#292: STURGES, Preston: Unfaithfully Yours (1948)
STURGES, Preston (United States)
**
Film Rating (0-60):
Commentary
Featuring Sturges scholars James Harvey, Brian Henderson, and Diane Jacobs.
Unfaithfully Yours [1948]
Spine #292
DVD
DVD
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.
105 minutes
Black & White
Black & White
Monaural
1:33:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2005
Director/Writer
Preston Sturges was 50 when he wrote and directed Unfaithfully Yours.
Other Sturges films in the Collection:
#103: The Lady Eve (1941)
#118: Sullivan's Travels (1941)
#742: The Palm Beach Story (1942)
The Film
Other Sturges films in the Collection:
#103: The Lady Eve (1941)
#118: Sullivan's Travels (1941)
#742: The Palm Beach Story (1942)
The Film
More so than Rex Harrison (Sir Alfred de Carter); than the fabulous Linda Darnell (Daphne de Carter), more so even than the great writer and director Sturges — the star of this magnificent film is the great Alfred Newman (musical direction) [Randy’s uncle].
Not only did Newman conduct the orchestra in the three important works which inform Sir Carter’s fantasies, but he composed the incidental music which accompanies Carter’s slapstick scenes in the IRL version of events (twisted, comedic takes on the Rossini).
If you love this movie for the extended sequences of both rehearsal and concert performances of three great pieces of Classical Music, you can check out these full YouTube performances of same:
- Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868): Overture to the opera Semiramide (Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala, Riccardo Chailly, cond.)
- Richard Wagner (1813-1883): Overture to the opera Tannhäuser (Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, cond.)
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840-1893): Francesca da Rimini: Symphonic Fantasy after Dante (Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra, Igor Manasherov, cond.)
**
Of course, this is a quacking-duck of another color as far as the usual Sturges film goes … his stock company regulars appear only as small roles as, necessarily, it is Harrison and Darnel’s film in toto — but they are around in any case — Torben Meyer as Dr. Schultz, the cymbal crasher; Julius Tannen as O’Brien the tailor; Alan Bridge as the annoying house detective … Sturges seems strained at times to give them something to do.
In any case, the script is brilliant — full of witticism and depth — and the “fantasy” scenes are written completely from Sir Carter’s POV; Darnell is wonderfully subtle in these sections …
**
The “Simplicitas” home recording unit is an astonishingly beautiful MacGuffin. 33-1/3 RPM long playing records were just being developed at the time this film was made!
Here’s a picture of an actual Wilcox-Gay Recordio home recording machine. So simple it operates itself.
**
One burning question remains after all the hoopla: was Barbara (Barbara Lawrence) having an affair with Windborn (Kurt Kreuger)? Wikipedia says so; but Daphne’s dialogue suggests that he wasn’t there when she visited Room 3406 in her negligee at 1:30 in the morning!
**
The film bombed of course — the general public (then and now) is too antsy to sit through so much Classical Music. More’s the pity — however Howard Zieff’s 1984 remake with Dudley Moore and Nastassja Kinski completely eliminated the original’s use of the three Classical pieces, and was an even worse failure.
56
“If in the Beatles’ formulation ‘the love you take is equal to the love you make,’ then Sturges (equally existential but far less utopian) suggests ‘the concert you give — and the joy with which you romance your wife — is equal to any number of tantrums, trashed hotel rooms, and even a near murder.’ Equal to, not greater than. The happy ending is only a matter of the end of the equation on which he put the emphasis.”
Commentary
Featuring Sturges scholars James Harvey, Brian Henderson, and Diane Jacobs.
Sturges experts, all — they provide a good deal of biographical info, and take pains to point out all the reasons this film failed so miserably at the box office in 1948.
Video introduction
Video introduction
By director Terry Jones.
A true fan-boy!
Video interview
Video interview
With Sturges’s widow, Sandy Sturges.
Wife Number Four looks back with a mixture of fondness and bewilderment … and yes, he said the 1000 poets line to her, too!
Gallery
Wife Number Four looks back with a mixture of fondness and bewilderment … and yes, he said the 1000 poets line to her, too!
Gallery
Featuring rare production correspondence and stills.
Theatrical trailer
Extras Rating (0-40):
Theatrical trailer
Extras Rating (0-40):
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