UNFAITHFULLY YOURS
US, 1983, 92 minutes, Colour.
Dudley Moore, Nastassja Kinski, Armand Assante, Albert Brooks, Cassie Yates, Richard Libertini.
Directed by Howard Zieff.
Unfaithfully Yours is a comedy-satire adaptation by Barry Levinson and Valerie Curtin (Diner, Best Friends) of Preston Sturges' celebrated black comedy of 1948. The original was vehicle for Rex Harrison and Linda Darnell. Dudley Moore brings his own comic style to the role of the conductor and Nastassia Kinski her Bergmanesque charm and glamour. There is an excellent supporting cast headed by Albert Brooks and Armand Assante.
The screenplay is updated and the hypotheses for-murder reduced to one (from three in the original). Like Gambit with Michael Caine and Shirley MacLaine?, the film shows the perfect crime and then follows it with the imperfect version. There is quite an amount of humour - more gentle than raucous. There is a good performance by Richard B. Shull as a private detective and an excellent duelling violins sequence. Direction is by Howard Zieff (Slither, House Calls, The Main Event, Private Benjamin).
1. An entertaining '80s comedy? The nostalgia for old style Hollywood comedies? The work of Preston Sturges in the '30s and '40s? Screwball comedy traditions, more gentle black humour?
2. New York, the music and film world, the contemporary tone? Concerts, restaurants - and the editing techniques for the duelling violins? Cinema techniques for the plan of the perfect crime and the parallel ironies of its failure of execution?
3. The musical score: Tchaikovsky and the classics, the duelling violins? Dudley Moore's skill as composer and conductor?
4. The plot and its plausibility, comic exaggeration? Themes of jealousy, middle age, circumstantial evidence? The comedy and the move into farce? working well as a moralising comedy?
5. The introduction to Claude, his explanation of the situation, his success, marriage to Daniella., the freeze-frame and his decision to murder her? The audience invited into the plot?
6. Dudley Moore's comedy style. the little man with talent as Claude? His success as a conductor, relationship with women, skill with music, his recent marriage, the international tours? His affluent lifestyle? His love for Daniella? Settling down in life? His grudging admiration for Max and his working with him for the concerts? His friendship with Norman and reliance on him? Norman's wife? The discovery of the work of the private detective? His Italian valet and the language misunderstandings? The tearing up of the report. his recovering it, reading it in the kitchen? His imagination running riot? His following Daniella. misreading her words. misinterpreting her actions? Continually watching her? Following her into the theatre and the ironing screening of Antonioni's L'Avventura, his arrest and release? Going to the private detective, watching the video, identifying the socks, the rehearsal and his response, his reaction to Max? His going to Max's apartment? Racing home to catch Daniella, the irony of his falling asleep and her nap? Growing suspicions, hurting her? The restaurant and the violin duel with Max? The concert and his planning during the Tchaikovsky recital? The perfect murder and his suave manner and control? The ironies of the reality of the execution?
7. The plan and its plausibility? The smooth version - timing, the tape recorders, the restaurant and the jokes, the laughter and the screams, the masks, the apartment, the crushing of the tablets, the deaths and the video in the hotel? The reality of the missing tapes, the timing, people not wanting to do what Claude expected, having to buy the masks, the return home, trying to crush the tablets, the Coca Cola, the rain?
8. Daniella as attractive? The audience knowing her innocence? The appointment, the misunderstanding, the nap, going to the theatre, her being hurt, the telephone call? Seeing her at work dubbing her film? Her forgiveness?
9. Norman and his wife, Norman and his work as an agent, curious, the irony that his wife was deceiving him? Her conducting of the affair with Max and concealing it, complicity with Daniella?
10. The Italian valet and the comedy with language, Claude's asking him what he would do to advise his friend who was being cuckolded?
11. The detective, his report, his wisdom, Claude's visit, showing him the video? Discovering the mistake, wanting to remedy it, waiting at the theatre?
12. Max and his suave manner, violin-playing, rehearsals, the restaurant outing, the duelling violins, the affair with Norman's wife, the final performance, Max seen as victim of the perfect crime, in reality?
13. The effect of comedy portraying foibles, fantasies, deadly dreams? Wisdom in light and farcical comedy?
