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Unfaithfully Yours (Criterion Collection)
Director: Preston Sturges
Actors: Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell, Rudy Vallee, Barbara Lawrence, and Kurt Kreuger
Rated: Unrated
Retail Price (not our price): $29.95
Release Date: 2005-07-12
Theatrical Release Date: 1948-12-10
Studio: Criterion
Run Time: 105 minutes
Format: Array
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Special Edition, NTSC
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Discs: 1


Editorial Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):

1) Amazon.com
Preston Sturges has his great run in 1940-44, with a series of comedy masterpieces unparalleled in Hollywood film. 1948's Unfaithfully Yours proves that he still had the touch, if only he could have found a supportive studio for his genius. (It would've helped if Unfaithfully Yours had been a hit, which it was not.) Sir Alfred De Carter (Rex Harrison) is a witty, vain orchestra conductor, a celebrated man married to a beautiful woman (Linda Darnell). He becomes convinced of her infidelity, and while he is on the podium during a concert, he fantasizes three homicidal revenge fantasies--all set to the classics. The conductor looks suspiciously like a self-portrait by Sturges, and the delicious dialogue comes pouring out of Rex Harrison like pearls from a goblet. The film's main disappointment is that it doesn't feature the teeming stock company of character actors that crowd Sturges's earlier pictures (although Rudy Vallee, Lionel Stander, and Edgar Kennedy come through nicely). The film, while morbid, is often laugh-out-loud funny, but it also has something sneakily brilliant to say about the gulf between art and life: how the exquisite timing and perfect mechanics of Sir Alfred's imagination come a-cropper when he actually tries to enact his fantasies. Unfaithfully Yours was remade in a not-bad version with Dudley Moore in 1984, but this one's the keeper. Too bad it couldn't save Sturges--this is the last worthy film in a too-brief career. --Robert Horton

2) Description
In this pitch-black comedy from legendary writer-director Preston Sturges, Rex Harrison stars as Sir Alfred De Carter, a world-famous symphony conductor consumed with the suspicion that his wife is having an affair. During a concert, the jealous De Carter entertains elaborate visions of vengeance, set to three separate orchestral works. But when he attempts to put his murderous fantasies into action, nothing works out quite as planned. A brilliantly performed mixture of razor-sharp dialogue and uproarious slapstick, Unfaithfully Yours is a true classic from a grand master of screen comedy.

Customer Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
Average Customer Rating: 4.5 out of 5

1) Faithfully good   [Rating: 5 out of 5]
Definitely a movie that is worth having in any collection. The subject matter is as relevant today as it was in 1948, but the presentation can probably be better appreciated now than it was when it was first released. It is a very intelligent movie, and the performances are superb--defying expectations. I would have never expected to see Rex Harrison in this type of a role, and he proves to be excellent in it, portraying the paranoid, jealous, and fragile male who seems so powerful on the outside, and yet can be almost childlike in the way he relates to the world around him when his feelings are involved. The movie also reveals how easily love can turn to hatred when we become so immersed in our own needs and fears. This movie is not just cerebral, though. It is also very funny, especially when one notices the subtleties of the dialogue associated with some great slapstick. This one is to be watched over and over again.

2) Brilliant film with worthless commentary from alleged "experts"   [Rating: 3 out of 5]
If there were a way to strip this disc of its atrociously pompous and utterly worthless commentary track, I would do so without hesitation. Three supposed "scholars" mumble on at excessive length, similar to people in a movie house who carry on aimless conversations to the annoyance of other patrons. An even bigger disappointment are the seemingly stream-of-conscious ramblings by Monty Pyton's Terry Jones, which make very little sense and add nothing to the enhancement of the film. The only worthwhile extras are the reminiscences of Preston Sturges' widow, the very charming Sandy Sturges, and an absolutely brilliant booklet essay by Jonathan Lethem (why on earth didn't Criterion permit him to do the audio commentary?). The film itself of course is marvellous, and among a sterling cast Edgar Kennedy (Sweeney the Private Eye) deserved a posthumous Best Supporting Actor nomination, but 1948 was not the era to acknowledge a masterful screen performance from a veteran comic of the old-time slapstick school. For Edgar Kennedy alone, UNFAITHFULLY YOURS is worth revisiting many times over, but avoid the "bonus material" at all costs.

