Unfaithfully Yours
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Unfaithfully Yours | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Directed by | Preston Sturges |
| Produced by | Preston Sturges |
| Written by | Preston Sturges |
| Starring | Rex Harrison Linda Darnell Rudy Vallee |
| Cinematography | Victor Milner |
| Editing by | Robert Fritch |
| Release date(s) | 10 December 1948 |
| Running time | 105 min |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Unfaithfully Yours is a 1948 film written and directed by Preston Sturges and starring Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell and Rudy Vallee.
[edit] Plot synopsis
The film can be effectively divided into three distinct sections. Rex Harrison portrays Sir Alfred De Carter, a world famous symphony conductor. The first section of the film centers upon Alfred returning from an overseas tour, discovering that his brother-in-law (Vallee) misunderstood an instruction left him and hired a detective to follow Alfred's wife (Darnell) during the tour. De Carter is livid and attempts to destroy any evidence of this report.
Around the midpoint of the film, however, Alfred learns the content of the report: while Alfred was away, his wife was spied in a compromising situation with Alfred's secretary. Alfred proceeds to the evening's concert, conducting three distinct pieces of romantic-era art music, and envisioning revenge scenarios during each one. These scenes are particularly memorable because the classical score plays throughout each scenario.
The final section of the film sees Alfred ineptly attempting to deploy each or any of three situations he envisioned, finding himself somewhat thwarted.
Each of the three scenarios is accompanied by a classical score and Harrison is shown rehearsing and directing real musicians from known orchestras. The close-ups of the musicians both in street clothes and then in their white tie tuxes is quite intriguing. The studio-quality tape recorder that cut vinyl records is also an interesting window into the past. Such a machine was used to secretly tape Horowitz and Benny Goodman during their concerts at Carnegie Hall and the NBC radio studios at Rockefeller Center. These rough cuts were later mastered into classic records and then further enhanced digitally. Arthur Rubinstein owned three of these devices and kept one in LA, Chicago, and New York, respectively. Contrary to what was shown in the movie, they were difficult to use and required professional technicians to man them.
[edit] Reception
While rich with the sharp dialogue that became Sturges' trademark, the film did rather poorly upon release. Critics usually attribute this to the extreme darkness of the subject matter, especially for a comedy. The idea of a bungling murderer did not sit well with 1948 audiences, and the fact that none of the characters are especially sympathetic certainly failed to help. Sturges, who had made his name as a director of Capra-esque comedies in the early 1940s, never fully recovered from the lukewarm reception of Unfaithfully Yours, and many point to it as the movie which effectively ended his career. Despite this, it is considered today by many critics to be an outstanding film, as evidenced by a recent release through the Criterion Collection. During a showing on cable television, it was noted that the film's original release may have also been harmed by the controversy over Rex Harrison's relationship with actress Carole Landis, who had reportedly committed suicide when he refused to divorce his wife and marry her.
[edit] External links
- Unfaithfully Yours at the Internet Movie Database
- Criterion Collection essay by Jonathan Lethem
- Criterion Collection essay by James Harvey
 |
This 1940s comedy film-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |
|
|||||||||||||||||
