Film

Unfaithfully Yours

Name: Unfaithfully Yours
Genre: Comedy, Romance
Released: 1984
Cast: Dudley Moore, Nastassja Kinski, Armand Assante, Albert Brooks, Cassie Yates

Other titles called Unfaithfully Yours: the 1948 film.

A jealous composer plans his wife's murder in elaborate, comic detail—then reality refuses to cooperate. This 1984 Dudley Moore vehicle is a riff on Preston Sturges' 1948 film of the same name, trading noir paranoia for slapstick. It's for anyone who loves a schemer undone by his own overwrought imagination.

TMDb rating

2.8

If you liked this

Reversal of Fortune1990

Jeremy Irons channels aristocratic menace as Claus von Bulow, accused of poisoning his wife. Like Unfaithfully Yours, it's a dark comedy built on a man's conviction of infidelity and his elaborate, doomed schemes.

But The real crime it depicts—attempted murder—means the comedy sits uncomfortably close to genuine harm. Some find that unsettling rather than funny.

Ruthless People1986

Danny DeVito and Bette Midler in a kidnapping caper where nothing goes to plan and everyone's moral compass spins wildly. It has the same anarchic energy and the same faith that incompetence is hilarious.

But The humour is broad and loud; if you prefer subtlety, this will feel relentless and exhausting.

Romantic Comedy2020

A woman with commitment issues and a man pretending to be her fiancé spiral into chaos. It's got that same energy of schemes collapsing under their own weight, and genuine affection sneaking through the mayhem.

But It's Netflix original TV-movie slick; there's nothing particularly surprising about the plot or the resolution.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Unfaithfully Yours

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Apartment1960

Both are about men fantasizing elaborate scenarios around infidelity, but Wilder understands the cost; the 1984 version just wants the laughs.

Billy Wilder's masterpiece about a man who lends his apartment to his boss for affairs, then becomes the romantic lead. Like Unfaithfully Yours, it's built on infidelity, marital chaos, and the gap between what we plan and what actually happens—but Wilder finds the heartbreak underneath.

But It's in black and white, slower-paced, and the tone shifts abruptly from comedy to genuine sadness. You have to meet it on its terms, not yours.

Eating Raoul1982

A married couple plots to kill their swingers neighbours for profit. Like Unfaithfully Yours, it's a dark comedy about domestic life curdling into violence, complete with the same '80s awkwardness.

But The premise involves murder played entirely for laughs; if you want real stakes or character development, you're in the wrong place.

The War of the Roses1989

Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner as a couple whose marriage becomes a battleground. It's got the same DNA—jealousy, paranoia, elaborate fantasies of violence—but played as tragedy underneath the comedy.

But It's considerably darker and meaner than Unfaithfully Yours; the laughs feel more like grimaces.

Masterminds1997

Ned Dorsey (Val Kilmer) and a gang of would-be criminals attempt an armoured car heist that falls apart at every stage. Same faith in incompetence as comedy, same pleasure in watching plans disintegrate.

But It's pretty forgettable; most people who've seen it can't remember why or what happens.

After Hours1985

A man's night spirals into urban nightmare as one small decision cascades into increasingly absurd consequences. It shares Unfaithfully Yours' dark comedic logic: the universe as elaborate practical joke.

But It's relentlessly weird and increasingly bleak; if you need characters you like, this film will test your patience.

The 'Burbs1989

Tom Hanks as a suburban paranoid convinced his neighbours are murderers. It's jealousy and suspicion played for comedy, with the same '80s tone and the same payoff: he's mostly wrong.

But It's a bit sitcom-broad; the satire doesn't cut very deep, and the scares are very mild.

Screwball2019

A con artist and his ex-wife scheme against each other with elaborate plots and cross-doubles. It's a direct spiritual heir to Preston Sturges' style—schemes within schemes, nobody trustworthy, everyone brilliant and foolish at once.

But It's a cult film for a reason: it didn't find an audience and remains hard to track down, which suggests it didn't quite land.

A Serious Man2009

Same central nightmare—a marriage imploding, a man's sense of control evaporating—but the Coens play it as existential horror rather than slapstick. Unfaithfully Yours is the comic version; this is what keeps you awake.

Joel and Ethan Coen's film about a man whose life fragments as his wife announces an affair and his universe begins breaking its own rules. It's paranoia as cosmic punishment, anxiety as condition. Darkly, devastatingly funny.

But It's deliberately oblique and offers no comfort or clear resolution. If you watch a film to feel better afterwards, this is not that.

Scenes from a Marriage2021

Unfaithfully Yours imagines murder fantasies around marital infidelity. Bergman shows what infidelity actually does—not to the fantasy, but to the people. One is a comedy about schemes; the other is a documentation of why those schemes start.

Bergman's six-episode miniseries follows a marriage from passion through infidelity, jealousy, and dissolution. It's unbearably intimate, shot mostly in close-up, with Liv Ullmann and Erland Josephson improvising moments of raw, ugly truth.

But There is no plot, no resolution, no escape. It's slow, Swedish, and demands you sit in discomfort. It's the opposite of escapist entertainment.