As he conducts a symphony in a crowded concert hall, an esteemed musician imagines different ways to deal with his wife's reported infidelity in this Preston Sturges comedy. Rex Harrison is perfectly posh, snobby and indignant in the lead role, though his character is more than a little hard to relate to as he simply assumes that his wife has been unfaithful based on hearsay without ever confronting her and without any real evidence. In this regard, the film plays out a lot like 'Othello', though with a pronounced black comedy streak as some of Harrison's imagined solutions to the issue are really rather grisly. In arguable bad taste or not, 'Unfaithfully Yours' is laugh-out-loud funny at its best with the zaniest moments coming from Harrison later trying to act on his imagined scenarios, only to find himself foiled by unreliable technology and other things that get in the way. The film is incredibly slow to build up though, with over 45 minutes elapsing before Harrison starts to concoct revenge scenarios. While this build-up does allow us to get under his skin a bit better, it also makes him seem all the more foolish for not doing anything more to confirm the suspected infidelity. A rather nice touch of the movie is how his anger gives him the fuel to conduct more brilliantly than ever, but this is not a first rate Sturges comedy, even if it certainly never once bores.
Add a Review
-
sol-4 July 2017
-
SimonJack30 June 2019Rex Harrison comedy in films was mostly of the tongue and mind. He is known in most of his comedic roles for the witty quips, humorous repartee and funny dialog. While there's a smattering of that here, "Unfaithfully Yours" is mostly a departure from the normal Harrison persona. Here he is very funny for his antics and the fumbling, bumbling and pratfalls. He reminds one instantly of the Three Stooges and the Marx Brothers.
Is this a dark comedy, as some think? Is it about the complications of operating modern gadgets? Is it a classical musical in some sense? No, I don't think it's any of these. It's just a straightforward comedy about the foibles and problems that marital jealousy and distrust can cause. And it takes serious pokes at such jealousy in the fantasies that Harrison has after he becomes suspicious of his wife.
That his Sir Alfred De Carter might have dark daydreams about revenge or murder is offset quickly by the humorous situations that follow. And, what person hasn't at one time or another in life fantasized about getting even with someone, even by bumping them off? But only to laugh about such thoughts later? (There may be such a near perfect person or two, but even the best of my acquaintances have had such temptations in their lives.)
A scene with complicating instructions for operating a home recorder seems just a counterpoint to Carter's fantasy about how easy and simple it would be to carry out such a dream. And, the classical music - well that is just the venue in which all of this can develop, because the thought of bumping off his wife was just as horrible to Carter as classical music seemed to Preston Sturges in real life.
How do we know that? Because his wife, Sandy, tells us in an interview with the later DVD release of the movie. She says that Sturges "hated" classical music. He couldn't stand it. She said that they went to a concert one time in which he sat through the entire two-hour program. He railed against it afterwards, and Sandy said it led to his idea for this film. He would use the classical Mozart motif as a torturous undertone for the torturous fantasies brought on by jealousy. Only the humorous foibles would return Carter, the film and the viewers to normal for a spell.
So, classical music lovers, don't take it personally, but the classical music overtone for this film was not intended as a kudos to the genre. Rather, it served as a vehicle for the clever Sturges to concoct and carry out a fanciful revenge and knocking off of his wife. It's in the several different ways and times that he tries and fails that make this movie such a very good comedy. The ending says it all.
Personally, I enjoy classical as well as most forms of music. And I thought it served the purpose Sturges intended for this film and story quite well. All of the cast are very good, but this is a Harrison vehicle all the way. -
jotix10014 June 2008Sir Alfred DeCarter is a famous orchestra leader much in demand. After he returns from one of his tours, he is told by his dense brother-in-law, August Henshler, that acting on Alfred's request, he engaged a private detective to follow Daphne, his wife. That is the way for August to comply with an innocent request for 'keeping an eye on her'. DeCarter goes into a rage because he would never suspect his Daphne of any wrongdoing and rips up the detective's report.
The famous conductor has everything working against him as a sudden attack of jealousy gets the best of him. Alfred begins putting a plan together as he starts to lead his orchestra into a concert. As each piece in the program is played, Alfred begins planning how to deal with Daphne because he has reasons to believe she has been cheating him with Tony, his handsome, and younger, male secretary.
Preston Sturges, the creative mind behind this enjoyable film, was at the top of his profession. With this film he solidified his position as one of the most innovative directors of that era in Hollywood. He wrote and directed with impeccable style that characterized most of the work he did for the cinema.
Rex Harrison gave an amazing performance as Alfred, the conductor whose jealousy gets the best of him. The last sequence at his apartment, after the concert is one of the best comic turns by this actor who goes through all the emotions, and furniture, in a frenzied manner. Beautiful Linda Darnell is excellent, although her part doesn't allow her to do much more. Rudy Vallee, who had worked with Sturges before, shows an ability to bring to life his character. Barbara Lawrence, Kurt Kreuger, Lionel Stander, and Edgar Kennedy are seen in supporting roles.
