Odeio-te Meu Amor

Noted film critic Leonard Maltin comments "oozing with sophistication" and he's absolutely right.It's a brilliant film for grown-ups (or, at least, grown ups of the 40's).It would probably frighten or confuse todays audiences because the dialogue is so rich it would send them running to the dictionary every other minute.The casting is perfect with many of Sturges' favorite supporting players delivering beautifully.If you're over 50 (and/or have a college degree) you'll love this film.If you're into rock and roll and four letter words this film would be your worst nightmare.

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.

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.

Unfaithfully 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.

Golden-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."