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List Price: $29.95Amazon.com's Price: $26.99 You Save: $2.96 (10%)Prices subject to change.
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Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: DVD
EAN: 9781559409629
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD-Video, Full Screen, Special Edition, NTSC
ISBN: 1559409622
Label: Criterion
Manufacturer: Criterion
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Criterion
Region Code: 1
Release Date: July 12, 2005
Running Time: 105 minutes
Sales Rank: 27702
Studio: Criterion
Theatrical Release Date: December 10, 1948
Editorial Review:
Description:
In this pitch-black comedy from legendary writer-director Preston Sturges, Rex Harrison stars as Sir Alfred De Carter, a world-famous symphony conductor consumed with the suspicion that his wife is having an affair. During a concert, the jealous De Carter entertains elaborate visions of vengeance, set to three separate orchestral works. But when he attempts to put his murderous fantasies into action, nothing works out quite as planned. A brilliantly performed mixture of razor-sharp dialogue and uproarious slapstick, Unfaithfully Yours is a true classic from a grand master of screen comedy.
Amazon.com:
Preston Sturges has his great run in 1940-44, with a series of comedy masterpieces unparalleled in Hollywood film. 1948's Unfaithfully Yours proves that he still had the touch, if only he could have found a supportive studio for his genius. (It would've helped if Unfaithfully Yours had been a hit, which it was not.) Sir Alfred De Carter (Rex Harrison) is a witty, vain orchestra conductor, a celebrated man married to a beautiful woman (Linda Darnell). He becomes convinced of her infidelity, and while he is on the podium during a concert, he fantasizes three homicidal revenge fantasies--all set to the classics.
The conductor looks suspiciously like a self-portrait by Sturges, and the delicious dialogue comes pouring out of Rex Harrison like pearls from a goblet. The film's main disappointment is that it doesn't feature the teeming stock company of character actors that crowd Sturges's earlier pictures (although Rudy Vallee, Lionel Stander, and Edgar Kennedy come through nicely). The film, while morbid, is often laugh-out-loud funny, but it also has something sneakily brilliant to say about the gulf between art and life: how the exquisite timing and perfect mechanics of Sir Alfred's imagination come a-cropper when he actually tries to enact his fantasies. Unfaithfully Yours was remade in a not-bad version with Dudley Moore in 1984, but this one's the keeper. Too bad it couldn't save Sturges--this is the last worthy film in a too-brief career. --Robert Horton
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Unfaithfully Yours Delivers Laughs Faithfully
A cinema technique in advance of its time. Head and shoulders above its more recent remake. Harrison never got his just due for his outstanding comedic efforts. Rue de Valle and other period character actors make this absolutely worthwhile to own for any Preston Sturges fan.
Rating: - Something For Everyone: A Comedy Tonight???
When I saw this movie as a kid, it was billed as a murder mystery, and I recall being so horrified as Rex Harrison planned and executed his fiendish and ghastly perfect crime that I wanted to leave the movie theatre; and then when the entire scenario was turned on its head as Harrison actually put what turned out to be a figment of his musical imagination into action--or made a bungling effort to do so--I was very glad I had not left. My sides ached from tear-splashed laughter then, and they still ... Read More
Rating: - Just SO much fun!
Preston Sturges knows how to write interesting characters in bizarre situations. This is a jealousy-plagued love story with plot lines acted out in Rex Harrison's character's mind, then carried out with varying results. The basic premise is brilliant for what it offers, and Rex Harrison is perfectly hilarious. Lovely Linda Darnell's performance(s) -- wonderful! Added treats, as always with Sturges, are the various supporting players who add wonderful coloration to the storyline. Rudy Vallee is ... Read More
Rating: - Faithfully good
Definitely a movie that is worth having in any collection. The subject matter is as relevant today as it was in 1948, but the presentation can probably be better appreciated now than it was when it was first released. It is a very intelligent movie, and the performances are superb--defying expectations. I would have never expected to see Rex Harrison in this type of a role, and he proves to be excellent in it, portraying the paranoid, jealous, and fragile male who seems so powerful on the outside, and ... Read More
Rating:  - Brilliant film with worthless commentary from alleged "experts"
If there were a way to strip this disc of its atrociously pompous and utterly worthless commentary track, I would do so without hesitation. Three supposed "scholars" mumble on at excessive length, similar to people in a movie house who carry on aimless conversations to the annoyance of other patrons. An even bigger disappointment are the seemingly stream-of-conscious ramblings by Monty Pyton's Terry Jones, which make very little sense and add nothing to the enhancement of the film. The only worthwhile ... Read More
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