A delicious comedy thanks to Preston Sturges. -
I was surprised to see only one comment on this film in your files. It's been one of my all-time favorites since I was a youngster about the time it was made. Now that I'm reminded by looking it up here that it was a Preston Sturges film I can see why that's so. His classic comedies were unique. It must be also one of Rex Harrison's greatest films. Being a professional musician myself I can especially appreciate the symphonic ambience in which it takes place. I can also appreciate the possible parody Sturges might have had in mind of the great British conductor of those days, Sir Thomas Beecham. The greatest and most memorable visual effect of the movie (I've certainly remembered it all these years most vividly) happened when the Harrison character has to look up the directions for using the recording machine on which he was going to fake the evidence of his wife's still being alive. Onto the screen flashes the most outrageously complex electrical diagram comprehensible only to a professional electrician. This symbolized the inability of modern man to cope with advanced technology. One of the most hilarious moments in film I've ever seen. More viewers should catch up with this one.
-
FilmOtaku20 October 2003It is rare when a film is so funny that it will give me fits of belly laughter, and Unfaithfully Yours is one of them. Rex Harrison stars as an English aristocrat and eminent conductor who, despite being madly in love with his wife (played by Linda Darnell) realizes as a result of several misunderstandings that she may be cheating on him. While he is conducting a symphony concert he comes up with three different scenarios in his head of how to deal with her alleged duplicity. Actually carrying out these plans turns out to be an entirely different matter.
Preston Sturges is always an excellent writer and director, but his quick wit and double entendres are a revelation in this film. One almost has to watch it two or three times to get every comment uttered and facial expression portrayed by our protagonist (Harrison). His delivery is superb, sometimes almost funnier than the words he is saying. Darnell and the supporting cast provide excellent straight and slapstick moments. Dudley Moore starred in a remake of this film in the 80's which was also enjoyable, but having now seen this film, I highly recommend the original over the remake. It is an hour and a half of pure delight.
--Shelly -
steve-bailey-123 July 2005Though he directed a few more movies over the years, Unfaithfully Yours was the last great hurrah from one of Hollywood's greatest comedy writer-directors, Preston Sturges. But Lawdy, what a way to go out.
The movie stars Rex Harrison in what might be seen as a kinder, gentler cousin of his egomaniacal diction professor in My Fair Lady (1964). Here, Harrison is Sir Alfred de Carter, a world-renowned symphony conductor who is still astoundingly infatuated with the woman he refers to as his "bride," Daphne (charming Linda Darnell). The movie never declares how long or short of a time the Carters have been married, but judging from their passion level, one would guess they're still in the honeymooning stage.
(The far more down-to-earth married couple, Alfred's in-laws August and Barbara, are portrayed wonderfully by Rudy Vallee and Barbara Lawrence. Barbara gets all the great barbs off against her husband, who is only to happy to show his ignorance of them.)
One day, August accosts Alfred with the unfortunate news that he paid a detective to tail Daphne while Alfred was out of town. Alfred is so convinced of his wife's fidelity that his reaction starts at outrage and goes haywire from there. Little by little, though, Alfred is given reason to think that Daphne might have needed some spying-on after all. At his concert that evening, Alfred conducts three pieces by Rossini, Tchaikovsky, and Wagner, and with each piece, Alfred imagines the stylish revenge he will extract upon Daphne for her presumed cheating.
From this sober-sounding scenario, Sturges--as he always did--goes all over the place, from sparkling dialogue to skittering slapstick to rich drenches of sentiment. And the melange has never worked better than it does here. Just for kicks, take three of the movie's set-pieces: Alfred's achingly funny dressing-down of August for siccing a detective on Daphne, the first fantasy where Alfred hatches an elaborate murder scheme, and Alfred's drunken attempt to carry out the scheme. Three scenes of complete different tones, and they all plausibly fit into the same movie. Now try to imagine any modern-day comedy-maker whose work would display the wit of any of those scenes.
The Criterion Collection DVD of the movie does it full justice. It includes a seemingly irrelevant but nonetheless enjoyable critique of Sturges' work from Monty Python alumnus Terry Jones. And an interview with Sturges' widow Sandy, as well as copies of voluminous memoes to Sturges from uncredited producer Darryl Zanuck, demonstrate why the movie was initially a colossal box-office failure. Zanuck hounded Sturges to the point that the gifted creator of (to name but two) The Palm Beach Story and The Miracle of Morgan's Creek began doubting himself as a writer, resulting in the final humiliation of Zanuck cutting the film on his own. Then a timely scandal involving Rex Harrison forever killed the box-office chances of a black comedy starring Harrison as an ostensible woman-murderer.
Happily, Unfaithfully Yours, like Chaplin's similarly dark Monsieur Verdoux, survived its prudish times and has become renowned as a great movie. Alfred's take on Delius might be delirious (as professed by one of his fans, played by the great Sturges alumnus Edgar Kennedy)...but Sturges himself remains stupendous. -
Preston Sturgess has Rex Harrison emoting at a frantic pace, so much so that the others in the cast seem barely able to keep up with him. Rudy Vallee does, and gives another one of his expert comic performances as Harrison's stuffy brother-in-law who claims to hate music. Barbara Lawrence as his sarcastic wife has a few good one-liners that she tosses at Vallee. And Linda Darnell does a good job of showing slavish devotion to her brilliant conductor husband Harrison.
But therein lies the weakness in the premise. Darnell is so obviously devoted (to the extreme and with extreme patience) to her temperamental artist of a husband, that it is inconceivable that he would, for one moment, suspect her of infidelity based on hearsay and immediately have her followed by detectives.
