红杏出墙1948

1948年由普莱斯顿·斯特奇斯执导的《红杏出墙》（又译《吃错药》），似乎在告诉我们：男人对爱的渴望一点也不逊于女人，且男人在爱情中的小心眼，一点也不比女人大，而为了所谓绝对占有的爱，可在所不惜以至倾囊解出。囊，并非只是钱和物，还包括用脑用心，抑或花招百出，原是一场恶梦而已，乃至弄得鸡飞狗跳和啼笑皆非。

一部电影要想得到喜剧的效果，并显示出持久的生命力，这得靠电影综合优势的给力。该片时隔六十多年后，仍颇有嚼头。该片从导演、剧本、演员、摄影、音乐等各个环节上，可谓相得益彰，配合得天衣无缝。按巴赞的说法，三、四十年代的好莱坞电影，是电影类型的创新时代，并确立了好莱坞电影在世界影坛的绝对优势，因为电影的形式优势已被好莱坞攻占，所以五十年代后的各国电影，更多的创新体现在内容与题材上。

由雷克斯·哈里森出演的乐队指挥阿尔弗雷德，深爱着妻子（琳达·达内尔饰演），原本爱得简单本真，却因妻子妹婿奥格斯特的小心眼而迁怒到爱妻，继而怀疑她与自己的年轻秘书托尼有一腿。他的光火，爱妻还以为是他工作的解压方式。而演出在即，阿弗雷德的大块疙瘩无法祛除，只得化怒火转嫁到偌大的剧院舞台上，让指挥乐队的小魔棍成为策划弑妻的最佳动力。手中的小魔棍既可诠释美妙的音乐，亦可成为爱的迷思与利器。

随着悦耳又激昂的交响曲弥漫在剧院中，他三段弑妻计划同步上演：第一幕杀妻，以嫁祸于奸夫托尼。先让妻子约托尼去跳舞为借口，利用刚刚发明的录音机录下“杀人、救命”的录音，导演一场谋杀妻子的骗局。第二幕破财消灾，支付托尼一笔费用，让他远走高飞，实际上可能人财两空。第三幕玩转“俄罗斯轮盘”，即与托尼玩左轮手枪，看谁走运能碰到这一颗子弹（也是唯一的一颗），结果自以为稳操胜券的他，竟然“死”于自己的主意下。

看来这三个策划都不靠谱，唯一成功的是现实中的乐队表演，掌声雷动，爱妻就在楼上深为感动，虽然这一日情势突转，感觉到一向爱她的阿弗雷德，对她显得莫明其妙地愤然，但她还是沉浸于观众对他的掌声中。

但阿弗雷德可不这样想，他仍专注于弑妻计划中，并要付诸实施。乐队演出完毕，他立马跑回家搬录音机，准备完成第一步计划，可事与愿违，羁绊太多，等他疲惫不堪之际，爱妻赶到，说出有一次去托尼房间的缘由，原是她怀疑妹妹去了托尼处，于是到托尼房间，但发现妹妹不在就出来了，刚好这一幕被侦探社的人看到。

事情就这样简单，并非侦探社和他怀疑的爱妻与托尼劈过腿，如梦方醒，兴奋莫明。从噩梦中清醒过来的阿弗雷德紧紧地拥抱爱妻，如同影片一开始人们所羡慕的一幕，他在她耳边温柔絮语：我所得到的爱，如同千来来千位诗人所渴求的爱。

2013、6、29

Golden-Age Hollywood screwball fabricator Preston Sturges’ last feature film worthy of his caliber, UNFAITHFULLY YOURS stars Rex Harrison as a renowned conductor Sir Alfred de Carter, on the eve of his concert, he is deviled by the paranoia that his much younger wife Daphne (Darnell) might have an extramarital affair with his personal secretary Anthony Windborn (Kreuger) thanks to his philistine brother-in-law August Henshler (Vallée)’s presumptuous misconstruction.

The apprehension and exasperation of being cuckolded hangs like a rock over Alfred’s mind and Sturges only knows all too well, that for a man of Alfred’s Brobdingnagian ego, the last thing to do is to lay bare his suspicion point blank in front of Daphne, from blunt rebuke to mounting curiosity, until firmly convinced bythe circumstantial evidence, it all comes down to an increasingly fractious Alfred envisages three possible outcomes when wielding his baton in front of a full symphony orchestra and a full-house audience.

Every scenario is pertinently induced by a different classical piece from romantic-era he conducts and introduced by a cracking zooming-in shot right into Alfred’s eyeball, the overture of Rossini’s baroque SEMIRAMIDE triggers a murderous plan A which a framed Anthony to take the rap, yet what Wagner’s operatic TANNHÄUSER suggests is a plan B with lenience and munificence, whereas plan C of a Russian roulette derring-do is influenced by Tchaikovsky’s symphonic poem FRANCESCA DA RIMINI, a special treat for musos and cinephiles alike.

Sardonically, reality is, more often than not, not exactly what we have imagined, so during his execution of one of the plans after the concert (interestingly, the choice of the plan betrays Sturges’ arch amalgamation of comedy and morbidness), a knockabout transpires in a slightly labored fashion which plays up to Alfred's clumsiness, and he is merely stuck in the preparatory step with the“so-simple-it-operates-itself” home recording unit when Daphne returns, thus an air-clearing finale is all we need to put everything back to the status quo.

A motormouthed Rex Harrison simulates a great impression as a conductor andrelishes Sturges’ long-winded screenplay which jollily throws barbs to the folly of machismo, meanwhile,Linda Darnell is hobbled as a virtuous beauty with a little more to act (albeit it is all in one’s figment), yet, quintessentially it is Sturges’ trademark witticism and sleight-of-hand that marks this oldie a treasure to be appreciated by posterity and here is thetakeaway quip to round off my review - “If there is one reassuring thing about airplane, they always come down.”

referential point: Sturges’ SULLIVAN’S TRAVELS (1941, 7.1/10); David Lean’s BLITHE SPIRIT (1945, 7.3/10).