I appreciate the overall theme and believe it has merit in its outlook on marriage. And Lew Ayers gives a near-Oscar-worthy performance. He and Eve Arden are so good, you can recommend this film just for the two of them.Plot-wise I have some problems. Yes the husband failed and pretty much set himself up for some of his marital woes. But Mrs. is a real piece of work. Maybe you understand the infidelity point generally during wartime- OK its wrong but understandable in some cases. But I believe the writers here have blown it. Her immense quantity of lies, and serial lying, lying in a sworn police statement (a legal criminal document) are just too much. Lying to police, district attorneys, the press and public. A fundamental series of lies to her own lawyer, who also is a loyal old friend who trusted her.As to her complaint about loneliness- I don't buy it because near the end she is proposing to simply go her sister's house to live. Why could she not go stay with sister during the war (could have paid those servants a retainer and traveled) or have her sister visit her in the lonely house? Couldn't she have easily afforded to bring in out-of-state family to visit her in Los Angeles? And she wasn't leading an empty life- she worked with Red Cross and numerous other organizations. I question the writer's over-assassination of her character traits. She's supposed to be a cheating wife- but she is also portrayed as the least trustworthy, chronic liar in the history of film. I don't understand how the husband and the lawyer could possibly continue any relationship with this remarkably prolific liar. This despite the fact that in many cases relationships can and do continue with cheating wives and/or husbands.If a cheating husband told this many lies to this many people post-affair, he would be placed in alimony purgatory by the system and ridden out of town on a rail. Not for the infidelity, but for extent of his lies to everyone.So I believe this film has some serious flaws as written.

One night coming home, Ann Sheridan is accosted at her front door by an intruder who pushes her in and begins to beat her. Fade out. Fade in. There's a body on her living room floor. We would be more intrigued by this scenario, had it not been for the title, and also for the fact that we can tell by her mannerisms and the way she looked at him that she knew the guy. Husband Zachary Scott has been serving his country, but happens to be coming home the morning the body is lying in their living room. She is questioned by the police and friend-of-the-family/lawyer Lew Ayres and she sticks to her story that she defended herself against a stranger. But, after Lew has done a little sleuthing for himself and cornered her, she tells more but still not all. Costarring Eve Arden and Jerome Cowan, this is a very unflinching and real take on infidelity. Ann Sheridan didn't get many chances to show off her acting chops, as she was usually given musicals or comedies; but here she is able to convey depth in a rare dramatic role. The fact is though we usually liked Ann Sheridan in her comedies, but here she is placed in a rather unpleasant, unsympathetic position. The film, as it progresses, is well made and well mounted, but the deeper she gets, the more we feel it's the bed she made for herself. (Sleep in it.) Eve Arden is on hand as usual with her quick one-liners, but we don't like her either as she comes across as catty and mean to Ann. I liked its less-is-more ending with a somber but hopeful look towards the future rather than a pat happy ending with cheery smiles. The main criticism I have of the film is that, while Lew Ayres was rather good and suitably cast as the lawyer with high ideals (as he was a conscientious objector to WWII), his words of wisdom (near the end of the picture) for the couple with a rough road ahead seemed a bit preachy and/or sanctimonious to me. But otherwise, "The Unfaithful" was a very entertaining film, directed by Vincent Sherman, who once again delivered the goods in fashionable style.

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.

***SPOILERS*** Loosely based on the 1940 Bette Davis smash hit "The Letter" by W. Somerset Maugham. The film "the Unfaithful" has successful home builder and decorated combat veteran Bob Hunter, Zachary Scott,finding out to his everlasting shock and humiliation that his wife was cheating on him behind his back when he was with the US Marines in the South Pacific dodging Jap bullets and mortar shells.This all come out when Bob's cheating wife Chris,Ann Sheridan, stabbed to death her ex-lover Michael Tanner, Paul Bradley, when he tried to restart his illicit affair with her one dark evening by breaking into her and Bob's suburban L.A home. Making it look like self-defense it later comes out that Chris had her portrait sculptured by Tanner during the time hubby Bob was risking his life fighting the Japs in Pacific island hellholes like Guadalcanal and Tarawa. It's Bob & Chris'good friend and divorce lawyer Larry Hannaford, Lew Ayres, who discovered this shocking fact when he was contacted by antique dealer Martin Barrow, Steven Geray, whom the late Michael Tanner sold Chris' sculpture to.Trying to keep her relationship with Tanner from her husband Bob Chris ends up making things a lot worse then they already were. It proved that Chris had a good reason in killing Tanner in keeping him from blackmailing her. Barrow who was only interested in collecting the blackmail money, a cool $10,000.00, was overruled by Tanner's grieving wife, Marta Mitrovich, who only wanted revenge by having the already emotionally destroyed Chris sent to the San Quentin gas chamber for her husbands cold-blooded murder. This despite the fact that her two-timing husband Michael was having an affair with Chris while she was home slaving over the stove cooking his supper which, by fooling around with Chris, he rarely ate!***SPOILER ALERT*** It was the wise and experienced, in family matters, Larry Hannaford-Esquire-who set things straight for both Bob & Chris in getting them to put aside their differences and kiss and make up. Larry who deals with situations like husbands and wives who are on the outs saw in both Bob and Chris hope in that they got caught up in things beyond their control: WWII and the difficulties it brought to newlywed couples like themselves. In being separated from Bob for years at a time Chris never really knew if he'll ever come back to her or end up getting himself killed on a Jap controlled Pacicfic island or, while in transit, in a kamikaze suicide attack on his US Navy troopship. ***MAJOR SPOILER*** With Larry's skillful defense of Chris on her first degree murder trial he convinced the jury that it was Michael not Chris who was the person most responsible for his untimely death by not letting go of his obsession for Chris. This lead to a kill or be killed situation with Chris in fighting for her life ending up as the soul survivor. As for the hurt and feeling down in the dumps Bob in Chris dropping him, a decorated combat veteran, for a cowardly 4F draft dodger he, with Larry's help, learned to live with it and take a grateful Chris back thus putting his, and Chris, shattered life back together again.