On the return to United States, the English aristocrat and world famous conductor Sir Alfred De Carter (Rex Harrison) embraces his younger wife Daphne (Linda Darnell) at the airport.  Uncaring of the audience, Sir Alfred kisses while declaring his love for Daphne in a way only a poet could in a moment of genius.  Then the Carter couple retreats to their hotel room, where they permanently live, for a quiet night in each others arms.  The following day, the bubble of love seems to blow up when his socially inept and wealthy brother-in-law August comes to inform Sir Alfred about an arrangement that has completely slipped his mind.  The arrangement was for August to "keep an eye on his wife" while Sir Alfred was in England.  To complicate things, August misunderstood Sir Alfred's request and hired a private detective to shadow his wife.  Sir Alfred's intention with "keep an eye on his wife" was for August and his wife to take out Daphne for amusement, if she was bored.

The grave misunderstanding by August embarrasses Sir Alfred who intends to destroy any evidence of the hired private detective. In addition, Sir Alfred desires to know nothing about what the detectives might have discovered, as his moral judgment of the situation tells him that this is wrong in the most vile manner.  However, by accident Sir Alfred discovers that Daphne, on a late evening occasion when he was in England, left her room dressed only in a negligee.  The discovery upsets him, and when he returns home strong feelings of resentment boil up and begin to cloud his thoughts, while he must prepare for the evening concert.

Rage, sadness, resentment and many other feelings storm through Sir Alfred who intends to perform despite his shaming findings.  He puts all of his emotions in a very controlled manner into his conducting, which helps deliver his finest performance ever.  The concert is divided into three different pieces, and each piece presents a different emotion and vision.  During his performance his visions are illustrated into perfection where he deals with his wife by arranging the perfect murder, sending her off, and a satire of bad luck.  In between his visions, the audience is feverishly applauding his brilliant performance.  After the performance, Sir Alfred intends to utilize one of these visions to end his marriage with Daphne, which presents a wittingly fitting slap-stick situation that will undoubtedly cause several deep laughs.

Sturges delivery of this brilliant comedy makes it easy to just lean back and enjoy the intriguing plot or simply be amused by the wonderful humor.  Nonetheless, Sturges does not make films that are simple, as he dissects the metaphysics of Sir Alfred while also give a considerable impact with the cognitive science on the story.  To make the film even more appealing, he gives the story a dash of love, jealousy, and male insecurity, which is compounded into a charming mixture that will give any viewer something to enjoy or ponder for some time.

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USA

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