The remake of ''Unfaithfully Yours'' is just a shadow of its source, using the basic plot and characters, but diluting Sturges's ideas. In any case, it flopped, putting a major dent in Sturges's hitherto spectacular career - which had been weakened by the failure of ''The Great Moment'' and would soon be virtually snuffed out by the bizarre ''Beautiful Blonde From Bashful Bend.'' Perhaps it was too fierce and original for the ''comedy'' standards of its day. The original version was a sharp, merciless, uproarious picture that somehow failed to connect with audiences. It takes its cue from a 1948 gem by comedy master Preston Sturges. Unfaithfully Yours is the latest product of Hollywood's busy remake factory. In the end, ''And the Ship Sails On'' is a cruise to nowhere - diverting, but a bit dull. And even this gets dissipated by the goofball humor he chooses to crown this unusual voyage. Only in a poignant subplot about Serbian refugees taken aboard does Fellini generate some real emotional momentum. Still, many of the performances are as ordinary as the romantic and professional jealousies that fuel the story and the visual style rarely transcends the oddly stretched-out screenplay. Of course, this is the one-and-only Fellini we're dealing with here, and his perennial talent does show through - in some delicious character details and a few delightfully inventive scenes, including an operatic recital in a boiler room that's both sad-hilarious and serious-ridiculous. Though the director wants to encapsulate both cinema history and human nature, his methods lack sparkle and bite.

But it's choppy, and drags on too long - exactly the faults of the picture as a whole. It's an amiable gimmick, and it sets the whimsical-historical tone of the film. It's a typical Fellini microcosm, illustrating all kinds of human foibles, and even veering toward history and politics, since the year is 1914 and World War I is heating up.įellini starts the picture with a parody of old-time movies, introducing the characters in a series of brief, silent, comical scenes in black and white. They're headed for the funeral of a diva, whose ashes are to be scattered near a remote island. In his new picture he goes a step further, serving up a whole boatload of musicians, music teachers, and music lovers. Not long ago, in his comedy ''The Orchestra Rehearsal,'' he used a music group as a metaphor for mankind, showing - in the movie's own catchphrase - ''the decline of the West in C-sharp major.'' ''And the Ship Sails On'' is the latest extravaganza from Federico Fellini, the most flamboyant of Italian directors. In fact, symphonic sounds play a prominent part in three new pictures from three continents.

Behind the disco din of ''Flashdance'' and ''Staying Alive,'' you can actually hear a bit of classical music on current sound tracks. The movies still have some class, after all.

Unfaithfully yours cast