classicsoncall Ann Sheridan became my favorite classic film actress on the strength of feisty performances in films like 1938's "Angels With Dirty Faces" and 1940's "City For Conquest". Here she portrays a conflicted character who's had an affair and killed her former lover when he refuses to concede that the romance is over. Because the viewer doesn't know this when the story begins, it appears to be an open and shut case once she's arrested for murder. The intriguing story that follows contains several twists and turns that makes this a thinking person's movie, one that challenges a typical reaction that a divorce between the aggrieved parties is a foregone conclusion.The player who really makes one sit up and take notice however is Lew Ayres as attorney Larry Hannaford, lawyer and personal friend of Chris Hunter (Sheridan) and her husband Bob (Zachary Scott). Initially sympathetic to Chris's plight, he really lets her have it when he uncovers the truth of her affair, comparing her to any number of 'cheating, conniving women who parade through my office'. He eventually tempers his disdain over the situation by realizing that Chris didn't have it in her to murder a man wantonly, and so takes up her murder trial defense.Now this art shop guy Barrow (Steven Geray) was a real low down creep, wasn't he? Seeing dollar signs in it for himself when he connects the dots on newspaper headlines about the Tanner killing, he holds out for a ten thousand dollar payday by bringing in the widow Tanner (Marta Mitrovich) on his scheme. To get a good idea of Ann Sheridan's range as an actress, just catch her reaction when Barrow tells her Mrs. Tanner has the bust that Michael Tanner sculpted using her as a model. It was a foreboding look that held the threat of everything in her life about to fall apart.Actress Eve Arden also displays a side to her acting ability I haven't seen before as well. Watching her as 'Our Miss Brooks' in TV reruns back in the Fifties, I'm more familiar with her comedic side, but she proved she was capable of inserting a capital 'B' into a colorful description of her character Paula. In case you're wondering, the word rhymes with 'witch'.Ultimately this becomes a bittersweet story once Mrs. Hunter survives her murder trial and is acquitted. Then it becomes attorney Hannaford's job to try and patch up the canyon wide differences between the Hunters. The dialog that sets up what might be a successful reconciliation is the kind of writing one generally doesn't come across in pictures of the era, and works to significantly elevate the quality of the picture.

moonspinner55 The well-heeled wife of an architect kills a burglar in her home and declares it self-defense...however, there's more to her story than she's letting on. Tatty, uncredited updating of the W. Somerset Maugham/Bette Davis chestnut "The Letter" foolishly replaces the infamous smoking gun with a knife--which lessens the dramatic impact of the crime right there! There's also a bust of Ann Sheridan used as a red herring (it gets schlepped from address to address, and then vanishes completely), not to mention a grieving widow who can't wait to get into court and tell all of Los Angeles that her husband cheated on her. Sheridan performs the central role in near catatonia, her sad mouth always down-turned, while screenwriters David Goodis and James Gunn give all the brightest lines to society girlfriend Eve Arden (as a goosey, gossiping relative). Lew Ayres plays a bachelor friend--a divorce lawyer who suddenly turns criminal trial lawyer!--while wide-eyed, incredulous-looking Zachary Scott is miscast as Sheridan's husband. Long at 109 minutes, the film is not well-paced nor well-written, but does have moments of intriguing, masochistic melodrama. ** from ****

hildacrane From the opening credits, underscored by Max Steiner's propulsive, unrelenting theme, this is a powerful film. Although loosely based on "The Letter," it is really not about sexual hypocrisy, but rather deals with the price of loneliness that World War II exacted on women at the home front. That price would of course also affect the returning soldiers, spouses of those women. At one point a character refers to the adulterous wife's "debt to society"--certainly not the sort of comment that would be likely to turn up in a film today--but the movie also takes pains to present the wife as a basically decent and honest person.Other films of the time that dealt with variations on that theme are "Till the End of Time" and "The Best Years of Our Lives." The discontents of the returning soldier have been depicted for millennia, as attested by the "welcome" that Agamemnon receives on returning home from the Trojan War. While the narrator at the movie's start accurately says that the story could take place anywhere, post-war Los Angeles is very nicely evoked, with quite a bit of location shooting. Among them: the atrium office building also featured in "DOA"; a hillside cable car, and a seedy hotel located opposite a high, menacing traffic embankment. There is also some nice blocking of the action in the suburban house, the emblem of the American Dream gone awry. (That Zachary Scott's character is a housing developer, when his own household is in disarray, has a paradoxical aspect.)Fine performances from all the principals, especially Ann Sheridan, who really shines. Eve Arden is also fine as an unexpected ally and, in contrast to her usual comic roles, has some strong dramatic moments.

David (Handlinghandel) And that is a compliment for a film noir.This is a strange movie, both daring in its subject matter and shackled by the censors. So a sculptor did a head of Ann Sheridan while hubby Zachary Scott was away in the war. Surely this ought to have been a full nude.Still, it captures the frustration of someone left alone for a long period (Sheridan), the anger of the person who expected her to be a dutiful Penelope, and most especially the nature of gossip when such things occur: Eve Arden is splendid as the leader of a fancy gang of cats, who regularly shuck their own husbands (courtesy of protagonist Ayres, a lawyer) and click their tongues at Sheridan.The strange thing is that, though the sets are attractive, the crowd scenes plausible and well shot on Southern California streets, two of the stars and maybe more look worn out and bedraggled: Sheridan, though a sympathetic character, wears unflattering makeup that gives her a harsh look and Ayres looks puffy and tired.This is a variation on the far better known "The Letter," a movie I respect for its craft but that I have never cared for. "The Unfaithful" is a more fully realized entertainment, though perhaps less elegant and stylized than its predecessor "The Letter."