World famous conductor Sir Alfred De Carter (Rex Harrison) is in love with his young beautiful wife Daphne (Linda Darnell). He suspects her of cheating on him and, while conducting three separate pieces at a performance, figures out three different ways of punishing her--including murder. When he tries to carry them out everything goes wrong.

This movie is, at times, very black. It starts out pretty funny with Harrison spitting out his lines rapidly and his sense of comic timing was just perfect. When he has the fantasies though it turns dark and is pretty gruesome--especially for 1948. However, when he tries to carry them out and things go wrong, the film is uproarious. I've seen this film three times and I STILL laugh out loud at the last section. I saw it at a revival theatre two times and people were literally bent over in their seats helpless with laughter! This isn't for everybody--it was a critical and commercial bomb in 1948 and a lot of people still find it too sick to be funny. I can see their point--there's nothing funny about a man trying to kill his wife, but this is a MOVIE--not real life. It all ends happily also.

My only problem, and this is minor, was Darnell. She seems miscast here. But the script is quick and witty, the cast is great and they all go full throttle and the use of music is superb. Basically one of the funniest black comedies ever made. A must see! This gets a 10 all the way.

"Purple with plumes on the hips"

Sir Alfred De Carter (Rex Harrison) is an aging British conductor who becomes extremely suspicious of his beautiful younger wife (Linda Darnell) and his handsome (but boring) assistant (Kurt Kreuger) after his wife's brother-in-law (Rudy Vallee) brings him a detective's report. Harrison at first refuses to even look at the report, but as his ego gets the better of him, he goes to the original detective (an unrecognizable Edgar Kennedy) and is visited by their hotel's house detective (Al Bridge) who confirms seeing Darnell going into Kreuger's suite in the middle of the night. Harrison does what any brilliant music conductor does-he plots revenge, and that means murder and framing his rival for the crime. Harrison (known for his own extreme ego in real life) seems to enjoy spoofing the whole idea as Alfred just gets crazier and crazier, first setting his dressing room on fire in an effort to destroy the detective's report, then furiously conducting his orchestra for rehearsal as if he were riding the winning horse at the Kentucky Derby. By the time his concert begins, he has decided to emulate Sweeney Todd, as we learn in the first of three fantasy sequences where he plots the perfect crime. But dreaming of revenge and actually carrying it out are two different things, and in one of the funniest sequences Preston Sturges ever directed, Harrison goes deeper and deeper into madness as he destroys his entire hotel suite while trying to carry out his scheme. This is slapstick at its most intelligent.

This is a film where you are not supposed to like the leading character. That makes his over-the-top actions all the more funny, and Harrison relishes every moment. Darnell, of course, is truly beautiful, the most ravishing clothes horse of the 1940's, but has nothing to do but look lovely and confused as Harrison's menace increases. Lionel Stander has some amusing lines as Harrison's pal, while Vallee, Barbara Lawrence (as Darnell's sister),Kennedy, and Bridge offer fine support. Sturges, responsible for some of the best screenplays and for directing some of the finest comedies in Hollywood's history, adds another gem to his resume. The music too is wonderful, furiously as part of the plot as Harrison's insanity is. This was remade somewhat successfully by Dudley Moore in 1984, one of the more obscure classics to be re-done. It has grown in cult status over the years, but was totally overlooked for awards during its release year. The film remains a showcase for its stunning leading man who in spite of 40's classics such as "Blithe Spirit" and "The Ghost & Mrs. Muir" wouldn't become legendary until he uttered those immortal stage and screen words, "Eliza, where the devil are my slippers?" years later.

Preston Sturges after leaving Paramount where he did his best work signed on to 20th Century Fox and his first film was Unfaithfully Your's. Starring Rex Harrison and Linda Darnell, it's the story of an insanely jealous symphony conductor who hires private detective Edgar Kennedy to get dirt on his wife whom he suspects of carrying on with Kurt Kreuger his manager.

Some interesting items come to Harrison's attention and he's driven out of his mind with jealousy. In that Unfaithfully Your's is not unlike the Ferenc Molnar play The Guardsman which Alfred Lunt and Lynne Fontanne did their one screen appearance with and The Chocolate Soldier where that plot was used for Nelson Eddy and Rise Stevens.

During the concert while the music is playing and Harrison conducting he imagines the many ways he can bring Darnell and Kreuger to their just desserts. In the end when it's real he makes a holy hash of his attempts with a non-speaking sequence that is something that many of the silent screen comics like Chaplin or Keaton would have envied.

When Unfaithfully Your's was remade I'm sure Dudley Moore didn't have the sophistication of Rex Harrison, but I'm sure the broad comedy was something he could have done well.

Unfaithfully Your's was not up to what Sturges did over at Paramount. Why he left is beyond me because seeing what he did there I'm sure that the studio did not inhibit his comic genius. It's still a pretty funny film and I recommend seeing it back to back to back with The Guardsman and The Chocolate Soldier.