Unfaithfully Yours
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Unfaithfully Yours is a 1948 film written and directed by Preston Sturges and starring Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell and Rudy Vallee.
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[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 valet. 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.
[edit] Reception
While rich with the sharp dialogue that becames 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.
[edit] Remake
It was remade in 1984 as a film (also called Unfaithfully Yours) starring Dudley Moore, Nastassja Kinski and Albert Brooks.
[edit] External links
- Unfaithfully Yours at the Internet Movie Database
- Criterion Collection essay by Jonathan Lethem
- Criterion Collection essay by James Harvey
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