Unfaithfully Yours

His Last Bow
In hindsight, Paramount's decision to terminate their relationship with Preston Sturges occupies the region between 'insane', 'irresponsible' and that old standby, 'stupid'. Sturges' subsequent relocation to Fox was, of course, utterly disastrous; which makes UNFAITHFULLY YOURS as much a miracle as it is a great comedy. His stock company (save for a very funny Rudy Vallee) was now a thing of the past; although the cast he assembled here is game and lively, Edgar Kennedy foremost among them. Nevertheless, UNFAITHFULLY YOURS is Sturges' second consecutive attempt (after MAD WEDNESDAY) to move away from his trademark of the inspired dialogue-comedy and towards a more visual (or in this case, audio-visual) farce. Fortunately for us, he succeeded brilliantly (not that it cut him any ice in an increasingly desperate studio-system that not only didn't know what to do with its few geniuses but began to openly despise them). Rex Harrison plays a vain, high-strung symphony conductor who -thanks...

One of Sturges' very best
Only The Lady Eve forces me to edge this movie out of number-one spot among Preston Sturges' comedies. The dialogue is snappy as ever (Doltish husband: "Too much temperament! Give me the simple viewpoint!" His wisecracking wife: "You've got it, kid. You don't have to yearn for it.") but the slapstick of the finale is cleverer by far than any in his other movies. The use of music is inspired, both in Harrison's concert revenge-fantasies and in his later attempts to put them into action, when the music is spiked with comic effects. A little slow to get started, this movie soon enough develops a quirky, unpredictable, and completely fascinating story line. Don't deprive yourself of seeing this!

Classic Struges comedy finally comes to DVD
In "Unfaithfully Yours" Rex Harrison plays a conductor who imagines what he would do to his wife (who he believes to be cheating on him)during a performance. Unfortunately, he discovers that real life never works as smoothly as one's fantasies. A classic Preston Sturges comedy, "Unfaithfully Yours" captures the brilliant comedy director in top form. Although there was an anemic remake with Dudley Moore in 1984 (with a screenplay co-written by Valerie Curtain the cousin of Jane Curtain of "Saturday Night Live" fame and one of the original cast members of "Three's Company"), all it does is prove not to mess with a classic film.

This new Criterion edition has some really cool extras and the image quality is very, very good. The audio Audio commentary by Sturges scholars James Harvey, Diane Jacobs, and Brian Henderson are fascinating but I honestly preferred the video appreciation by Terry Jones (of Monty Python fame) as well as the video interview with Sandy Sturges. There's...

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