Unfaithfully Yours is an inventive spin on the 'screwball comedy' sub- genre that peaked during the 30s and 40s from Preston Sturges. It isn't very often that a film-maker leaves his mark on you with the first viewing from his output which is exactly what Sturges achieves here. With dialogue that is literally razor-sharp, laced with sardonic wit and a smattering of the slapstick, one might be tempted to genre-confine this film. Nothing could be more of a disservice to Sturges' work for while being a black comedy with screwball elements, it also carries a catalogue of human behaviour much darker than the average black comedy of its time. Only Sturges never lets the latter upstage the eventual purpose of the film – to raise chuckles and leave you in splits.
Firstly, the dialogue. The wordplay ('handle Handel') here suggests a liking for verbal content above all else with Sturges. All the characters deliver lines that are chuckleworthy if not downright hilarious. As such, a repeat screening is a must, if only to sample some piece of dialogue that didn't register the first time around. This aspect of the movie leads me to the other which is Rex Harrison. Cast here as the renowned orchestra conductor Sir Alfred de Carter, his performance hinges as much on words as much as it does on his brow. That is one mighty brow with a bearing to match. Any dark content here stems as much from it as from Sturges!
Three pieces of Western Classical music play integral parts in the film. Rossini's Semiramide, Wagner's Tannhäuser and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, high points of the Romantic Movement, highlight how the utopian perfection of imaginary scenarios can go wrong in every possible way when their realization is attempted. Among other things, Linda Darnell puts in a pleasing turn as Daphne, Sir Alfred's wife and the scene featuring the Simplicitas recorder ('so simple that it operates on its own') is right up there with the funniest of the funniest.
Firstly, the dialogue. The wordplay ('handle Handel') here suggests a liking for verbal content above all else with Sturges. All the characters deliver lines that are chuckleworthy if not downright hilarious. As such, a repeat screening is a must, if only to sample some piece of dialogue that didn't register the first time around. This aspect of the movie leads me to the other which is Rex Harrison. Cast here as the renowned orchestra conductor Sir Alfred de Carter, his performance hinges as much on words as much as it does on his brow. That is one mighty brow with a bearing to match. Any dark content here stems as much from it as from Sturges!
Three pieces of Western Classical music play integral parts in the film. Rossini's Semiramide, Wagner's Tannhäuser and Tchaikovsky's Romeo and Juliet, high points of the Romantic Movement, highlight how the utopian perfection of imaginary scenarios can go wrong in every possible way when their realization is attempted. Among other things, Linda Darnell puts in a pleasing turn as Daphne, Sir Alfred's wife and the scene featuring the Simplicitas recorder ('so simple that it operates on its own') is right up there with the funniest of the funniest.