Unfaithfully Yours (1948)

I have now seen 8 of the 13 movies directed by Preston Sturges -- and I'm not sure why. His humor hasn't aged that well, has it? The only one I've really liked is Sullivan's Travels, primarily for balancing with its serious side. And here I was checking out what Netflix described as a "pitch-black comedy" from him, starring Blithe Spirit's Rex Harrison and having had little commercial success in its day. Sounded like it would be still less my thing. But perhaps I was intrigued at what sounded significantly different from the norm for Sturges.

Celebrated orchestral conductor Alfred de Carter dotes on his wife, Daphne. Due to a miscommunication of his wishes, his brother-in-law has had her tailed during Alfred's absence. Alfred is too furious at this news to listen to the findings right away, but then he learns of evidence of her spending suspiciously much time with his secretary, Tony. During the three pieces of his concert that night, he entertains three vivid ideas of how to respond, each of them disregarding a detective's advice to give Daphne the benefit of the doubt. Two of them lethal. After the concert, however, he discovers quite a few differences between his fantasies and his reality.

Night Train to Munich (1940)

Fans of The Third Man may well lament that Carol Reed didn't direct much else anywhere close to its esteem. His next best-known work is probably Oliver!, followed by The Agony and the Ecstasy. Not much of a style or genre pattern here. Fortunately, nine years before TTM, he had made at least one other movie reminiscent of Alfred Hitchcock.

Actually, the Hitchcock quality may not have been Reed's idea. The two screenplay writers had penned The Lady Vanishes two years earlier. NTtM even reprises the two British passengers Charters and Caldicott as understated comic reliefs with eventual importance to the story. Perhaps I'd do better to recommend it to TLV fans rather than TTM fans. Either way, I must add the caveat of a strong Nazi presence.