It seems almost absurd that Preston Sturges continuously fades into the background when we are talking on the subject of greatest filmmakers to ever work in the genre of comedy. Much like his contemporaries Ernst Lubitsch and Billy Wilder, Sturges was a filmmaker with a clear authorial vision, which extended beyond him being merely a director-for-hire, making him one of the pioneering American auteurs, often directing his own scripts, which was mostly unheard of for directors who entered into Hollywood later in life, without being established figures in their own right. Part of this comes from his work in the theatre, with many of his productions clearly being the result of his consistently varied approach to storytelling, essentially making the interaction between script and screen an increasingly personal one for Sturges. This can be seen in nearly all of his films, whether they be his more notable and canonical works (such as The Lady Eve and Sullivan’s Travels, both of which I absolutely adore), or those that are slightly under-discussed, such as the subject of today’s conversation. Unfaithfully Yours is a wonderful peculiarity of a film – a screwball dark comedy that is motivated by a range of different concepts that interweave to form this astonishingly refreshing work of unhinged humour, it is truly inexplicable that it is not more celebrated, existing mainly as a cherished curio, embraced mostly by those with an active interest in this era of Hollywood, rather than seen as a historically significant comedy that redefined this particular genre of humour in ways that many artists don’t even realize they are borrowing liberally from, making it one of the most unexpectedly influential films of its period.

Hilarious and irreverent, there are few other ways to describe this film than a sheer masterwork of both form and content. Sturges was consistent in his efforts to push the boundaries of his craft, so much that he often found himself at odds with the conventions that were mostly definitive of the genre. Interestingly, Unfaithfully Yours is a slight departure for the director, not in terms of tone (since it remains as scathing and precise in its comedy as any of his other works, with the same candour and wit present throughout), but rather as a result of the form it took – the dialogue is as brilliant as ever, but it has a musicality that represents Sturges experimenting with the style of filmmaking. The film is structured around music – it focuses on a composer who envisions various scenarios in which he aims to get rid of his unfaithful wife. Each one of these vignettes is distinct in terms of the particular kind of musical cues, which are less a case of music being supplementary to the events depicted on screen, but rather forming the foundation of what makes them so effective. There are very few films that are not explicitly designed as musicals that rely so heavily on the compositions to tell the story, and this is primarily where Unfaithfully Yours manages to be so effective, since it takes a very fresh approach to a genre that had been the subject of every kind of narrative exercise, and finds a new way to look at such a story – it’s a fascinating method of deconstructing romance and presenting it in a way that is entirely unprecedented. Sturges has had incredible success with using music as a narrative tool (one only needs to recall the absolutely stunning scene towards the end of Sullivan’s Travels, where the main character is shuffled into an African-American church to the hauntingly beautiful sounds of a traditional gospel song), but it was Unfaithfully Yours that truly proved that he could construct an entire film around music and still have it be entirely effective and memorable.

Bringing the characters at the heart of Unfaithfully Yours was not an easy accomplishment, as is often the case with Sturges’ work. He may not make films that are all that physically taxing, but his work often consists of long streams of dialogue that depend as much on the specific lexical items chosen to express the ideas vital to a particular scene as they do the delivery – needless to say, Sturges always made sure that his films featured the most consistently strong and versatile actors. Rex Harrison plays the central role of Sir Alfred de Carter, a celebrated conductor of classical music that has a tendency towards jealousy and revenge, which is the foundation of the entire film. Harrison is one of the great stalwarts of acting, having conquered stage and screen with his effortlessly charming and diverse set of talents. Equally adept in both comedy and drama, he was someone that could always be relied on to deliver strong character-based work, regardless of the specific details. He carries the entirety of Unfaithfully Yours, which hinges on his ability to make us believe that this character is not only the victim, but has the moral right to take revenge on those who were responsible for his scorn. It’s not often that we find films that so lovingly gaze at such despicable individuals, but this one manages to tell a story that really makes the viewer invested in Alfred’s story, which is a sign of not only great writing and brilliant acting on the part of Harrison (and the rest of the cast – Linda Darnell in particular is absolutely wonderful), but just the generally unforgettable and unique approach to developing characters beyond common conceptions of what a protagonist should entail in terms of behaviour and motivation.

The two aspects that make Unfaithfully Yours such a tremendously satisfying and interesting film come together to prove that, even when we put aside the exceptional dialogue that simmers with the kind of wit that is almost entirely extinct, Sturges was still an incredibly gifted filmmaker, someone who wasn’t weighed down by the written word, but rather could take control of the entire medium and make it his own. There are numerous passages in this film that are almost entirely free of dialogue, and while it may lack one of the fundamental qualities we normally expect from the writer, they more than make up for it in wall-to-wall visual humour. If there was ever a film to prove that Sturges wasn’t just a great writer, but also a brilliant visual stylist, it can be found throughout Unfaithfully Yours, which sees the director making use of his distinctive humour, not only through words, but movements as well. This is where Harrison’s performance is so effective – he manages to both handle Sturges’ often flowery and verbose (but still incredibly funny and undeniably hilarious) dialogue, but also take on the more physical aspects of the story. The sequence in the third act when the protagonist is trying to prepare to murder his beloved wife is one of the funniest scenes ever committed to film, and throughout the entire sequence, Harrison mutters only a few words, instead relying on his physical movements to express the frustration, paranoia and maniacal evil embedded deep within the character. Sturges’ camera is used as a tool to capture every motion, and even though it may not be extravagant in the way we’d expect from a film like this, the small movements contribute to the forthright hilarity that pulsates throughout the film and makes it such a marvellously charming work of cinematic artistry.

There was a brief moment in the late 1940s when screwball comedies began to become so self-referential in terms of their penchant for being able to find humour in any social or cultural situation, that the stories started to become increasingly dark, to the point where entire films were crafted that centred on the concept of murder in its various forms. Arsenic and Old Lace and Kind Hearts and Coronets are amongst the most popular, but they don’t necessarily follow the conventions of screwball comedy in its purest sense. Unfaithfully Yours, on the other hand, is a film designed almost entirely along the lines of the genre, focusing on the idea of romance and the inherent humour that comes along with it, and then subverting it to form a memorable dark comedy that satirizes not only human behaviour, but the artistic representation of it. Undeniably, Unfaithfully Yours may be the most romantic film to ever centre on the idea of cold-blooded murder – and if this sentence seems peculiar to read, you can imagine the surprise at watching an entire film that is built on the concept. Sturges was an absolute genius, someone whose body of work is relatively small in comparison to his peers – but what it lacks on quantity it more than makes up for in quality, consisting of bespoke works that are as hilarious as they are scathing. It’s not difficult to be immersed in the world Sturges is constructing here, and with sharp humour, beautiful direction and impeccable attention to detail, Unfaithfully Yours is an astounding work of socially-charged satire that is brilliant and far ahead of its time, leading it to be one of the rare examples of classic era comedies that are as hilarious today as they were three-quarters of a century ago, which is not an achievement that should be underestimated in any way.