There are three flashbacks--with at least one of them being very clever while the others don't quite fit the bill. But the final scene (back to reality) is an uneven blend of slapstick and sight gags that simply go on too long before the windup which has him adoring his wife again.
Not Sturgess at his best and it's the script that's the main weakness because the acting is fine. Rex Harrison seems to be doing a rehearsal for Henry Higgins and Linda Darnell is charming (if unbelievably patient) as the doting wife. Good support from Lionel Stander, Barbara Lawrence and Kurt Kreuger, as well as Edgar Kennedy.
Not as excruciatingly funny as it strives to be with a weak finale. A big bonus is the effective use it makes of classical music. -
preppy-316 October 2007World famous conductor Sir Alfred De Carter (Rex Harrison) is in love with his young beautiful wife Daphne (Linda Darnell). He suspects her of cheating on him and, while conducting three separate pieces at a performance, figures out three different ways of punishing her--including murder. When he tries to carry them out everything goes wrong.
This movie is, at times, very black. It starts out pretty funny with Harrison spitting out his lines rapidly and his sense of comic timing was just perfect. When he has the fantasies though it turns dark and is pretty gruesome--especially for 1948. However, when he tries to carry them out and things go wrong, the film is uproarious. I've seen this film three times and I STILL laugh out loud at the last section. I saw it at a revival theatre two times and people were literally bent over in their seats helpless with laughter! This isn't for everybody--it was a critical and commercial bomb in 1948 and a lot of people still find it too sick to be funny. I can see their point--there's nothing funny about a man trying to kill his wife, but this is a MOVIE--not real life. It all ends happily also.
My only problem, and this is minor, was Darnell. She seems miscast here. But the script is quick and witty, the cast is great and they all go full throttle and the use of music is superb. Basically one of the funniest black comedies ever made. A must see! This gets a 10 all the way.
"Purple with plumes on the hips" -
Unfaithfully Yours (1948)
I've never quite loved Preston Sturges as a director or Rex Harrison as an actor, so having the two of them together here didn't bode well, and I thought I'd announce my bias. And sure enough, on this second viewing I was reminded of a kind of crisp calculation that both of them have. Sturges makes amazing movies, no question, and the best of them (Palm Beach Story is my favorite) are hilarious classics. To see this one for what it offers you might first see a classic Sturges screwball from 1941 or 1942. But even those are clinical at heart (if they have a heart), so it's a little like sipping a very dry, clean martini and getting drunk. Alone. No olives. Wit and sophistication do better in the hands of Cole Porter, somehow, but see for yourself.
Harrison the actor overcomes his harsh demeanor in a movie like My Fair Lady because the music and the style there give him some kind of liberty, but here he is supposed to be sympathetic in his demented cruelty, and I only wish him failure. He is, to be sure, plotting the death of his wife. Three times. And then the fourth, beyond the symphony podium, with its madcap bedlam. It's funny in that zany way you have to laugh at. And you will laugh.
I love classical music and like the structure of the film, but as usual with Sturges, this structure makes the whole process detached and too too clever. Sturges himself wrote the screenplay for this idea way back in 1932, and if it had been shot then, before the Hays code, before the real rise of screwball, we would have had a very different movie. But what we have here is admirable and interesting, for sure, if not the zinger it could have been with a different tilt. -
After 1944's MIRACLE OF MORGAN'S CREEK, Preston Sturges and Paramount parted company. He was too independent a film creator, in a period when film was made in a studio factory system with levels of producers watching how films turned out. Most of his movies had been profitable (one exception was his attempt to do a straight dramatic story - THE GREAT MOMENT). But he was too big for this type of pressure. So he left the studio and proceeded to make two independent (or semi-independent) films. The first was THE SIN OF HAROLD DIDDLEBOCK with Harold Lloyd, produced with Howard Hughes. The results were pretty good, but certain flaws prevented it from being fully successful, and Hughes re-cut the film when he re-released it. The second, done at Twentieth Century Fox, was UNFAITHFULLY YOURS. Here, he had problems with Fox chief Darryl Zanuck that mirrored the problems he had at Paramount. But the resulting film was one of his best works. As mentioned elsewhere it was his dark comedy, his MONSIEUR VERDOUX (which appeared a few years earlier).
Rex Harrison is the great British conductor Sir Alfred De Carter, who is married to the beautiful (but somewhat younger) Daphne (Linda Darnell). Daphne is sister to Barbara (Barbara Lawrence) who is married to a billionaire August Henschler (Rudy Vallee) Leading a major orchestra on tour, De Carter finds when he gets home that August hired a detective (Edgar Kennedy) to keep an eye on Daphne. There is a full report suggesting that her behavior was incorrect. De Carter is furious at August's actions, and goes to confront the Detective. But he finds Sweeney the Detective a fan of his music, and actually a fairly reasonable man. After an initial moment of anger, De Carter decides to read the report. He finds that the evidence suggests that Daphne has been having an affair with his secretary Anthony (Kurt Krueger).
