JLRMovieReviews One night coming home, Ann Sheridan is accosted at her front door by an intruder who pushes her in and begins to beat her. Fade out. Fade in. There's a body on her living room floor. We would be more intrigued by this scenario, had it not been for the title, and also for the fact that we can tell by her mannerisms and the way she looked at him that she knew the guy. Husband Zachary Scott has been serving his country, but happens to be coming home the morning the body is lying in their living room. She is questioned by the police and friend-of-the-family/lawyer Lew Ayres and she sticks to her story that she defended herself against a stranger. But, after Lew has done a little sleuthing for himself and cornered her, she tells more but still not all. Costarring Eve Arden and Jerome Cowan, this is a very unflinching and real take on infidelity. Ann Sheridan didn't get many chances to show off her acting chops, as she was usually given musicals or comedies; but here she is able to convey depth in a rare dramatic role. The fact is though we usually liked Ann Sheridan in her comedies, but here she is placed in a rather unpleasant, unsympathetic position. The film, as it progresses, is well made and well mounted, but the deeper she gets, the more we feel it's the bed she made for herself. (Sleep in it.) Eve Arden is on hand as usual with her quick one-liners, but we don't like her either as she comes across as catty and mean to Ann. I liked its less-is-more ending with a somber but hopeful look towards the future rather than a pat happy ending with cheery smiles. The main criticism I have of the film is that, while Lew Ayres was rather good and suitably cast as the lawyer with high ideals (as he was a conscientious objector to WWII), his words of wisdom (near the end of the picture) for the couple with a rough road ahead seemed a bit preachy and/or sanctimonious to me. But otherwise, "The Unfaithful" was a very entertaining film, directed by Vincent Sherman, who once again delivered the goods in fashionable style.

edwagreen Major change for Zachary Scott here. For a change, he is a victim, the husband of an unfaithful wife. He acts accordingly when he discovers Ann Sheridan's discretion.As always, Eve Arden is along for the ride with her snappy one-liners and her usual brilliant sarcasm. In a change for her as well, she really dramatizes it up with her scene with "cousin" Scott, telling him to go easy on Sheridan. For Scott and Arden, this was their re-teaming after "Mildred Pierce," 2 years before.Interesting line here that women left alone during World War 11 resorted to unfaithfulness. It really isn't nice when you think of it, but it works here.Note a solid supporting performance by Jerome Cowan as an aggressive district attorney.

Robert J. Maxwell It's 1947. Zachary Scott has been fighting the war in the Pacific. The conflict having ended, he returns home to his loving wife, Ann Sheridan. For the most part, Sheridan has spent the war years as a volunteer at the USO and in other noble pursuits. However, she has had an affair with a sculptor. She tries to avoid the artist but he stalks her, attacks her, and is killed by Sheridan in self defense. Sheridan then does every possible stupid thing to bring about an accusation of murder. There's an unusually subtle attempt at blackmail. Scenes in a courtroom follow.So far, a little dull -- and it IS talky. But it's also an interesting examination of the stresses place on an ordinary marriage during periods of separation such as wartime imposes.Scott understandably has been wrapped up in his own problems overseas and doesn't write as many letters as he might. Meanwhile, Sheridan has had only a week or two with Scott before he shipped out, and now she's lonely and horny. This is not one of those war-time fairy tales in which the delicious wife back home sticks to her main job -- being resigned but cheerfully faithful throughout.Scott is a generous and forgiving man. No shadow is cast on his character. But he can't stand the idea of his wife, whom he still loves, having been with another man. The jury acquits her, but Scott is distraught. Both he and Sheridan agree that a divorce is in order. He visits a mutual friend, Eve Arden, who gives him a straight-from-the-shoulder analysis of a woman's difficulties at home while her man in uniform is overseas being lauded by the public. Arden tells Scott that he had a two-week fling with her, not a marriage. He "took out an option on her." And he carried with him the fantasy of spousal purity at home. It's a thoroughgoing feminist tract before the formula became formulaic, and it's all the more effective because Scott isn't a bad guy. If he were a brute male, the scene would simply show us his being taken down a proper notch and something of value would have been lost because Scott would have been all bad, while Eve Arden would have been all good. As it stands, it's more sophisticated than that.The last speech is delivered to the couple by Lew Ayres, their lawyer, who dissuades them from divorcing. I don't know the stats but I would guess that the divorce rate rose dramatically after the men returned. Not just because of unfaithful wives, of course, but because of the disruptive influence of PTSD and the fact that homebound wives found new outlets for their energy in wage work outside the kitchen.The film doesn't have the reach of a polished Hollywood product like "The Best Years of Our Lives," yet I suppose it found a ready audience while addressing this rather complicated social problem, one which partly emasculated the male and turned the structure of the household, and of society, temporarily upside down. Temporarily, that is, until about 1975 when the whole thing appeared to collapse.The movie really has a good, clinical dose of ambition and relevance under that cloak of a murder thriller.

Emaisie39 I just saw this on TCM and was so surprised at how gripping it was. Loosely based on Somerset Maugham's "The Letter" that was a major early talkie hit for Jeanne Eagels at Paramount and then remade into a the William Wyler-Bette Davis-Warner Brothers classic of 1940, this version pulls you in and gives Ann Sheridan one of her finest roles. Lew Ayres, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden and Marta Miltrovich are all outstanding as well. Top notch Jerry Wald production includes excellent Max Steiner score, superb Ernest Haller cinematography, and a very good script. Outstanding direction by Vincent Sherman allows Sheridan to shine in her central role as a woman who kills a supposed stranger in self-defense and then watches her life implode around her. The ending is the only letdown. Definitely a must for fans of the "Oomph Girl" at her Warner Brothers peak.