Ann Sheridan

Lew Ayres

Zachary Scott

Eve Arden

Jerome Cowan

Steven Geray

John Hoyt

Peggy Knudsen

Marta Mitrovich

Douglas Kennedy

Claire Meade

Frances Morris

Jane Harker

Mary Field

Ray Montgomery

Eve Whitney

Ellen Corby

Bob Alden

Lois Austin

Brooks Benedict

Monte Blue

Chet Brandenburg

Ralph Brooks

Dorothy Christy

Tris Coffin

Heinie Conklin

Jean De Briac

Sayre Dearing

Jay Eaton

John Elliott

Maude Fealy

Ross Ford

Robert Haines

Carey Harrison

George Hickman

Betty Hill

Charles Jordan

Fred Kelsey

Kenner G. Kemp

Bob Lowell

Charles Marsh

Philo McCullough

Harold Miller

Jack Mower

Sol Murgi

Paul Panzer

Waclaw Rekwart

John Vosper

Richard Walsh

Leo White

Eric Wilton

Joan Winfield

Clifton Young

Vincent Sherman

David Goodis

James Gunn

William Wallace

Max Steiner

Leo F. Forbstein

James McMahon

Rudy Vallee

Murray Cutter

Jerry Wald

Charles Henderson

Jack L. Warner

Leo K. Kuter

Alan Crosland, Jr.

Perc Westmore

William C. McGann

Francis J. Scheid

Travilla

Robert Burks

Ernest Haller

W. Somerset Maugham

Thriller

Drama

Mystery

The Unfaithful

Warner Bros. Pictures

United States of America

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

English