The background of the story, and an interesting sequence showing Sir Alfred in rehearsal, takes up about half an hour of the movie to set up the story. We see Sir Alfred (deeply troubled, and already snapping at Daphne and Anthony) conduct Rossini, Tschaikovski, and Wagner in a three part concert. Each time he conducts he is thinking of his marriage partner and how to handle her. He imagines a perfect murder that pins the killing on Anthony. He imagines an overwhelmingly saintly version of himself being all forgiving and generous to his departing wife, leaving a self-hating Daphne in tears. He finally imagines confronting Daphne and Anthony with his pistol and playing Russian Roulette, ending with his own shocking suicide.
The concert ends, and the conductor goes home to put his schemes into effect, starting (of course) with revenge by murder. Of course, if this was a Lang or Hitchcock film the revenge would have been effectively carried out. It's Sturges however, so everything possible to carry out the "perfect" murder goes wrong. My personal favorite is a recording device that will enable him to make a record of himself saying "Help...Tony stop! Stop!" or something like that, and changing the pitch to resemble the voice of Daphne screaming! In the vision it was so simple. But the recording device falls through a window, causes Harrison to fall through a chair, keeps throwing the record off the turntable, and when he tries to follow the "easy to follow instructions" the plans look more complex than an atom smasher.
The same thing is repeated for the two other visions, with equally embarrassing failures. It is only at the tale end of the film that Sir Alfred is able to find a quiet way out of the mess of his life, without any real embarrassment.
Sturges did very well indeed in this film. Harrison was quite pleased with this role, which he felt (with THE GHOST AND MRS. MUIR) was the best he did in Hollywood in the 1940s. He felt that Sturges' script was better than Shakespeare. The film also gave Sturges the chance to give Edgar Kennedy a splendid last moment on screen, as the Detective who loves De Carter's handling of Handel and Frederick Delius. Kennedy is only in the film about five minutes, but does well - even though he looks ill (he'd die in 1948). Lionel Stander, as Carter's business manager Hugo, keeps the annoyed conductor from ringing his idiot brother-in-law's neck several times. Linda Darnell is as sexy as she appeared in LETTER TO THREE WIVES, and to the end we wonder if she and Anthony did have an affair. And Vallee appears as hopelessly incompetent in being helpful as he was in romancing Claudette Colbert in Sturges' THE PALM BEACH STORY.
But the film failed. There is a downer atmosphere around it of death. First Kennedy's demise (mentioned above), and then the Harrison - Carole Landis Suicide Scandal as well. The idea (to a 1948 American audience, tired of death from World War II) of humor from subjects like murder and suicide was too much. The film flopped, and Sturges never regained his footing. Following it came the half-way decent THE BEAUTIFUL BLONDE OF BASHFUL BEND with Betty Grable, which ended his Fox years, then his living abroad in Paris, and then the awful THE FRENCH, THEY ARE A FUNNY RACE. One can only say that at least Sturges did do the string of great comedies that he was able to do while he could, and be grateful for that. -
zetes7 September 2001Unfaithfully Yours is a step down from his great masterpieces, Christmas in July, The Lady Eve, Sullivan's Travels, Hail the Conquering Hero, and Miracle at Morgan's Creek (I don't think I forgot any; I've seen all of his films which are now thought of as important except Palm Beach Story; I also haven't seen his film about Louis Pasteur or his final film, the one with Betty Grable, The Beautiful Blonde from Bashful Creek or some such title), but it is masterful nonetheless. Sturges' script is exquisite - it has one of the most unique structures I've ever come upon, which I will not ruin for any of you. It's also quite hilarious, as we can expect from the greatest comedy director of all times, American or foreign.
There are a couple of problems, though. The situation and structure are brilliant, but the main character, while we can understand his mental anguish, becomes too mean as the picture progresses. As much as he seemed to love his wife in the first act, it is difficult to believe, even under the circumstances, that he would be that cruel towards her. Even if I did buy his awful temper (this guy's worse than Othello), it really is hard to forgive him for being such a tremendous *sshole when he comes around at the end. The film also suffers from what has to be the longest extended slapstick sequence in film history. It starts out great, especially the bit with the phone operator, but as the guy breaks more and more stuff, it just gets old. Also, with the telephone bit, the fourth time was the charm - it got a big laugh from me, but the fifth time was really too much. All and all, despite these criticisms, it still comes off as a pretty great and memorable film from a true master. 9/10. -
jkysharma4 July 2010Unfaithfully Yours is an inventive spin on the 'screwball comedy' sub- genre that peaked during the 30s and 40s from Preston Sturges. It isn't very often that a film-maker leaves his mark on you with the first viewing from his output which is exactly what Sturges achieves here. With dialogue that is literally razor-sharp, laced with sardonic wit and a smattering of the slapstick, one might be tempted to genre-confine this film. Nothing could be more of a disservice to Sturges' work for while being a black comedy with screwball elements, it also carries a catalogue of human behaviour much darker than the average black comedy of its time. Only Sturges never lets the latter upstage the eventual purpose of the film – to raise chuckles and leave you in splits.
Firstly, the dialogue. The wordplay ('handle Handel') here suggests a liking for verbal content above all else with Sturges. All the characters deliver lines that are chuckleworthy if not downright hilarious. As such, a repeat screening is a must, if only to sample some piece of dialogue that didn't register the first time around. This aspect of the movie leads me to the other which is Rex Harrison. Cast here as the renowned orchestra conductor Sir Alfred de Carter, his performance hinges as much on words as much as it does on his brow. That is one mighty brow with a bearing to match. Any dark content here stems as much from it as from Sturges!