3) The Last Sturges Classic   [Rating: 5 out of 5]
This film marked the beginning of the end for writer/director Preston Sturges. Subsequent to this his troubles with studios would limit his productivity; all that followed on film is the hit-or-miss "Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend" and the dismaying "Diary of Major Thompson." His real swan song of brilliance was this black comedy about a conductor who imagines several ways of `disposing,' shall we say, of his wife. Each scenario is deftly blended with a piece of classical music, and the film builds to a frenetic and frenzied comic pitch by the end. Sturges made better use of Rudy Vallee's comic talents than any other director, and Rex Harrison was always a master of the light comic touch. The extras on this disc are minimal (former Python Terry Jones offers an amusing introduction to the film), but the print--as always with Criterion--is pristine. Definitely worth picking up (and certainly far preferable to the disastrous 1984 remake with Dudley Moore; yikes).

4) An arid technical exercise and not nearly as funny as it thinks it is   [Rating: 2 out of 5]
Despite liking a couple of his movies, I've never been a fan of Preston Sturges, and a second viewing of Unfaithfully Yours did nothing to change that. With rare exceptions like Frasier or Comme une Image, most supposedly `sophisticated' comedies are usually either too clever by half or not half as clever as they think they are: this definitely falls into the latter category. It may be slightly more articulate, but it still comes down to pratfalls and clichés clumsily dispensed (not to mention an incredibly one-dimensional role for Linda Darnell as the wife whose sole reason for existence seems to be to worship her husband). Unfortunately it soon becomes apparent that despite his confidence in the early part of the film, Rex Harrison is entirely wrong for the part: aside from being so incredibly unsympathetic that he simply alienates you for most of the film, he has absolutely no facility for physical comedy, which renders what could and should have been a great comic setpiece where he accidentally trashes his hotel room far more thoroughly than any rock star ever could even dream of rather tedious and protracted. (Alfred Newman's surprisingly crudely over the top slide-whistle and horn 'comic' underscoring all but stones the scene to death, a surprising lapse of judgment from a great composer in a film revolving around classical music.) In the hands of an actor with a modicum of physical comedy timing it could have been gold, but instead it's almost reduced to a technical exercise. But the same could be said for much of the film. The idea of having the execution and resolution of Harrison's fantasies dictated by the pace of the music he conducts (Rossini for murder, Wagner for mournful forgiveness, Tchaikovsky for suicide) is inspired, but it results in scenes that feel forced, as if at the mercy of a galley slave master's drumbeat. That the scenes themselves are so predictable doesn't help, as goodwill and admiration gradually gives way to boredom in the second half. There are, however, two saving graces. One is the scene in private detective Edgar Kennedy's office, where Harrison is furious to discover that the man he has come to castigate is a knowledgeable fan with his own tale of loss. The scene is crudely performed and reads better than it plays, but there's heart and humanity there that's lacking in too much of the rest of the film. But the film's genuine standout moment is the orchestra rehearsal, one of the best pieces of filmed musical performance in the movies, not only showing how the music is constructed but showing the life, character and human soul behind it. The loss of those qualities in the rest of the movie is all the more keenly felt in an increasingly arid and overplayed technical exercise.

