Spotlight

Spotlight Date: 28-November-09
Spoiler Rating: Medium

Unfaithfully Yours (1948)

Rex Harrison must have leapt at the opportunity to play uxorious orchestra conductor Sir Alfred De Carter in Preston Sturges' Unfaithfully Yours. The center of every scene, Sir Alfred travels from the heights of suavity and cultural eminence to the depths of tawdry melodrama and despair, and does it all with varying degrees of comic intensity. It is a role that any thespian could love (and any classical music lover would adore), all the more because it entails necking with the lovely Linda Darnell.

She looks especially lovely here because Sturges' story is, as usual, driven by libido. Yet, the title notwithstanding, Unfaithfully Yours does not hinge on someone misusing sex but the mere suspicion of such misuse. At first Sir Alfred and his wife Daphne are so in love and so hot for each other that their familiars regard them as silly geese or romantic paragons. His work calls him away a lot but he always knows she will be in their penthouse, lounging decorously in the jewels and gowns he bought her, keeping the home fires burning. He harbors no jealous distrust until his brother-in-law's interference results in a detective's report about her nocturnal activities. Sir Alfred banishes the report with the scorn it deserves, but fate forces him to learn its suspicious contents. Fury takes up residence in his breast.

What follows is a dark dream sequence with its own integral soundtrack. While conducting a concert, Sir Alfred fantasizes about how he will deal with his wife's supposed infidelity. He envisions a clever murder/setup during a tumultuous piece of music, an act of magnanimity during a quiet interlude, and a tragic round of Russian roulette during the grandiose finale. From this the arrangement switches to slapstick as he attempts to enact his fantasies in real life and meets with utter failure. It is clear all along that his passion and imagination have run away with him, and fortunately he does not stretch poor Daphne's patience beyond the limit. Sturges' sense of humor and Harrison's lusty performance imply that all true lovers are fools, or that those who pursue beauty with foolish abandon make the best lovers.

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