Unfaithfully Yours (1948)

User Rating:

7.8/10   

Director:

Preston Sturges

Writer:

Preston Sturges (screenplay)

Release Date:

10 December 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy

Tagline:

Will somebody "get her" tonite?

Plot:

Sir Alfred De Carter suspects his wife of infidelity. While conducting a symphony orchestra, he imagines...

Plot Keywords:

Conductor | Symphony | Detective | Jealousy | Infidelity

Cast

Rex Harrison	...	Sir Alfred De Carter
Linda Darnell	...	Daphne De Carter
Rudy Vallee	...	August Henshler
Barbara Lawrence	...	Barbara Henshler
Kurt Kreuger	...	Anthony Windborn
Lionel Stander	...	Hugo Standoff
Edgar Kennedy	...	Detective Sweeney
Al Bridge	...	House Detective (as Alan Bridge)
Julius Tannen	...	O'Brien
Torben Meyer	...	Dr. Schultz

Also Known As:

Symphony Story (USA) (working title)
Unfinished Symphony (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Finland:S | USA:Approved (certificate #12960)

Company:

Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corporation

Trivia:

The orchestral conductor Sir Alfred de Carter, is based loosely on the real life British conductor Sir Thomas Beecham. Beecham was the son of pharmacist Sir Joseph Beecham, the inventor of the laxative Beecham's Pills. Accordingly Harrison's character, Sir Alfred de Carter, is said to be named after Carter's Little Liver Pills, the American equivalent.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): "Antigonish", a town in Nova Scotia, is mispronounced by an airline official at the beginning of the film.

Quotes:

Detective Sweeney: You handle Handel like nobody handles Handel. And your Delius - delirious!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)

Amusing, but only up to a point...strives to be excruciatingly funny...

Preston Sturgess has Rex Harrison emoting at a frantic pace, so much so that the others in the cast seem barely able to keep up with him. Rudy Vallee does, and gives another one of his expert comic performances as Harrison's stuffy brother-in-law who claims to hate music. Barbara Lawrence as his sarcastic wife has a few good one-liners that she tosses at Vallee. And Linda Darnell does a good job of showing slavish devotion to her brilliant conductor husband Harrison.

But therein lies the weakness in the premise. Darnell is so obviously devoted (to the extreme and with extreme patience) to her temperamental artist of a husband, that it is inconceivable that he would, for one moment, suspect her of infidelity based on hearsay and immediately have her followed by detectives.

There are three flashbacks--with at least one of them being very clever while the others don't quite fit the bill. But the final scene (back to reality) is an uneven blend of slapstick and sight gags that simply go on too long before the windup which has him adoring his wife again.

Not Sturgess at his best and it's the script that's the main weakness because the acting is fine. Rex Harrison seems to be doing a rehearsal for Henry Higgins and Linda Darnell is charming (if unbelievably patient) as the doting wife. Good support from Lionel Stander, Barbara Lawrence and Kurt Kreuger, as well as Edgar Kennedy.

Not as excruciatingly funny as it strives to be with a weak finale. A big bonus is the effective use it makes of classical music.