Unfaithfully Yours

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comedy, conductor, imagined, infidelity, obsession, Preston Sturges, Rex Harrison

In Unfaithfully Yours, Rex Harrison plays conductor Alfred de Carter, a pompous egotist. (Doesn’t Harrison play a lot of this sort?) De Carter’s clueless brother-in-law Augustus misunderstood his request to “look after my wife while I’m gone and as a result Augustus has Daphne, the wife, followed by a detective.

At first Alfred wants to give his wife the benefit of the doubt, but other people want to tell him that his wife was found leaving his secretary’s hotel room in a negligee in the middle of the night. Soon Alfred’s high minded ethos are out the window and while he’s conducting a symphony concert, he’s plague by different scenarios involving confronting Daphne about this affair.

Each variation is more comical than the last. Directed by Preston Sturges, Unfaithfully Yours is a madcap comedy with a perspicacious take on jealousy. I particularly liked how well music was worked into the story and how each piece fit Alfred’s mood to a T.

The psychology of jealousy is explored to the limit. Harrison offers a superb performance of slap stick humor in a scene towards the end when he tries to trick his wife. Unfaithfully Yours moves at a clip and in spite of a few corny jokes stands up to the test of time. In the 1980s, they did a remake of Unfaithfully Yours starring Dudley Moore. I doubt it could match this clever film.

The Criterion Collection version includes a bonus feature with Terry Jones of Monty Python fame describing how he discovered Preston Sturges and his thoughts on the film.

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Funny Girl

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Barbra Streisand, Best Actress, biopic, Classic, comedy, Fanny Brice, Funny Girl, Henry Street, Nicky Arnstein, Oscar winner

Cover of Funny Girl

One of the films I watched on my flight to China was Funny Girl, which I haven’t seen in ages. This story of a talented ugly duckling, Barbara Streisand as Fanny Brice stills entertains. So many great songs – Second Hand Rose (which keeps replaying in my head) People, I’d Rather be Blue Thinking of You, Don’t Rain on My Parade. Barbra sings them all so well.

The movie hits all the right notes showing a Jewish girl from Henry Street make it big despite not fitting the image of the WASPish beauty most Ziegfeld girls did. Of course, you wish her chutzpah extended to the wisdom to know that all that glitters isn’t gold and that debonair gambler Nick Arnstein wasn’t all he seemed cracked up to be. I suppose part of the plot’s momentum is watching the impending wreck we see coming before Fanny does.

As much as I liked Funny Girl and appreciated the dark theme of “be careful what you wish for, ” I’d like to see a new movie about Fanny Brice, something more realistic that reveals more about the relationship between Fanny and Nick, showing whether Fanny ever saw her insecurity as her Achilles’ heel.

Checking out Wikipedia’s entry on Brice makes for interesting reading. Evidently, she came from a well-off family and Arnstein was her second husband. He was a mooch and not as honorable as the play or film make out. While the truth might not have gone over with a 1964 or ’68 audience, I think contemporary audiences could go for the realism.

Despite the poor food and scandalous baggage fees, I will applaud United Airlines for its improved entertainment selections. Between the recent movies, classics and TV offerings it’s easy to while away the 12+ hours from Chicago to Beijing.

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The Heir Apparent

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18th century, comedy, farce, romance

Sunday I saw The Heir Apparent at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. It’s a fast-paced farce about a young man who connives to get his uncle to name him sole heir so he can marry his true love. The problem is his love has a shrewd guardian, an aunt, whose arranged for the young lady to marry the uncle. Woe is me!

So the conniving continues all done in verse. The couplets are clever and constant. Some include modern references to “soccer moms” and such so if you’re a purist, you won’t be thrilled. It’s a play to go to for a bit of fun.

Désiré

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attraction, black and white, comedy, farce, French, romance, Sacha Guitry, servants

Désiré

Released in 1937 starring Sacha Guitry, Désiré is a comedy about a French woman and her household staff. Odette is a former actress who’s beau is a government Minister. Her staff includes a cook, a maid, a chauffeur we never see, but lacks a valet. The night before Odette, played by Guitry’s wife at the time, and her beau are to leave for the countryside, a chatty, meticulous valet comes to interview for the job. His references are impeccable and he’s hired. God forbid the couple goes to the country without a valet.

In the kitchen Désiré gets to know the maid and the cook. He’s very professional about his job and the hardest worker of the group, but also shares lots of observations about employers e.g. in a couple days a servant knows his employer well. In a year the servant can predict the employer’s every move and thought, yet after employing a servant for 5 years the employer probably doesn’t even know the servant’s last name. Touché.

Désiré’s previous employer intimates that while he was impeccable at his job, he made sexual overtures and therefore was let go. Odette is ready to send him packing but he persuades her to trust that it’ll never happen again.

All goes well until madam starts having dreams of Désiré making overtures. Her beau hears her calling out his name. Meanwhile Désiré also has dreams and the maid hears him calling out. Both don’t know what to do and try to hide the problem as best they can.

Désiré is a farce done with wit and intelligence. It makes some good points and is something of a counterpoint to Downton Abbey. Here the characters smoke and joke and toy with each other.  Guitry is a fine comic actor who held my interest from start to finish.

Glee: Yes/No

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comedy, Emma Pillsbury, Finn Hudson, Glee, Mercedes Jones, musical, Rachel Berry, Sue Sylvester

Glee‘s Episode “Yes/No” was full of proposals. Kudos to Will’s grand, dare I say over the top nautical, proposal to Emma. For a minute it seemed like he’d call the whole thing off as her parents were so against it, but Emma’s impassioned speech helped Will see clearly. The show also meandered with Sam and Mercedes. Supposedly, they’d had a summer romance and he wanted to start things up again, but since Mercedes is dating a football player she nixed that idea. The whole storyline seemed cobbled together. Yet Sam’s not defeated so in the weeks to come, I suppose there will be more.

The plotline with Becky asking Arnie rang truer. She had eyes for him, but he just wanted to be friends. Poor Becky. She does have Sue to console her and act as a role model. Again, poor Becky, but lucky Sue because that’s the one relationship that keeps Sue humane.

Out of left field, Finn decided to propose to Rachel. Since his parents and Will, convinced him not to follow in his dad’s footsteps and join the army, Finn’s desperate to give his life purpose. The story of his dad having a drug problem after the war, seems 100% contrived. If that had been a secret the mother kept for sometime then, I’d buy it and there’d have been more drama. It was good to finally see a new episode, but I felt manipulated by Finn’s proposal at the end of the show. Just as Rachel seems to.