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.

This film brings us Rex Harrison already foreshadowing Professor Higgins. He tries out the arrogant, picayune, verbally acute role and is absolutely successful. The seed is planted and we, who know what is to come twenty years hence, rub our hands gleefully in anticipation of Higgins. But Linda Darnell is no Eliza. Instead, she is a loving, docile, trusting wife, already dressed as though she will be meeting the Queen and looking beautiful and so very desirable.The dialog crackles and moves fast. Only Rex Harrison and perhaps Cary Grant could have have delivered with the wit and brio that Sturges deserved.There are two extended slapstick scenes that should have been cut shorter.Edgar Kennedy as a Private Eye has a couple of great scenes when he turns out to be a classical music devotee and is knowledgeably enthusiastic about Harrison's conducting.A digression: Harrison tosses a couple of tickets to the Philharmonic concert, they are orchestra tickets a few rows from the front row. Price $3.80, designated as "Patron"' seats.

In Preston Sturges' last studio film, Rex Harrison plays an orchestra conductor who believes his wife is having an affair. While conducting, he plans various schemes for revenge, each played out with the utmost precision and skill. He grows increasingly paranoid and grows more insane after each plan he came with fails.I expected much more of this, but this was based largely on my liking of SULLIVAN'S TRAVELS (1941). Most of Sturges' other films are perhaps not brilliant but at least they were hilarious and make for fine comedy, but this one strains for laughs, that are simply not there. Often hailed as some kind of masterpiece, I failed to see it. I'll take any other of his films for this one. At least they're funnier, hands down.The film is beautiful to look at, very stylish, and masterfully scored, but the main problem is, I'm supposed to root for a deeply unsympathetic character in a story that seems to exist solely to marvel it's own genius and complexity. What's more, Rex Harrison has no talent for comedy whatsoever. He tries hard but to no avail. All we are left with is supposedly witty dialog that has no purpose at all. I wouldn't dare to dismiss any Sturges-film, and perhaps the genius of this film is beyond my reach, but if you're looking for the old-fashioned madness of earlier Sturges, you won't find it here.Camera Obscura --- 5/10

Preston Sturges was not only ahead of his time in 1948, he's ahead of his time in 2006. Many movie critics haven't caught up with his brilliant if somewhat warped mind yet. The remake of "Unfaithfully Yours," though not bad doesn't come close to the satire and farce of the original. Why Sturges even uses slapstick to spoof slapstick. Who else could take such a stuffed shirt item as classical music and the blatant arrogance associated with it and poke fun at it while at the same time giving the audience the treat of enjoying some heavenly classical selections that fit perfectly with the plot? Part of the fun in "Unfaithfully Yours" is to watch the ego of the pompous classical conductor Sir Alfred De Carter (note the moniker) being punctured and slowly deflating until all he has left are the murderous fantasies of an intensely possessive human being. Sturges' genius is to make us laugh at all this. Only Chaplin in his masterpiece "Monsieur Verdoux" can make the audience laugh at murder the way Sturges does in "Unfaithfully Yours."Not to take away from the excellent performances of the two leads, Rex Harrison and Linda Darnell, but the marvelous character actor Edgar Kennedy nearly steals the show playing the private detective Sweeney who just happens to be a lover of classical music and worships Sir Alfred who could handle Handel like nobody could handle Handel. Rudy Vallee too shines under Sturges' guiding hand the way he shone in "Palm Beach Story." Vallee was such a versatile entertainer that he could play just about any part but he was always at his best when Sturges was in the driver's seat.This is a film that the viewer has to watch several times to get the feel of what Preston Sturges is all about. Though Sturges left a gallant legacy of wonderful off the wall humorous works such as "The Great McGinty," "The Miracle of Morgan's Creek," and "Sullivan's Travels," this movie "Unfaithfully Yours" may very well be the best creation of them all.