Evening star., 1949-01-14


terial does not add up to greatness. {
but 1t will do better than a multi
tude Of more pretentious samples
OF cinema.
Whatever superior virtues the
comedy at the Capitol Theater pos
sesses grow out Of better than
average idea. Sturges, who writes
his own heroes, has created another
semirefreshing one on this occasion.
His new man, played by Rex Harri-
son. is q temperamental symphony
conductor who makes great music
out of ideas for killing his wife
whom he suspects of infidelity.
This at least represents a new
use for the music OF such composers
as Rossini. Wagner and Tschaikowski.
It Is also q more amusing one for
moviegoers who may we'll have
grown tired of the solemnity with
which the screen usually presents
the works of musical immortals.
The girl for whose murder these
three provide incidental music is
Linda Darnell. This is not bad for
her or for Rossini, Wagner and
Tschaikowski.
Producer Director Writer Sturges
Is his usual cheerful self in con-
cocting this slur on the aristocrats
of music. He finds an equally
cheerful collaboration in Actor Harri-
son whose approach to the conductor
role Is that musicians are at their
best when they are most deranged.
Harrison gets obvious relish into
making his man an urbaEe monster
Of vanity, a man who reads the
score of symphony as II 1t were a
blueprint for the perfect murder and
one who feels that whatever he plays
h far better than the public deserves.
These two have lot Of fun with
the plots joke, SO much fun indeed
that they never seem aware that
It runs thin at times and rather too
long for the merriment in it. D \
Sturges, q prime believer in the
truth that movies must move, In
jects lot Of action into "Unfaith-
fully Yours" 1t starts with his
titled English conductor landing at
La Guardia field in the early morn
ing, enthusiastically picking up the
fervor of his marriage, catching
rumors of his wife's errant social
routine during his absence, rushing
through rehearsal, setting fire to
his dressing room, playing an elabo-
rate concert, concocting three ways
for ending an apparently defaced
marriage, and finally solving ms
problem in exactly the way 1t was
destined to be solved.
More inventive than most pic
ture makers, Sturges Is never SO
dependent upon situation or Incl
dent that he cannot pause for
bright stretches of dialogue.
The fact is that Hero Harrison
almost never stops talking through
out the entire footage OF I'm
faithfully Yours" Apparently he
has 50 much to say that he keeps
up a running monologue even when
he Is on the podium conducting the
most intricate work Of the most in
tricate composers.
Almost any other cinema con-
versationalist would become q bore
in half that time, but Harrison
usually is saying something worth
listening to. 1t may have to do
with what a fool q talented older
man is to marry a brainless idiot
of a girl merely because she is beau
tif1ll. Or it may be ferocious dia-
tribe against the ethics of private
detectives. Whatever the subject,
Sturges' comment on 1t through the
voice of Harrison Is better and
brighter than most sound track talk.
AS Harrison's brainless wife. Miss
Darnell's function is principally
one of changing from one seductive
costume to another and from one
soft expression to a softer one, a
role which she plays with mini
mum of effort and a suitable maxi
mum of conviction.
The lesser comedy bits. Of which
there are the usual multitude. are
stock Sturges items by now. They
are handled effectively by such