Thursday 19 August 2010

"I doubt that you played Russian Roulette all the time with your father!"

Preston Sturges wrote and directed a pitch-black screwball comedy, which was his first film for 20th Century Fox: UNFAITHFULLY YOURS (1948). Though it recieved rave reviews, it was no box office hit.

In a nutshell:
With assistance of his brother in law, August (Rudy Vallee), the famous conductor Sir Alfred de Carter (Sir Rex Harrison) comes to the conclusion that his wife Daphne (Linda Darnell) commits adultery with his secretary Tony (Kurt Kreuger).
While conducting a concert, Sir Alfred imagines how he could satisfy his thirst for revenge by a) killing his wife b) forgiving her in a noble way and become the moral winner or c) playing russian roulette with Tony.
After the concert he tries to put his ideas in action but fails in every way. Finally he recognizes that his wife is faithful to him and he is coming down with a heavy cold, which will not prevent him from going dancing with his wife.

Schmooze:
  • Lionel Stander, who plays Sir Alfred's manager, is known as Max in the TV-series HART TO HART (1979-1984) and as Cornelius Cobb in MR. DEEDS GOES TO TOWN(1936).
  • Barbara Lawrence, who plays Daphne's sister, is a distant cousin to Nelson Eddy and has also played Linda Darnell's little sister in A LETTER TO THREE WIVES (1949). She is still alive.

Sight-read:

  • In this movie you can hear Rossini's "William Tell Overture" and "Semiramide", Wagner's "TannhƤuser Overture" and "Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32" by Tchaikovsky. You can also hear parts of "Jingle Bells" - played by a musical box.

Murphy's law:

  • At the rehearsal you can hear the orchester laughing but you don't see any laughing face. Rather disciplined!

My favourite feature:

The internal door of Sir Alfred's closet - mighty practical! I like that there's a mirror inside in height of the head. And all this little panels! Handy, indeed!

Scene to see:

Sir Alfred commits the perfect murder! You've got to see that! It is as cross as two sticks and really amazing! (who said I am a good girl??)



Wishlist:
Linda Darnell's evening gown and "the purple one" but without "the plumes on the hips".

Quotes Corner:

"You handle HƤndel like nobody handles HƤndel. And your Delius - delirious!"


Though I don't allways get along with slapstick, I enormously enjoy this comedy:

The finale is quite hilarious! I am also no fan of Sir Rex Harrison, but I love his perfomance in this film: He is pretty darn funny! I adore Linda Darnell pretty much, so she was the main cause for me to watch this movie for the first time. - Beside the fact, that this is a Preston Sturges flick! - Since then I saw it several times and still like it. And that Charles LeMaire was in authority for the wardrobe is also a bonus. There's only one thing that causes trouble at my home, when I turn on this film: that home recorder makes a sound that makes my cats flip out and run like smoke.. :")

Goodbye! I'll go and watch another movie..

Keep in mind: "So simple it operates itself!"

12 comments:

  1. I saw one of your post's on All Good Things so I thought I'd have a look at your blog and I'm glad I did because it's great !
    I'm trying to expand my knowledge of classic Hollywood so I will definately by following your blog.

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  2. Hello, Paul!

    Thank you VERY much and welcome to my blog! It is great to have you here! And it is marvellous that you are trying to expand your knowledge of classic Hollywood!

    I'll do my very best to support you by broadcasting some of the gossip and other information I got. :")

    At the very bottom (is that right? It sounds rather like an innuendo..) of this blog you'll find three blog-list with some blogs dealing with classic cinema. (for further information..)

    I'd love to read some comments - so please share your thaughts. Have an awesome day! (I'll sure have now: my 3.follower -*yay*)

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  3. It's a good deed that you put someone between Marlene and Jean, because they couldn't stand each other. :)

    Say, is that girl over "Wishlist" Ruby??

    "... coming down with a heavy cold, which will not prevent him from going dancing with his wife ..."
    And then he dies of pneumonia or what?
    Ah, Rudy Valley! I like his singing in the early 30s - favorite song: "Live Is Just a Bowl of Cherries" - very funny.

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  4. Actually I don't know anything about Sir Alfreds futher state of health. All I know is: He is dragging his wife to go out dancing and - this is a quote from the movie - "is coming down with a heavy cold" - so maybe beautiful Daphne will become a widow soon.. ;")

    Yes, it is Ruby Keeler!!

    I think, I should bring even more space between Marlene and Jean. This may be safer for all of us..

    I love that "Live is just a bowl of cherries"!!. Unfortunately Rudy Vallee doesn't sing in this film - he plays a very stiff bourgeois, who can't relate to music. (pretty ironic..) On the other hand that way he couldn't spoil the memories..

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  5. It was my error, but it's certainly: "Life Is Just a Bowl of Cherries". - Silly me!

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  6. No judgment from this corner, where we are writing "futher" and other awful stuff.. ;"/

    "I hereby declare this a judgment free zone, where you can write what you want, how you want!" - er - no, I don't. :")

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh no, I'm trying hard to avoid mistakes! It's just a question of concentration.

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  8. That's very funny: You should have August 23 now, while it's still 10:50 pm ET. It seems blogspot is messed up by the date line. On my movie list I got 10:43 pm a few minutes ago.

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  9. I sure know what you mean because I am sort of a perfectionist myself - making mistakes drives me wild.
    It really frustrates me - like the fact that my posts - regardless of wether I formate them 4 times and read carefully or not - seem to create their own breakes and show marvellous typing errors. :"(

    ReplyDelete
  10. Let's see whether you can change something:

    (1.) You can add an English Dictionary to ms-Word, OpenOffice, ore whatever you're using. This would be a great help, because most mistakes showed then. It would be less work after all.

    (2.) Your browser could be your English teacher as well. Personally I use Google-Chrome. And while I'm writing, the program is fairly strict. Of course if I write "Jeans" instead of "Jean's" there's no correction - it's just pants then. But it's a great help though, I can concentrate much more on the content.

    Yet I'm afraid you'll lay even more 'eggs' then. You're writing much faster as I have time to read! :D

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I really appreciate your comments - I'll read them all and if I can think of an answer I'll post it. :")