“Isn’t that Joan stupid? Poor dear, she’s just not smart enough to be an idiot.” —Eve Arden
What was it Sir Walter Scott wrote—“Oh, what a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive”? This famous saying certainly applies to The Unfaithful, not technically a remake of the Bette Davis The Letter (1942). Still, both are based on Somerset Maugham’s play of the same name that premiered in London in 1926 and starred Gladys Cooper as the web-weaving wife and Nigel Bruce as the steadfast husband.
Similarities between The Letter and The Unfaithful, of course, abound—the lying wife, the lawyer-friend who defends her even after discovering she is guilty of murder, the committing of the crime at the outset, the loyal husband, the incriminating evidence, the girl friend of the wrongdoer and the trial. Only the final outcomes are different, because by 1947 Hollywood’s strict moral screen code had weakened.
While less demonstrative, less prone to emoting, than Davis—even the audience can detect rather early in The Letter that she is lying—Ann Sheridan is more subtle in expressing her feeling and, in fact, is quite convincing in playing it down the middle, suggesting, either way, that she might or might not be guilty of murder.
Davis shoots a man in the opening tracking shot of her movie. While Sheridan’s husband is away, she comes home after a night out and is threatened by an apparent intruder. She tells the investigating detective (John Hoyt) that she had never seen the man before and had stabbed him in self-defense.
The lawyer-friend (James Stevenson) of Davis is excellent and received an Oscar nomination for his role, partly due to Davis’ encouragement that he endure the bullying of director William Wyler. In the equivalent role in The Unfaithful, Lew Ayres, always a reliable, too often an underestimated actor, does equally well in the role; he would receive an Oscar for his sympathetic doctor in Johnny Belinda (1948).
In The Letter, the evidence that links Davis to her lover is a letter, which is offered for a price by the wife (Gale Sondergaard) of the deceased. In The Unfaithful, it’s a bust of Sheridan which her lover-sculptor had made for her, offered for a price in this case by a shop owner (Steven Geray).
Although Sheridan’s husband (Zachary Scott) never at first suspects any foul play and supports his wife, when evidence emerges that she had a continuing affair with the man she killed while he was in the service, he promptly asks for a divorce.
Sheridan’s trial is something of an add-on affair, whereas Davis’ occupies much of the film. Because Hollywood’s morality laws had slackened in the six years since The Letter, Sheridan is acquitted; Davis had to pay for her crimes of murder and adultery and is killed by Sondergaard.
While Davis in The Letter receives little comfort or sympathy from those around her, even from her best friend, Sheridan is admirably supported by her cousin (Eve Arden).
Although a busybody, a nosy gossip and a wise-cracker (Arden’s trademark as an actress)—even implying that Sheridan disdains her—Arden, in one of the final scenes, encourages Scott to reconsider a divorce. After all, she tells him, two and a half years is a long time to be away from a wife. Along with the cup of coffee she offers him, she still manages to inject a few quips.
Without being too dismissive of the other stars—they all render admirable support—the truth is that Arden steals the show, thanks to that near-end scene with Scott.
Max Steiner, Warner Bros.’ resident composer, scored both films, winning an Oscar nomination for The Letter. The music in The Unfaithful is peculiarly unSteinerian, having a somewhat Teutonic flavor—Steiner was Viennese. The academic classicism, like a borderline symphony at times, suggests the German Franz Waxman, but Steiner receives solo composer credit and further research reveals no Waxman connection.
Some movie fans think The Unfaithful is superior to the Davis film, preferring the more nuanced performance of Sheridan. While it isn’t better, it’s a fascinating variation on the Maugham play and is able to stand on its own.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7nPRuRq3O8[/embedyt]