Tonight I watched a very funny (and wicked) black comedy from director Preston Sturges, called "Unfaithfully Yours" (1948). The subject, as the title implies, is marital infidelity. Rex Harrison stars as a brilliant but demanding orchestra conductor. He is middle aged but married to a much younger woman, the beautiful Linda Darnell. She dotes on him, he loves the attention and he loves Darnell too, but is more focused on his career and music. He buys her nice things to make up for it.
He's a bit of a prig - as only Rex Harrison could play one, English-style - and he has a brother-in-law to match, or even out-prig him! Legendary early actor and crooner Rudy Vallee, he of the full length raccoon coat and megaphone shtick, plays the bro-in-law who is married to Linda Darnell's sister. Vallee is a multi-millionaire but a crashing bore. His wife Barbara Lawrence is always making wisecracks at his expense. He is the type of guy who, lacking an interesting life of his own, uses his money to stick his nose into other people's business.
Rex Harrison is an in-demand conductor, so on one trip to London he has asked Vallee to "keep an eye" on his wife. He only means for Vallee to check in on her, see if she needs anything, and maybe invite her to dinner or a movie with him and his wife. Vallee, however, interprets the above quoted phrase to mean he should "keep an eye" on her comings and goings. Spy on her, in other words. Being that he is wealthy, he goes it one better by hiring a Private Eye to do the detective work for him.
When Harrison returns from London, his brother-in-law Vallee has a full report waiting for him, courtesy of the detective agency. Seeing that Vallee has mistaken his instructions, he tears the report to shreds without even reading it. He trusts his wife. Why has Vallee hired an investigator?
Meanwhile, he is on a busy schedule (shedge-ool) and has concerts to conduct. But the issue of the report keeps coming up, first by a hotel manager who has pieced it back together for him, and then by the Private Eye himself, whom Harrison pays a visit to order him to steer clear of his wife. The detective turns out to be a big fan of Harrison the conductor, so there is a turn in the plot here. Harrison's ear becomes more sympathetic to the insinuations that Darnell may have snuck out on him while he was away. The detective has an address that Rex Harrison knows. It is the home of his personal valet (played by the Bowie-lookalike Kurt Kreuger). Apparently, while Harrison was in London, Darnell was seen at this address one night, wearing only a negligee.
My Goodness what a setup!
Now Rex Harrison is not only having second thoughts about his wife, he is straight-up believing she has cheated on him, even though the Private Eye has said that she was only observed in the man's doorway and there is no other evidence.
From this point comes the black heart of the movie. Harrison becomes so crazed with thoughts of what Darnell might have done, that he is consumed by revenge. The centerpiece of the plot takes place during a prominent concert performance, during which all the parties are present. Onstage and conducting with nerve-wracked energy, Harrison begins to fantasize about getting back at Darnell. This takes place in a triptych of scenarios, The first is downright diabolical, the second self-pitying and the third ruthless, cruel and final.
All of these possibilities are played as sophisticated comedy, Preston Sturges style, so don't worry. But it is nevertheless the blackest of black comedy, and Rex Harrison is positively evil at times.
Linda Darnell, on the other hand, is the soul of sweet devotion throughout the movie. Is she only playing the middle-aged Rex? It doesn't seem so. Maybe he is fooling himself into believing she doesn't love him. He is hung up on their age difference, and therefore convinces himself she must be attracted to the Bowie looking valet, who in the movie is clearly a gay man.
During the concert, Harrison pictures in his mind all of these scenarios and plots his revenge, and when he gets home after the show he starts to put his plan into action. But his fantasy involved a highly technical element - the making of a voice recording - that in real life will baffle and befuddle him in a long scene of classic pratfall comedy that Rex Harrison pulls of to a "T".
He is trying to set up a foolproof situation for the murder of his wife, but all he ends up with is a mess in his apartment.
Then she comes home, with the entire entourage from the concert, and the confusion is all straightened out. I wouldn't have told you this had you not seen it coming. The point of the movie isn't the surprise, for you knew all along what it was. The point is the "moral of the story", told in a lighthearted yet ironic way. This was the era of highbrow comedy for intelligent people. Preston Sturges, who also directed the classic "Palm Beach Story" and wrote many more as primarily a screenwriter, was a master of Sophisticated Screwball with a cutting message.
Rex Harrison gives a knockout performance as the egotistical but insecure conductor. Linda Darnell is likewise excellent as his unwavering wife, who cannot understand why her husband is so worked up all of a sudden. Darnell was one of the most beautiful actresses to ever grace a screen, and she was versatile too, appearing in films from high comedy to gritty noir, adventure movies to westerns.
Unfortunately, like so many actresses of talent and great beauty during that time, her life was short and tragic. You can Google it if you wish but make sure to remember her for her work, for she truly was a Hollywood legend. /////
Two Very Big Thumbs Up for "Unfaithfully Yours". The dvd is on Criterion, which tells you something about it's standing in the world of cinema.
My highest recommendation, see it soon if you can. Heck, see it with "Tarantula" on a double bill, two of the best movies I've watched in recent weeks!
That's all for tonight. See you in the morning. Tons of love. xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo :):)
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