The Unfaithful **** (1947, Ann Sheridan, Zachary Scott, Lew Ayres, Eve Arden, Steven Geray, Jerome Cowan, John Hoyt) – Classic Movie Review 11,880

Director Vincent Sherman’s 1947 Warner Bros black and white film noir romantic crime drama The Unfaithful is a loose uncredited remake of Somerset Maugham’s 1927 play The Letter, with a new original screenplay by David Goodis and James Gunn.

Ann Sheridan is on devastating femme fatale form as Chris Hunter, the woman who claims that she killed her artist lover in self-defence, thinking he was an intruder when husband Bob (Zachary Scott) was away.

Lew Ayres plays Sheridan’s sympathetic lawyer Larry Hannaford, who helps her to try to get back an incriminating sculpture the lover had done in her image.

While not as brilliant as the Bette Davis version of The Letter (1940), it is still compelling and atmospheric, and director Sherman works hard to keep the tale plausible and the emotional cauldron bubbling.

And it is involvingly acted by a good, quirky cast. Scott and Ayres both give strong support, while Eve Arden and John Hoyt also score as the chatty Paula and the police detective, Lt. Reynolds.

The  cast are Ann Sheridan as Chris Hunter, Lew Ayres as Larry Hannaford, Zachary Scott as Bob Hunter, Eve Arden as Paula, Jerome Cowan as Prosecuting Attorney, Steven Geray as Martin Barrow, John Hoyt as Detective Lt. Reynolds, Peggy Knudsen as Claire, Marta Mitrovich as Mrs Tanner, Douglas Kennedy as Roger, Claire Meade as Martha, Frances Morris as Agnes, Jane Harker as Joan, Heinie Conklin as Streetcar Passenger, Jack Mower as Morrie, Leo White as Courtroom Spectator, Marta Mitrovich, Brooks Benedict, Monte Blue, Mary Field, Ross Ford, Betty Hill, Charles Jordan, Charles Marsh, Ray Montgomery, Jack Mower, John Vosper, Dick Walsh, Leo White, Eve Whitney, Bob Alden, Tristram Coffin, Paul Bradley, Dorothy Christy, Jean De Briac, Maude Fealy, Ross Ford, and George Hickman.

They have the right writers aboard. David Goodis (March 2, 1917 – January 7, 1967) is noted for his noir fiction. James Gunn (August 22, 1920 – September 22, 1966) is known for his work in hardboiled fiction and crime stories.

MGM dumped Lew Ayres and his final film for them as Dr Kildare was re-edited after he was drafted and declared himself a conscientious objector in March 1942. Serving for three and a half years in the Medical Corps, he was awarded three battle stars. He returned to acting in The Dark Mirror (1946), The Unfaithful (1947) and Johnny Belinda (1948) for which he received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor.

Maugham’s 1927 play The Letter is dramatised from a short story in his 1926 collection The Casuarina Tree. It is inspired by the Ethel Proudlock case, in which the wife of the headmaster of Victoria Institution in Kuala Lumpur was tried for murder after shooting dead a man friend in April 1911. Gladys Cooper produced and starred in the London premiere of the play in 1927 at the Playhouse Theatre.

© Derek Winnert 2022 Classic Movie Review 11,880

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