Review of Unfaithfully Yours (1948) by Kati S — 14 Nov 2008

Preston Sturges can be classified as one of the first true auteurs of the Hollywood system. Whereas artists like Howard Hawks and Nicholas Ray were held up by the French New Wave critics as developing and catering to a distinct style, and exploring a similar range of themes, Sturges was one step ahead being one of the few (and first) to both write and direct his films. Even today Sturges at his best is refreshingly modern, and one canâ??t help wondering how he got away with what he did. His comedy was singular, crass and unconventional as he explored through cinema the very nature of comedy.

Unfaithfully Yours is one of the darkest comedies of the production code era Hollywood. Only Lubitschâ??s To Be or Not to Be, whichâ??s solemn setting sets a fatalist nature to all events ranks close. However, Unfaithfully Yours does not have the backdrop of war or horrific tragedy, itâ??s founded pure and simple on the jealous ambitions of a husband. Rex Harrison stars as Sir Alfred De Carter, a musical conductor who comes to suspect his wifeâ??s infidelity. Instead of confronting her, while he is orchestrating music we enter his mind (quite literally), only to witness different scenarios in which he does away with his beautiful young wife. Set to the very music he is conducting, the sequences are linked through objects and the apartment, but.

Drastically different in tone and action.

Completely unreal, the medium itself is used to aid Sturgesâ?? notion of comedy. Much like The Palm Beach Story, where Sturges shows his confidence as a writer by book-ending the film with an entirely different film, here he stretches the possibility of fantasy, daydream and the construction of art itself as the basis of his writing. The film is as dark as it is funny.