***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.
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.