Mirror, mirror in my film ...

• Author: Gehring, Wes D.
• Position: REEL WORLD

"MIRROR MOVIES" are fascinating. These are films in which reflected surfaces highlight a pivotal sequence. For instance, there is the Marx Brothers' "mirror scene" from director Leo McCarey's "Duck Soup" (1933), in which Harpo doubles as Groucho's nightgown-attired reflection. (Maybe even more famous is Harpo's 1955 television appearance on "I Love Lucy," in which he and Lucille Ball re-create the "Soup" sequence--with the key variation merely being that the common costume now is Harpo's, as opposed to the look-alike Groucho's of the film.)

A student of McCarey can, of course, draw upon many memorable mirror scenes. The most significant example, after "Duck Soup," comes at the close of his watershed romantic comedy, "An Affair to Remember' (1957). Cary Grant's character has brought a special sentimental Christmas gift to an almost lover (Deborah Kerr). The present is a shawl belonging to his beloved grandmother (Cathleen Nesbitt), which Kerr had admired greatly. When Kerr had failed to make an earlier lovers' rendezvous at the top of the Empire State Building, a scene forever referenced in later romantic comedies (see especially Nora Ephron's "Sleep less in Seattle," 1993), Grant assumes she no longer cared. He does not know Kerr's character had been injured seriously on the way to their meeting. Since she now is an invalid, Kerr never had gotten in touch with Grant, fearing a potential pity partner.

After their nonrendezvous, Grant's playboy figure is motivated to pursue his neglected talent for painting, with his best canvas being a likeness of Kerr in the aforementioned shawl. The later death of Grant's grandmother is the catalyst for him to surprise Kerr at home with his gift (Kerr's condition remains a secret, because he is ushered into her presence by a maid, and Kerr remains seated upon her living room couch.) However, Grant's awkward small talk banter eventually leads to a surprising admission: he had allowed his art dealer to give the portrait of Kerr to a woman who repeatedly visited the exhibit simply to gaze upon the painting.

As Grant slowly fleshes out the fact that said lady was handicapped, he has an epiphany--is Kerr the woman? Is that why she missed the rendezvous? Grant distractedly starts to search the apartment for the portrait He soon has his answer. McCarey frames a transfixed Grant in the doorway of Kerr's bedroom. As the emotion generated by Grant's bittersweet expression sweeps over the viewer, McCarey artfully ups...