Infidèlement vôtre

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.

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."

Rex 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.

Rex 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.

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.