Simon),"El Padrino,'03. Marcus Simon fell madly in love with Courtney and drove Courtney crazy until she finally paid attention to him and went to bed with him. Marcus should never have started a romance with Courtney, because he was only going to Break Her Heart. The acting between Marcus & Courtney was fantastic and at times made you very angry at Marcus for having started this entire "AFFAIR". Bruce Davison,(Jamie Patterson), Courtney's brother tells her, "At least someone loved you in this world" and it was good you got to see what the REAL WORLD IS ALL ABOUT" ! Natlie Wood & Robert Wagner were married for the second time during this film and they were really a match made in Heaven! Natlie is greatly missed!
    8clanciai

    "The man is frozen."

    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.

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    Related interests

    Mahershala Ali and Alex R. Hibbert in Moonlight (2016)
    Drama
    Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart in Casablanca (1942)
    Romance

    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • Trivia
      Natalie Wood was pregnant while making the movie and named her daughter Courtney Brooke Wagner after the character she played.
    • Connections
      Referenced in The Big Box: To the Devil a Daughter (2009)
    • Soundtracks
      I Can't See You Anymore
      Written by Renée Armand and Jim Gordon

      Performed by Natalie Wood

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    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • November 20, 1973 (United States)
    • Country of origin
      • United States
    • Language
      • English
    • Also known as
      • Love Song
    • Filming locations
      • 20th Century Fox Studios - 10201 Pico Blvd., Century City, Los Angeles, California, USA(Studio)
    • Production company
      • Spelling-Goldberg Productions
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Tech specs

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    • Runtime
      • 1h 14m(74 min)
    • Sound mix
      • Mono
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.33 : 1

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