“A Letter to Three Wives” is a glossy melodrama about a woman who writes letters to three women saying that she had run away with the husband of one of them. Joseph L. Mankiewicz (“The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” 1947) tightly directed this engrossing film, with a screenplay he co-wrote with Vera Caspary. It was adapted from a 1947 novel by John Klempner called “A Letter to Five Wives.”
The outstanding cast is a big reason for the success and suspense of this picture that keeps viewers’ guessing right to the end. The six principals are Jeanne Crain and Jeffrey Lynn as the Bishops, Linda Darnell and Paul Douglas as the Hollingsways, and Ann Southern and Kirk Douglas as the Phipps. Co-stars include Barbara Lawrence, Connie Gilchrist, Hobart Cavanaugh, Thelma Ritter, and Celeste Holm as the voice of the letter-writing Addie Ross.
The watchable melodrama “A Letter to Three Wives” was popular at the box office for producer Sol C. Siegel and 20th Century Fox. It won two Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, with one non-winner for Best Picture. The film was remade in 1985 as a made-for-television movie of the same name with Lonnie Anderson, Michelle Lee, Stephanie Zimbalist, Ben Gazzara, Doris Roberts, and Ann Southern.
A Letter to Three Wives (1949)
cinema
My Review
“A Letter to Three Wives” is a glossy melodrama about a woman who writes letters to three women saying that she had run away with the husband of one of them. Joseph L. Mankiewicz (“The Ghost and Mrs. Muir” 1947) tightly directed this engrossing film, with a screenplay he co-wrote with Vera Caspary. It was adapted from a 1947 novel by John Klempner called “A Letter to Five Wives.”
The outstanding cast is a big reason for the success and suspense of this picture that keeps viewers’ guessing right to the end. The six principals are Jeanne Crain and Jeffrey Lynn as the Bishops, Linda Darnell and Paul Douglas as the Hollingsways, and Ann Southern and Kirk Douglas as the Phipps. Co-stars include Barbara Lawrence, Connie Gilchrist, Hobart Cavanaugh, Thelma Ritter, and Celeste Holm as the voice of the letter-writing Addie Ross.
The watchable melodrama “A Letter to Three Wives” was popular at the box office for producer Sol C. Siegel and 20th Century Fox. It won two Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay, with one non-winner for Best Picture. The film was remade in 1985 as a made-for-television movie of the same name with Lonnie Anderson, Michelle Lee, Stephanie Zimbalist, Ben Gazzara, Doris Roberts, and Ann Southern.