The Unfaithful

The Statue.

The Unfaithful is directed by Vincent Sherman and written by Dave Goodis and James Gunn. It's based around the 1929 play, The Letter, by W. Somerset Maugham. It stars Ann Sheridan, Lew Ayres, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden, Jerome Cowan, Steven Geray and John Hoyt. Music is by Max Steiner and cinematography by Ernest Haller.

When a Los Angeles socialite kills a man while home alone one night it appears to be a simple case of self defence....

Maugham's play written source of 1929 had already been adapted in 1931 and 1940, the latter the most grandiose version with Bette Davis starring and William Wyler directing. So wisely, Vincent Sherman and his team rework the principle to a modern day city, with modern day social awareness and a whole different macguffin. It's a tricky blend of murder mystery and domestic melodrama dressed up occasional film noir garb, and yet for although it's hardly riveting viewing - with a hopelessly safe finale, there's rich characterisations and enough honest intention on the page to keep you on side.

In the first instance pic is concerned with the mystery element, the big question of if Chris Hunter (Sheridan) did in fact kill in self defence. The crime itself is superbly staged by Sherman (All Through the Night) and Haller (Mildred Pierce). A house at night lit by lamplight, a woman entering her front door is submerged by an approaching shadow, a scuffle moves into the house and we the viewers witness the rest via jostling silhouettes. It's a nifty show of a visual flourish that sadly has you wishing there was a more consistent commitment to the mise en scène throughout rest of the piece.

Then the story throws a spanner in the works, excitingly so, for all is not as it seems. Adultery, blackmail, deceit, murder? Can it be true? But again, one has to be disappointed that these themes - ripe for noir dalliances - are not covered with dark tints. Because instead the pic chooses to go for domestic disharmony, even becoming a message movie - where as honourable as that is in the context of the era it was made, it loses all of its dramatic worth. This is the nearly very good under seen crime/noir picture...

For all that, there's good craft here, with performances to match, notably a wonderfully waspish Arden. And in going the way they did for the finale, it would be churlish to decry it its hopeful hopefulness. So as Steiner weaves his musical swirls, and Haller brightens the gloom, hope does indeed spring eternal. 6.5/10