5) A classic that ranks among the greatest of black comedies   [Rating: 5 out of 5]
It is easy to understand why they changed everything but the bare premise of this movie for the 1984 remake. After all, the 1948 original staggered beneath the weight of massive burdens. Its star performer not only consented but actually seemed to delight in delivering precisely articulated dialogue in long blocks, one after another--and all at crackling pace, too. Worse, Preston Sturges' clever, witty script plainly assumed that his audience possessed both general knowledge and willingness to pay attention for whole minutes at a time. Worst, Sturges' plot satirized both movie stereotypes and audience expectations. Those 1948 audiences, for good and sufficient reasons of their own, did not turn out in droves nor did they shell out much money to see "Unfaithfully Yours." The 1984 production team did their very best to avoid that dismal fate by jettisoning Sturges' near-perfect script, ruthlessly dumbing everything down and shrinking the film to fit the talents of twinkly little Dudley Moore. (Rex Harrison to Dudley Moore, what a falling off was there!) Harrison plays British conductor, Sir Alfred de Carter, whom the script clearly expects the audience to identify with the real conductor, Sir Thomas Beecham. The initial satirical thrust at audience expectations is that de Carter turns out to be a super-egotistical prima donna rather than the smooth, lovable and--yes!--twinkly Sir Thomas. By a series of satisfactorily ridiculous plot developments, Sir Alfred becomes convinced that his beautiful and much younger wife is having an affair with his assistant. Sir Alfred has a high comedy encounter with a detective played by Edgar Kennedy, one of the finest second bananas in movie history. The detective does his level best to convince the wronged husband to ignore or forgive his wife's little failings, lest he lose far more than he can ever hope to gain from shallow, trifling revenge. In the course of the scene it becomes clear that the detective had not taken his own advice in the past and now bitterly regrets it. This is a wonderful scene, and probably Kennedy's last hurrah on the screen, for he died shortly thereafter--a perfect mixture of hilarity and wistfulness. The egotist brushes aside the warnings of the detective and transforms himself into Othello's younger brother. Before, he had been over-generous and almost too-eloquent for belief with his loving words; now, he sneers and derides. If he does not quite get around to demanding that his bewildered wife hand over a handkerchief, it is only because time is short and he has a concert to conduct. The performance begins with an overture by Rossini. The up-tempo music puts the conductor into a manic mood and his mind turns to a plot in which he murders his wife and casts damning suspicion on his rival. The elaborate machinations of the murder scheme satirize whole flocks of creakily overblown films from "The Bat" to "Philo Vance and the Kennel Murders." The second selection is the music of the pilgrims from Wagner's Tannhaeuser--a downer after Rossini. The conductor's imagination shifts from murderous revenge to world-weary forgiveness as it satirizes the emetic nobility of films such as the often-remade "Four Feathers." Finally, a Tschaikovsky piece moves Sir Alfred's thoughts to grim competitiveness. He will challenge his younger rival to a game of Russian roulette with his wife as a reluctant witness--think of about half the films made by John Barrymore or Doug Fairbanks, Jr. After the concert, the conductor rushes off to his home to prepare for his elaborate murder scheme, only to come hilariously crashing against the harsh reality of ruthlessly hostile mechanisms, cheerily incomprehensible operating instructions and painfully fragile chairs. In the end, the conductor's wife offers an explanation that allows him to dismiss all his suspicions and return to his original state of (illusionary?) wedded bliss. With brilliant performances, crackling dialogue, smart plotting and fine physical gags, "Unfaithfully Yours" ranks with "The Ladykillers," "Kind Hearts and Coronets" and "Monsieur Verdoux," the best of black comedies. Five stars. IDLE SPECULATIONS: Good as it is--and it is very good--"Unfaithfully Yours" might have been better still. Rex Harrison, however brilliant he may be in the dialogue scenes, is not by any stretch of the imagination a physical comedian. Even though screen credit is given to a conducting coach, Harrison is painfully stiff as a conductor and as often as not behind the beat of the music he is supposed to be conducting. And the physical comedy sequence is weakened by the obvious substitution of a stunt double from time to time--not to mention the obvious fact that Harrison's record player is far funnier than he is. In 1948 there was an actor of the right age, one who who could have gotten away with the conductor's dialogue and would unquestionably have been side-splittingly funny while conducting or going two falls out of three with the demon record player--Charlie Chaplin. Now THAT would have been something to see! Then there is the script. The film ends on a subtly false note. As "Unfaithfuly Yours" stands now, Linda Darnell's innocent wife neatly explains away every suspicion; she leaves not only her own virtue unblemished but also that of her unpleasant younger sister who throughout the film had been positioned as the eventual fall girl. At the very end of the film, the fully reconciled conductor and wife turn away to depart for a happy evening on the town. I think that the studio or even Sturges, himself, cut a final scene to conform to the nervous dictates of the Film Code. I think that as the happy couple and their friends leave the hotel, they were intended to pass by Edgar Kennedy, the detective who had striven so hard to preserve the de Carter marriage. I think that Darnell and Kennedy were intended to make eye contact in shared acknowledgment that the pack of lies they had concocted to reassure Sir Alfred had worked. Then, at last, the conductor's straying wife would indeed have been Unfaithfully His.