THE UNFAITHFUL
US, 1947, 109 minutes, Black and white.
Ann Sheridan, Zachary Scott, Lew Ayres, Eve Arden, Steve Geray, Jerome Cowan, John Hoyt.
Directed by Vincent Sherman.
The Unfaithful is a Warner Bros. romantic melodrama of the mid-40s. While the credits speak of original screenplay, the film is based on the Bette Davis vehicle The Letter. In The Letter, Bette Davis pretends to be innocent and turns out to be callous and a murderess. She is blackmailed because of a letter she has written. In this version, audiences might be initially suspicious of Ann Sheridan's heroine, she tells similar stories to those of Bette Davis - but ultimately is an innocent victim. An artist's bust of her is the equivalent of the letter.
However, the film is an enjoyable melodrama turning into a court drama. Audiences share the anxiety of Ann Sheridan as the truth about her relationship with the dead man is gradually revealed and she must communicate this to her lawyer and, especially, to her husband. The lawyer is Lew Ayres. The husband Zachary Scott. Eve Arden has a good, if usual, role as a gossiping relation. Direction is by Vincent Sherman. Score by Max Steiner.
1. Enjoyable '40s melodrama? Romance, marriage, fidelity?
2. The similarities with The Letter? Plot, the letter and the bust? Audiences believing Chris and her accounts? The court sequences? The happy ending?
3. Warner Bros. production values: black and white photography, small town America? Max Steiner score?
4. Ann Sheridan as Chris: strong presence, pleasant, looking forward to Bob coming home, Paula's party, helping Roger? Friendship with Larry? The attack on her return home and the effect of the man's death?
5. Audiences believing Chris: the attack, her being the innocent victim? The information about the bust and the shifting stories? Audience sympathies as Chris changed her story?
6. Her concealing the affair: her going to the gallery, posing for the bust, her loneliness, the nature of the affair, Bob's being away? The artist and his return, her killing him? Concealing the truth? Larry's finding out? Her going to the office and telling him the truth? Going to Barrow to get the bust back? The interrogations by the police? Bob finding out the truth? The court sequences, the cross-examination? Her acquittal, decision to leave? Larry and his reconciling the couple?
7. Larry as divorce lawyer, pleasant, coping with Paula and her husband? Friendship with Chris? The police, the -interrogations? Going to Barrow and discovering the bust? Concealing the truth from Bob and then having to tell him? handling the court sequences? The speeches of reconciliation?
8. Bob, his courtship of Chris, the two weeks' marriage, going overseas? Pleasant? Return home? The brave face with Chris going to the restaurant? meeting Paula and her friends? Supporting Chris? Discovering the truth? His going to Paula after the court case? Sitting through the trial? His decision at the end?
9. Barrow and his art dealings, his wanting to make money out of the bust?
10. The artist's wife, her going to the police, her story? At the trial?
11. Paula and her own divorce, her friends, their gossip? Her support of Bob?
12. The Prosecutor and cross-examination of Chris?
13. Audience response to melodramatic situations, characters? And a moralising ending?
