Tonight's movie was "The Unfaithful" (1947), a top notch murder mystery with noir overtones starring Ann Sheridan, Lew Ayers and Zachary Scott. The title came up in a Library search for "Cinema Classics Collection", which is an offshoot of the Warner Archives dvd label for lesser known films. As you know I am always in search of "new" old movies, and I find them by using many different search terms. Ann Sheridan has always been great anyway, an underrated actress who was billed for her beauty as "The Oomph Girl" (typical Hollywood sexism of the 30s) but who showed a deep intelligence in all of her roles.
In "The Unfaithful", she plays an upscale Los Angeles wife whose husband is about to return from a business trip. As the movie begins, she talks to him on the phone, plans to pick him up at the airport in the morning, and then heads out to make an obligatory appearance at a party thrown by her husband's gossipy cousin (Eve Arden). She doesn't really like the cousin but attends the party as protocol to maintain her husband's social standing. He is a big time architect and home builder.
She returns home late, around 2am, and as she enters her house, an intruder is waiting in the shadows. A struggle ensues, which we see in silhouette. When it is over, the attacker is dead. Sheridan has killed him with a knife. She is in shock, the police arrive and have questions but she is too stunned to give coherent answers, and also - she is being protected by her husband's lawyer Lew Ayers.
The cops are willing to wait, to allow her to regain her composure, and nighttime passes over into morning. Her husband has arrived at Burbank Airport, found no one there to pick him up, and has then hailed a cab to take him home. He arrives to discover the murder scene, his catatonic wife and the police.
Once Ann Sheridan begins to come around, she tells a story that sounds like a typical "break-in" or "follow home" robbery by the dead suspect, whose name the police will soon secure. They trust her story for the time being. She is a solid citizen and a good woman. She and her husband are upper middle class. But something is odd about the identity of the intruder. He was an artist, a sculptor by trade. Not your typical criminal subject and in fact he had no previous record. His wife is located and she tells the police that, although she loved her husband, they weren't close. He was often out all night, not to return home until the next day.
Ann Sheridan's lawyer has believed her story of self defense against an unknown attacker up to this point, but then he gets a mysterious telegram sent to his office, by an anonymous person who suggests they meet in MacArthur Park. The telegram contains a suggestive clue, so the lawyer goes to the park and meets the sender, who turns out to be a scheming art dealer. He tells the lawyer that he has in his possession, in his store on Santa Monica Boulevard, a sculpture that he - the lawyer - might be interested in. It is a bust of a woman's head and mane of hair, created by the deceased intruder himself.
Did he know Ann Sheridan after all?
That is all I can tell you, but is that a good set up or what? Trust me, it is. And it plays out onscreen like you have been there at the crime scene all night long and into the next day, like you have been part of the investigation. In addition, there are many great "street scene" shots of Downtown Los Angeles in the 1940s, including a ride on Angel's Flight, and a car ride through an old tunnel that may not exist anymore. I wanna say the 2nd Street Tunnel, but I think that one is still there. Anyway, there is a lot of great stuff for Downtown fans, including City Hall too. But more than that, the movie is a potboiler par excellence, as Sheridan's story slowly unravels.
She nails her role, as does Zachary Scott as her loving but "devoted to his business empire" husband.
There is also a segment of courtroom drama, and many good scenes featuring sophisticated Eve Arden as the nosy cousin, inserting herself into the action in order to acquire rumor and gossip.
In the end, though, she turns out to be not so bad a person. The movie hinges on it's moral themes of human frailty, loneliness and forgiveness.
It's shot in black and white so you can't go wrong. A different kind of mystery film, not really a noir, not really a melodrama, but kind of a mixture of both, and a morality play as well.
Two Thumbs Up for "The Unfaithful", carried by Ann Sheridan's performance, for which she should have been nominated for an Oscar. /////
Elizabeth, I saw your posts on FB Stories and it looks like you are at home at the moment. Maybe you are making another video with Anna? I guess that because of the electronics and tiny keyboard in the pic.
And I also liked the photo of Murphy. I don't know if Murphy is a he or a she, cause with that name he or she could be either, but Murphy sure is cute, a Cutarian or even a Cuticle!
Yeah I know I'm nutty but I will see you in the morning anyway. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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