Unfaithfully Yours

Unfaithfully Yours (1948) starring Rex Harrison, Linda Darnell

Unfaithfully Yours is a black comedy about a musical conductor (Rex Harrison). He suspects his younger wife (Linda Darnell) of infidelity. He literally lets his imagination run wild. Directed by Preston Sturges.

Product Description

In this pitch-black comedy from legendary writer-director Preston Sturges, Rex Harrison stars as Sir Alfred De Carter. He’s a world-famous symphony conductor consumed with the suspicion that his wife is having an affair. During a concert, the jealous De Carter entertains elaborate visions of vengeance, set to three separate orchestral works. But when he attempts to put his murderous fantasies into action, nothing works out quite as planned. A brilliantly performed mixture of razor-sharp dialogue and uproarious slapstick.

Editorial review of Unfaithfully Yours courtesy of Amazon.com

Preston Sturges has his great run in 1940-44, with a series of comedy masterpieces unparalleled in Hollywood film. 1948’s Unfaithfully Yours proves that he still had the touch, if only he could have found a supportive studio for his genius. (It would’ve helped if Unfaithfully Yours had been a hit, which it was not.) Sir Alfred De Carter (Rex Harrison) is a witty, vain orchestra conductor, a celebrated man married to a beautiful woman (Linda Darnell). He becomes convinced of her infidelity, and while he is on the podium during a concert, he fantasizes three homicidal revenge fantasies–all set to the classics.

The conductor looks suspiciously like a self-portrait by Sturges, and the delicious dialogue comes pouring out of Rex Harrison like pearls from a goblet. The film’s main disappointment is that it doesn’t feature the teeming stock company of character actors that crowd Sturges’s earlier pictures (although Rudy Vallee, Lionel Stander, and Edgar Kennedy come through nicely). The film, while morbid, is often laugh-out-loud funny, but it also has something sneakily brilliant to say about the gulf between art and life: how the exquisite timing and perfect mechanics of Sir Alfred’s imagination come a-cropper when he actually tries to enact his fantasies. Unfaithfully Yours was remade in a not-bad version with Dudley Moore in 1984, but this one’s the keeper. Too bad it couldn’t save Sturges–this is the last worthy film in a too-brief career. –Robert Horton

Cast of characters

• Rex Harrison (Doctor Doolittle, My Fair Lady) as Sir Alfred de Carter. Brilliant conductor, married to a younger woman. His jealousy leads him to imagine murdering his wife multiple times. Thankfully, he fails in real life.
• Linda Darnell (The Mark of Zorro) as Daphne de Carter. Alfred’s loving, faithful wife. She can’t understand his strange (jealous) behavior, but she loves him still.
• Rudy Vallée (The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer) as August Henshler. Alfred’s boring brother-in-law. He’s married to Barbara.
• Barbara Lawrence (Moon of the Wolf) as Barbara Henshler. Daphne’s sister, and August’s wife.
• Kurt Kreuger (The Dark Corner) as Anthony Windborn. Alfred’s handsome, young secretary. He’s not committing adultery with Daphne, despite Alfred’s suspicions.
• Edgar Kennedy (Duck Soup) as Detective Sweeney. His spying on Daphne leads Alfred to suspect the wrong wife of adultery.