Three pieces of Western Classical music play integral parts in the film. Rossini's Semiramide, Wagner's Tannhäuser and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, high points of the Romantic Movement, highlight how the utopian perfection of imaginary scenarios can go wrong in every possible way when their realization is attempted. Among other things, Linda Darnell puts in a pleasing turn as Daphne, Sir Alfred's wife and the scene featuring the Simplicitas recorder ('so simple that it operates on its own') is right up there with the funniest of the funniest. -
planktonrules25 January 2006I feel very alone with my review. I watched this famous film by an exceptionally famous writer/director and I found the film to be, at best, average. It's really a shame, as I love old comedies and I generally like Rex Harrison. Given the material, though, I think the actors try their best. The absolutely WORST moment in the film was the excruciatingly overdone segment where Rex kept breaking things--stepping through several chairs, dropping things, etc. AGAIN and AGAIN and AGAIN. The scene was just plain excessive and seemed to last forever. It absolutely ruined the movie for me. I believe if Preston Sturgis had not been the writer, director and producer of this film, he never would have gotten away with it--someone would no doubt have questioned this repetitive and annoying scene. It reminds me a lot of the bad Jerry Lewis film CRACKING UP--a movie so bad it was never released to theaters. The two movies have the most over-long pratfall segments I have ever seen--so long and overdone that even Mack Sennet would have complained about the scenes!
-
One of Director Preston Sturges' most enjoyable films, Unfaithfully Yours is a dark comedy which uses the skills of it's leading actors Rex Harrison and Linda Darnell, to perfection.
Harrison plays Sir Alfred De Carter, a famous symphony conductor who has recently wed the beautiful and much younger Daphne (Darnell). Upon returning from a successful concert tour, Sir Alfred is confronted by his brother-in-law August(Rudy Valle), whom he had charged to look after Daphne while he(Sir Alfred)was away. Merely wanting August to drop in on Daphne on occasion, Sir Alfred is shocked to find out that August instead, enlisted a private detective to shadow his wife around town. Outraged when presented with the detective's file, Sir Alfred refuses to even look at it. However, he is eventually confronted with the sleuth's findings, which to his chagrin, reveals that while he was away, Daphne made a very suspicious late night call to a man's room wearing only a negligee. He is further devastated to find out that the rogue in question is his own right-hand man, Tony (Kurt Kreuger), a handsome, dapper fellow more closer in age to Daphne. Believing the worst, Sir Alfred's pristine world is suddenly turned upside down, and he becomes a man consumed with jealousy and suspicion.
From here we watch Sir Alfred's gradual meltdown as the thought of his wife's infidelity haunts his every moment. Even the concert stage can't provide him any solace. While performing before a sold out audience, his mind is less on the music and more on how he will deal with the adulterous duo. With his baton wailing wildly, his mind plays out various fantasies; his first thoughts are of murder, concocting an elaborate scheme which will leave Daphne dead and Tony framed as the killer. In another scenario he sees himself as the forgiving saintly husband, allowing his young wife to leave with his blessing, even going so far as to write her a check to cover their anticipated needs. Finally, he envisions himself cast him as the crazed, pitiful victim, confronting Daphne and Tony and committing suicide before their guilty eyes. As the music ends Sir Alfred has settled on murder as his method of revenge. He abruptly ends his performance and proceeds to put his plan into effect. Hilariously, nothing seems to go quite as smoothly as it had in his vision.
Harrison is masterful as the prim and proper husband who becomes the green-eyed monster bent on revenge. Under Sturges direction, Harrison succeeds in conveying the frailty of the male ego, when faced with the possibility that the little lady may have found the grass a little greener in the neighbor's yard. Darnell as Daphne looks ravishing as the suspected spouse. She ably plays innocent enough to draw doubts about her husband's charges, yet sexy enough to make you believe that the accusations just might be true. A very entertaining movie, I would definitely recommend Unfaithfully Yours particularly for Rex Harrison fans, as this is one of his finest performances. -
lasttimeisaw6 March 2018Golden-Age Hollywood screwball fabricator Preston Sturges' last feature film worthy of his caliber, UNFAITHFULLY YOURS stars Rex Harrison as a renowned conductor Sir Alfred de Carter, on the eve of his concert, he is deviled by the paranoia that his much younger wife Daphne (Darnell) might have an extramarital affair with his personal secretary Anthony Windborn (Kreuger) thanks to his philistine brother-in-law August Henshler (Vallée)'s presumptuous misconstruction.
The apprehension and exasperation of being cuckolded hangs like a rock over Alfred's mind and Sturges only knows all too well, that for a man of Alfred's Brobdingnagian ego, the last thing to do is to lay bare his suspicion point blank in front of Daphne, from blunt rebuke to mounting curiosity, until firmly convinced by the circumstantial evidence, it all comes down to an increasingly fractious Alfred envisages three possible outcomes when wielding his baton in front of a full symphony orchestra and a full-house audience.
Every scenario is pertinently induced by a different classical piece from romantic-era he conducts and introduced by a cracking zooming-in shot right into Alfred's eyeball, the overture of Rossini's baroque SEMIRAMIDE triggers a murderous plan A which a framed Anthony to take the rap, yet what Wagner's operatic TANNHÄUSER suggests is a plan B with lenience and munificence, whereas plan C of a Russian roulette derring-do is influenced by Tchaikovsky's symphonic poem FRANCESCA DA RIMINI, a special treat for musos and cinephiles alike.
