Unfaithfully Yours (1948)

Unfaithfully Yours
Directed by Preston Sturges
Written by Preston Sturges
1948/USA
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Repeat viewing/Netflix rental

[box] Alfred: Well, August, what happy updraft wafts you hither?[/box]

In this very funny film, Linda Darnell proves her gifts as a comedienne and Rex Harrison is practically perfect as a temperamental conductor.

Sir Arthur de Carter (Harrison) is a world-famous conductor and independently wealthy baronet.  He has a limitless passion for his music and his beautiful young wife Daphne (Darnell).  The couple is so much in love that their behavior in public is embarrassing to their friends and relatives.

De Carter returns from a solo trip to England to the loving arms of his wife.  He made an off-hand remark to his square multi-millionaire brother-in-law August (Rudy Vallee) to “keep an eye on her”.  August is nothing if not literal and employed a private detective to trail Daphne while he was off catching a few rays in Florida.  De Carter furiously tears up the detective’s report. But the pieces come back to him like a bad penny.  Finally, he angrily confronts the detective, planning to have all copies destroyed.  The detective lets slip that he observed Daphne leaving De Carter’s assistant’s bedroom late one night.

This news sends de Carter into such a frenzy that he can think of nothing but revenge.  He envisions three different scenarios as he furiously conducts some of his best performances ever.  The plots work out flawlessly in his mind, but reality doesn’t quite match up.  With Barbara Lawrence as Daphne’s sister, Lionel Stander as de Carter’s manager, and Edgar Kennedy as a music-loving detective.

Harrison proves to be as ready with physical comedy as he is with the bon mots.  Darnell is simply delicious.  There is a such a minx behind her adoring wife that one wonders if maybe there was a grain of truth behind deCarter’s suspicions.  Some of the slapstick goes on just a tad too long but there are many laughs to be found here.

This was one of Sturges’s last films.  Just as the movie was about to be released, Harrison’s then girlfriend actress Carole Landis committed suicide and the actor found her body.  The scandal caused the studio to hold back on publicity and the film did not do well at the box office.  It was remade in 1984 with Dudley Nichols.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GSSCLcFfbhs

Trailer