A Letter to Three Wives (1949)

Featured Audience Ratings

• AJ V

  
  This movie is both dramatic and suspenseful, while telling four different stories, and I liked the ending too. This is a good movie.

• Randy T

  
  My favorite Linda Darnell film. It's hard to stand out in a cast that includes such greats as Kirk Douglas, Ann Sothern and Jeanne Crain but she still manages to shine.

• Stephen M

  
  I'd forgotten what a great movie this is! Celeste Holm narrates as Addie Ross, the unseen but effortlessly superior friend of three women (Jeanne Crain, Ann Sothern and Linda Darnell), one of whose husbands Addie claims, in a mischievous letter, to have run off with. But whose… More
  I'd forgotten what a great movie this is! Celeste Holm narrates as Addie Ross, the unseen but effortlessly superior friend of three women (Jeanne Crain, Ann Sothern and Linda Darnell), one of whose husbands Addie claims, in a mischievous letter, to have run off with. But whose husband does she mean?!?! Each adores Addie, and each seems to be acting strangely... Moving to flashback, one for each wife in turn, we see the women quietly upstaged in their domestic bliss by their infuriatingly perfect girlfriend. Linda Darnell stands out from the excellent cast, probably because she gets most of the best lines, but Ann Sothern is just as good. It's nice to see Kirk Douglas taking his place in the ensemble for a change, instead of selfishly chewing the scenery; even when he does explode, in a rant against radio advertising, he does so with relative restraint and his performance is the better for it. Thelma Ritter plays that same part she always plays. As you would expect with Mankiewicz, there's some wonderfully sophisticated dialogue. Celeste Holm's sweetly malicious voiceover, though brief, must qualify as one of cinema's greatest.

• Veronique K

  
  "a letter to three wives" is a dialogue-driven psychological drama by joseph l. mankiewicz who contributes to the legendary bette davis classic "all about eve"....an estrogenic piece which is highly empathetic with female audience. the story whirls around a… More
  "a letter to three wives" is a dialogue-driven psychological drama by joseph l. mankiewicz who contributes to the legendary bette davis classic "all about eve"....an estrogenic piece which is highly empathetic with female audience. the story whirls around a striking socialite named addie ross who writes a note to her three best friends in the town that she's gonna elope with one of their husbands....and that leads to the flashbacks of these three women's private jealous animosity and weakening apprehensions that their spouses all seem to have a deep crush on addie....so exactly whose husband becomes the prey of addie's feminine magnetism? to anchor the mystic charm of addie ross who is also the narrator, she remains abscent through the whole flick, and audience picture her poises of grace thru the three women's bitter reactions just as hitchcock's rebecca never reveals herself...now we witness the typical gender interactions of three housholds. jeanne crain's being self-abased by her rural upbringing, and her fear of being lacklustered by addie ross....ann sothern's mercenery irreconcilbility with her idealistic husband kirk douglas since she's much less thoughtful and refined by taste than the witty addie ross...then the sultry linda darnell with an awareness of her slum-bred background, aspiring to marry her wealthy boss by playing titilating "hard-to-get", still assured as darnell, she's being emulated by the addie ross with class her husband values. most women share a sort of envious intimidation from their so called "the beautiful friend" whom they criticize behind or gossip about with sour sarcasm when it comes to any female's living experiences, especially your significant the other keeps praising upon that fair confidante of yours, then a sense of vulnerability strikes since you're too infatuated with the man but too stubborn to admit. linda darnell's tale is most riveting with her lofty glamour as the ragged woman with pride, and thelma ritter plays the wise-cracking maid with an acid tongue. ritter, along with younger fresher kirk douglas, is the scene-stealer who has the "it" to grapple a smirk from the audience. "a letter to three wives" is mankiewicz's another success examplification that dialogues and sheer performances make the feature work.

• jay n

  
  incisive and fun, Linda Darnell is fantastic, Thelma Ritter and Connie Gilchrist make a great team.

• Walter M

  
  [font=Century Gothic]In "A Letter to Three Wives", notorious divorcee Addie Ross has moved out of a suburb but not before she sends a note to her three friends(Ann Sothern, Linda Darnell & Jeanne Crain) that she took a memento along with her - one of their husbands(Kirk… More
  [font=Century Gothic]In "A Letter to Three Wives", notorious divorcee Addie Ross has moved out of a suburb but not before she sends a note to her three friends(Ann Sothern, Linda Darnell & Jeanne Crain) that she took a memento along with her - one of their husbands(Kirk Douglas, Paul Douglas & Jeffrey Lynn). But all of the women are out of town at a charity picnic and thus incommunicado(ah, the good old days before cellphones) for most of the day and are simply left to ponder which one of their husbands has left them.[/font] [font=Century Gothic][/font] [font=Century Gothic]"A Letter to Three Wives" has a classic setup, great cast(especially Thelma Ritter), and well-written dialogue but the flashbacks unfold slowly, making the payoff not as strong as it should have been. Overall, the movie is a good look at social mobility and domesticity after World War II.[/font]

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