Sardonically, reality is, more often than not, not exactly what we have imagined, so during his execution of one of the plans after the concert (interestingly, the choice of the plan betrays Sturges' arch amalgamation of comedy and morbidness), a knockabout transpires in a slightly labored fashion which plays up to Alfred's clumsiness, and he is merely stuck in the preparatory step with the "so-simple-it-operates-itself" home recording unit when Daphne returns, thus an air-clearing finale is all we need to put everything back to the status quo.
A motormouthed Rex Harrison simulates a great impression as a conductor and relishes Sturges' long-winded screenplay which jollily throws barbs to the folly of machismo, meanwhile, Linda Darnell is hobbled as a virtuous beauty with a little more to act (albeit it is all in one's figment), yet, quintessentially it is Sturges' trademark witticism and sleight-of-hand that marks this oldie a treasure to be appreciated by posterity and here is the takeaway quip to round off my review - "If there is one reassuring thing about airplane, they always come down." -
clanciai26 July 2022Preston Sturges wrote, produced and directed this film, and it is a virtuoso performance in every possible way. The wit, the dialog, the fantasy play derailing into the blackest most sinister possible comedy, the monumental psychology of the hollowness and vanity of a great man who turns his own worst enemy and self-destruction, the tragedy of the inability of detachment from yourself, setting the green-eyed monster loose on a rampage, turning it all into a hilarious comedy non plus ultra, it's an incredible masterpiece of comedy and psychology of the human limitation, no matter how great you are. You will cry for laughter, wallow in passion, enjoy supreme classical music, hate Rex Harrison for his outrageous meanness, and sympathise with poor Linda Darnell, who fortunately already knows how difficult it is to live with a man of unlimited self-indulgence. Just let him blow it off, and it will blow off, even if it involves costly disasters. Preston Sturges was the number one for comedy, and in this his last great bow he masterly uses music to enhance and bring out the best and worst of hilarious comedy without bounds. This is such a masterpiece of script, direction and acting, that it must needs be watched again and again - with generous intervals.
-
hitchcockthelegend4 March 2008Well well, I certainly found this to be a very mixed bag, I simply adore Preston Sturges, the satirical wit in many of his classic standards is still thrilling new fans as each year passes by. This one was one I had to hunt down to add to my collection purely because of its director, and what trusted review sources I looked at led me to expect an undervalued masterpiece. Sadly the film only hints at greatness and I wasn't in the least bit surprised to find that the film had been cut by 20 minutes such was the uneven feel I got from it.
The film centres on a comic slant of misconception, mistrust, and one mans zany decent into jealous madness. Believing his beautiful wife is having an affair, top conductor Sir Alfred De Carter {an ebullient Rex Harrison} dreams three scenarios that will give him peace, all very different, and all played out to the accompaniment of classical music, Rossini's-Semiramide, Wagner's-Tannhauser, and Tchaikovsky's-Francesca de Rimini. These sequences lift the film out of the stupor that besets the piece for most of the first half, and this sets us up nicely for the finale as we see which route Carter has chosen and of course the mirthful results that ensues.
Back on release the film didn't catch on, and we can only wonder what the film would have been like with the added scenes still in place, I like to think that Sturges really had crafted the masterpiece that some top line critics today believe the film actually is. The film was also blighted by a sad scandal as Rex Harrison's girlfriend Carole Landis committed suicide and naturally the films distributor {Fox} felt the films subject matter was just too close to the bone to support wholesale, and the subsequent lack of support practically killed the film on release to the point that Sturges never made another American film again . It's an entertaining film, the music working with the mindset of the protagonist works a treat, and the comedy stands up well to tickle the ribs, but it will always be a case of so near, yet so far, but that of course is my own humble opinion.
7/10 -
blanche-223 January 2006Rex Harrison is a temperamental conductor and Linda Darnell his younger, adoring wife in "Unfaithfully Yours," also starring Lionel Stander, Rudy Vallee, and Kurt Krueger. Harrison and his wife are so much in love, it's sickening. But thanks to interference from his brother-in-law (a subdued Rudy Vallee), Harrison begins to believe that while he was out of town, his beautiful wife (Darnell) was consorting with his secretary, Tony, played by blond, handsome Kurt Krueger. As he conducts the orchestra in concert that evening, Harrison imagines several scenarios - one in which he kills his wife and cleverly frames Tony for the murder; one in which he pays her off; and one where he challenges Tony to a game of Russian roulette. Of course, when he actually tries to carry them out, things don't go as he imagined.
This is a hilarious movie, with Harrison absolutely magnificent - and I might add, totally unlikable. One wonders if Darnell will stay with him once the bloom is off the rose. Lanky and sure of himself, though not particularly handsome, Harrison has a certain magnetism, not to mention a snappy way with a line. "Will I see you tonight at the concert?" Vallee asks him. "Yes!" Harrison yells. "I'm generally there on the nights when I conduct!" His last scene alone in the apartment is a scream, mainly because Harrison doesn't go for laughs but takes the whole thing very seriously and in character. Darnell is beautiful and appropriately cloying. Edgar Kennedy, as a classical music loving detective, has a wonderful scene with Harrison.
