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

Review
Unfaithfully Yours is among the darkest comedies of director Preston Sturges, telling the story of a symphony conductor (Rex Harrison) who fantasizes about the unfaithfulness of his wife (Linda Darnell). The film distinctively mixes classical music with slapstick comedy and a non-linear story line, a combination that had little appeal to 1948 audiences. When the film was a box office failure, it effectively ended the Hollywood portion of Sturges' career, though he would continue to work in film for another ten years. Many critics consider Harrison's performance the best of his career, in one of the few roles in which he played a character with deep, personal flaws. As with all Sturges classics, the dialogue is snappy, though the film also relies to a surprising extent on physical comedy. ~ Richard Gilliam, All Movie Guide

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