Unfaithfully Yours

Unless you're a film buff, you'll probably be amazed by a fact revealed on the commentary track for Unfaithfully Yours: in the early 1940s at the peak of his creative powers, Hollywood's most gifted writer-director of sophisticated comedies, Preston Sturges, was even more of a household name than Alfred Hitchcock or Frank Capra. What that means is that Sturges was a brand name whose classic films (including The Lady Eve and Sullivan's Travels) were almost always critical and box-office triumphs, making the director, at one time, the third highest-paid individual in the United States. As the latest Sturges classic to be released by the Criterion Collection, 1948's Unfaithfully Yours represents an anomaly in the director's career: not only was it highly autobiographical, but it was also a critical and box-office bomb, and only with the passage of decades has its greatness been acknowledged. Like all of Sturges' films, it's a hilarious, fast-paced comedy built on a serious premise: celebrity orchestra conductor Sir Alfred de Carter (Rex Harrison) grows insanely convinced that his socialite wife (Linda Darnell) is having an affair, and his revenge fantasies play out to the accompaniment of three orchestral pieces that he's conducting in a posh New York City concert. This musical conceit is a stroke of pure genius for Sturges, and legendary 20th Century Fox studio conductor Alfred Newman provided a perfect score for Sturges' masterful comedy of mistrust and alleged infidelity. Ironically, James Mason was Sturges' first choice for the lead, but Harrison plays the jealous maestro so perfectly that you can't imagine anyone else in the role. Sadly, Unfaithfully Yours was Sturges' final classic, as he never fully recovered from its initial box-office failure. Boasting a characteristically pristine transfer, DVD extras include an expert critical commentary with Sturges' biographers, an introduction by Monty Python alumnus and Sturges devotee Terry Jones, and a revealing interview with Sturges' widow. Highly recommended. (J. Shannon)