I haven't seen the remake, but I noticed its voting average is lower than the original's. I can imagine Dudley Moore being quite funny, but this role, with its arch egotism, was tailor-made for Harrison. -
I'm not sure how anyone--Sturges or Zanuck especially--could figure that audiences would go for this picture. Here we have a protagonist (one certainly can't call him a hero) who is duplicitous, arch, and neurotic to the point of psychosis, played by an actor who hammers each of these characteristics home like a railroad spike. It's one thing to fantasize about murdering one's wife (without a shred of proof), it's quite another to then go about trying to do it in real life (with no more proof). Sturges seemed to think that making Harrison utterly incompetent and slapsticky in the attempt would make it funny. Whether he ever intended that the audience forgive or even tolerate this would-be murderer isn't clear. One passionate declaration after he's failed just isn't enough. And casting the inexpressibly beautiful Linda Darnell in one of her very few completely sympathetic roles doesn't help. She could play both sides of the fidelity coin better than anyone, but he doesn't give her the chance. Her fidelity is so overplayed at times that I was quite prepared for at least a little undercutting. But it never came. I wonder if a year later, his career in ruins because of this picture, Sturges saw "Kind Hearts and Coronets" and figured out where he went wrong.
-
mjneu5912 January 2011Writer director Preston Sturges made a habit out of kicking the legs out from under some of our most cherished virtues, and he turned his attention to the sanctity of marriage in this late career classic: a dark and malicious (but no less hilarious) comedy easily several decades ahead of its time. The vow 'til death do us part' takes on an entirely new meaning when a world-renowned symphony conductor (Rex Harrison) begins to question the fidelity of his beautiful young wife, and while in concert is inspired to fantasies of revenge, noble sacrifice, and suicidal self-pity by the music of (respectively) Rossini, Wagner, and Tchaikovsky.
This is Preston Sturges at his iconoclastic best, sharpening his trademark wit to a keenness matched only by the startling, contrasting darkness of his humor. Notice how the catharsis of Rex Harrison's murderous daydreams lends an emotional brilliance to his interpretation of each musical score, and note too the malicious glee he takes in slashing his wife's pretty neck with a straight razor, and later watching his bête noir consigned to the electric chair.
Harrison's dapper English urbanity was perfectly suited to Sturges' unique, demented brand of verbal hysteria; one need only imagine Dudley Moore in the same role in the inevitable 1984 remake to appreciate the sophistication of the original. Sturges was not unaccustomed to getting away with murder in his comedies, but it's hard to believe a film of such daring poor taste could ever have been made under the moral straightjacket of mid-1940s Hollywood. Like all of the director's best efforts it hasn't aged a day since, and if anything is even funnier (and more chilling) when seen today. -
writers_reign5 October 2007This is what we might call late-blooming Sturges coming as it did four years after his last Paramount movie and having written and directed eight movies for that studio between 1940 and 1944, the majority of which were successful he was arguably entitled to both a break and a different studio. It was Fox who were to benefit from the breach with Paramount and Sturges got to feature Fox contract player Linda Darnell plus Rex Harrison, who was still hanging around the Lot after shooting Anna And The King Of Siam there a couple of years earlier. In fact Linda Darnell played very much the same role she plays here - an ordinary girl who lucks into a rich older man - as she did for Mank the next year in A Letter To Three Wives where she substituted Harrison for Paul Douglas. This is at its heart a very bitter black comedy but perhaps because he thought it too dark himself or perhaps because he was 'persuaded' by the Front Office, Sturges leavened it from about the seventh or eighth reel with some hopelessly unfunny slapstick involving Harrison who is, above all else, at home with verbal comedy. There are certainly fine moments and the beginning is studded with Sturges one-liners but the ultimate effect is of an unsuccessful meld of bleak humor and slapstick.
-
Sir Alfred De Carter (Rex Harrison) is an aging British conductor who becomes extremely suspicious of his beautiful younger wife (Linda Darnell) and his handsome (but boring) assistant (Kurt Kreuger) after his wife's brother-in-law (Rudy Vallee) brings him a detective's report. Harrison at first refuses to even look at the report, but as his ego gets the better of him, he goes to the original detective (an unrecognizable Edgar Kennedy) and is visited by their hotel's house detective (Al Bridge) who confirms seeing Darnell going into Kreuger's suite in the middle of the night. Harrison does what any brilliant music conductor does-he plots revenge, and that means murder and framing his rival for the crime. Harrison (known for his own extreme ego in real life) seems to enjoy spoofing the whole idea as Alfred just gets crazier and crazier, first setting his dressing room on fire in an effort to destroy the detective's report, then furiously conducting his orchestra for rehearsal as if he were riding the winning horse at the Kentucky Derby. By the time his concert begins, he has decided to emulate Sweeney Todd, as we learn in the first of three fantasy sequences where he plots the perfect crime. But dreaming of revenge and actually carrying it out are two different things, and in one of the funniest sequences Preston Sturges ever directed, Harrison goes deeper and deeper into madness as he destroys his entire hotel suite while trying to carry out his scheme. This is slapstick at its most intelligent.
