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.

blanche-2 Ann Sheridan and Zachary Scott star in "The Unfaithful" in this 1947 Warner Brothers film directed by Vincent Sherman. The likable Sheridan plays Chris Hunter, a woman whose husband (Zachary Scott) has been away on a business trip. She's excited about his return the next morning; after a party held by her husband's cousin Paula (Eve Arden), we see her being attacked. The attacker gets into her home, and the assault continues there.The next day, we find out there's been a murder, and Chris tells the police and her husband that a man tried to rob her of her jewelry and she killed him defending herself. Right away you know her story is no good.This is a fairly interesting update of "The Letter" with some modern marital problems coming into the mix - a hasty marriage followed by a long wartime separation and the resulting loneliness. It doesn't have the bite of the Somerset Maugham story, but it's pretty good.Zachary Scott for once plays a nice guy, and Ann Sheridan gives a good performance as his wife. Eve Arden has the best role as the gossipy cousin who is more sympathetic to Chris than she immediately lets on.Good Warners film, good Warners cast.

wes-connors Coming home from a late-night party, Southern California socialite Ann Sheridan (as Christine "Chris" Hunter) is attacked by a man outside the doorway to her home. The shadowy man shoves Ms. Sheridan inside the house, and an off-screen struggle ensues. We are permitted inside, with investigators, to discover Sheridan has stabbed her attacker to death. Soon, understanding lawyer Lew Ayres (as Lawrence "Larry Hannaford) and husband Zachary Scott (as Robert "Bob" Hunter) are there to comfort Sheridan. It seems like an easy self-defense case, but Sheridan may learn that, sometimes, dead men do tell tales… "The Unfaithful" is a familiar story, probably most recognizable in film as W. Somerset Maugham's "The Letter" (1940).There isn't much admirable done with the story. Here, Sheridan's character is portrayed as a woman who "can only stand so much." Where Bette Davis (in 1940) seemed strong, Sheridan seems weak. And, her weakness is applied to women as a group. Note how Ayers' lawyer universally blames females for divorce. And, of course, nobody would question an overseas soldier's fidelity. Still, this version features great locations, and is beautifully photographed and directed by Ernest Haller and Vincent Sherman. Sheridan and the cast perform it well, and gossipy divorcée Eve Arden (as Paula) comes on strong near the end.****** The Unfaithful (6/5/47) Vincent Sherman ~ Ann Sheridan, Lew Ayres, Zachary Scott, Eve Arden

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.