This is a film where you are not supposed to like the leading character. That makes his over-the-top actions all the more funny, and Harrison relishes every moment. Darnell, of course, is truly beautiful, the most ravishing clothes horse of the 1940's, but has nothing to do but look lovely and confused as Harrison's menace increases. Lionel Stander has some amusing lines as Harrison's pal, while Vallee, Barbara Lawrence (as Darnell's sister), Kennedy, and Bridge offer fine support. Sturges, responsible for some of the best screenplays and for directing some of the finest comedies in Hollywood's history, adds another gem to his resume. The music too is wonderful, furiously as part of the plot as Harrison's insanity is. This was remade somewhat successfully by Dudley Moore in 1984, one of the more obscure classics to be re-done. It has grown in cult status over the years, but was totally overlooked for awards during its release year. The film remains a showcase for its stunning leading man who in spite of 40's classics such as "Blithe Spirit" and "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir" wouldn't become legendary until he uttered those immortal stage and screen words, "Eliza, where the devil are my slippers?" years later. -
gavin694216 May 2016Set to music, a symphony conductor (Rex Harrison) envisions multiple possible scenarios for dealing with his wife's infidelity.
This film did not do well at the box office, and I cannot say I am surprised. While the idea of three alternate stories is interesting, it comes off as a bit boring and is not nearly as funny as something from Preston Sturges really ought to be.
The only time I really found the film to be that amusing was when comments were made that I would have thought violated the Code. At one point, for example, the conductor makes a comment to his wife that he wished her father had shot himself before she was born. Wow, that's dark! -
Lejink21 October 2018I had high hopes for this movie as it is a complete Preston Sturges production and I'm a big fan of the Hollywood wunderkind's work earlier in the decade, has a top cast and the synopsis read well too. Sadly, for me anyway, it wasn't to be as after an intriguing premise is set up in its first two thirds it falls away badly in the last third with an extended slapstick sequence involving Harrison alone with no dialogue set for some reason to an orchestral backdrop. I guess at that point, I realised that the director's previous film had been to coax silent film star Harold Lloyd out of retirement and that the physical comedy employed no doubt in the Lloyd film had carried lamely over to this one.
The film peaks with Harrison's three imagined demises for his (he thinks) errant wife and his good looking personal assistant, displaying with some candour a strain of black humour which must have seemed shocking in its day, but is then frittered away with Harrison's inept attempts to implement his plans and ends up happily ever after with a pat explanation for his obviously doting wife's seemingly suspicious behaviour.
Like I said it started brightly with Harrison rampaging all over the place as the blustery, overbearing genius orchestra conductor lording it over his wife, in-laws and entourage with recognisably sharp and fast dialogue but before the damp squib finale you've also become aware of miscasting issues such as the normally feisty Linda Darnell as the simpering wife, Rudy Vallee as the nerdish brother-in-law and Lionel Standen delivering an accent which only in his head might sound east European.
As I understand from his bio, it seems that at this stage in his career, the prodigious Sturges had just about burnt out and he never again reached his previous heights (a similar thing was happening at almost the same time to another great 30's and 40's director Frank Capra).
I'm still glad I watched it and it had great promise for a time, but sadly for this admirer, it rather petered out and then with its tagged-on happy ending, almost looked to me like a studio-compromise job. -
TheLittleSongbird8 January 2019Love older films, meaning pre-1970s, though love films of all decades and genres. The premise was really interesting. The cast sounded great on paper. Adore classical music and opera, coming from a background heavily centred around classical music. And really like to love many of Preston Sturges' films. So a large part of me was sure 'Unfaithfully Yours' would at least be an enjoyable film.
'Unfaithfully Yours' is not one of Sturges' very best films, he is not quite at the top of his game like he was in his prime period in the early 40s (my personal favourites of his being 'The Lady Eve' and 'Sullivan's Travels'). It is still a great later effort from him all the same and perhaps his last great one, in a consistently rock solid career that was too short when Sturges died far too young just eleven years later. When it comes to entertaining and deliciously dark looks at suspicion and revenge on film, 'Unfaithfully Yours' is hard to beat and a truly fine example.
It does take a while for 'Unfaithfully Yours' to find its rhythm, perhaps a little too long to do so with the early portions being very slight in terms of narrative.
Can understand too any reservations of Alfred acting too cruelly in the latter stages of the film and admittedly it is on the extreme side, it did fit the premise and the film's themes of suspicion and revenge though.
There is so much to recommend 'Unfaithfully Yours' though. The best asset being the script. Just loved its deliciously sharp wit and acidity, executed with such flair, and the darkness, brutally portrayed in a way that was daring for back then, created genuine tension. Another huge strength is the music, with some of the best use of Rossini, Wagner and Tchaikovsky on any film. They are all amazing pieces in their own way and used extremely effectively, adding to and even enhancing the dark atmosphere, the Rossini being especially well used.
Sturges directs with an ever assured hand, giving the material full impact throughout while not doing so too heavily. The story mostly is compelling with one of the unique structures witnessed on film by me and helped by the script and atmosphere and the performances from all are on the money. As superb as Rex Harrison's intensity and comic timing, in one of his best performances, is and how Rudy Vallee entertains in his role, it is Linda Darnell who comes off most sublimely. The production values are as beautifully crafted as the writing.
All in all, great film. 9/10 Bethany Cox