A Letter to Three Wives
Posted: October 5th, 2009, 2:23 pm
Well, I just got done watching this movie, and it was quite a ride! Lean closer, girls, I am going to dish the dirt.
Before we get on to the juicy stuff, I just want to ask, why doesn't anyone write like this anymore? Did they ever? Or is Joseph L. Mankiewicz a figment of my feverish imagination? The script was bubbling over with one liners. The basis for the movie was an extremely strong storyline, the same as in All About Eve. Of course, that's an apt comparison since Joseph Mankiewicz wrote and directed both films. Within ONE YEAR of each other, in fact. Now the real question is why Letter to Three Wives isn't better known, and why Mankiewicz isn't a total household name.
The film had me curious from the first minute - that beautiful handwritten note in the lower left corner of the screen during the credits was tantalizingly mysterious. Of course, I love a good voice over, and Celeste Holm does the honors here. I was caught off guard by her delivery of the word, "dearest" as in, "two of my dearest friends". The stress on the word made it seem just a little bit phony. I started to look and listen closer to that voice over. I was drawn in, like a gossip is drawn into a conversation taking place behind a door left ajar.
Oh, yes, this film appeals to my baser nature - the side of me that wants to hear about that other mom, the snooty one with the nice clothes and the perfect hair, and how she got arrested for DUI the other day. It's like a train wreck waiting to happen, and the suspense is wonderful. I shouldn't get such a gleeful thrill out of it, but there it is. I do.
If you are going to have a gossipy story, you have simply GOT to have Thelma Ritter in the cast. She almost stole the show from the likes of Jeanne Crain, Ann Southern, Linda Darnell, Paul Douglas, Kirk Douglas, and Douglas Dumbrille. Actually Douglas Dumbrille was not in the cast.... I just got carried away with my Douglases. Connie Gilchrist, Jeffrey Lynn, the wonderful Florence Bates, Hobart Cavanaugh and Barbara Lawrence round out the cast. The production was top notch, with extremely high values. You could tell this gossipfest was going to be full of class....I like class. You like class? We hit the jackpot in this film - class plus money....plus dirt. An awesome combination.
The film starts with three married friends, Crain, Southern and Darnell, and, well, it's no accident that they cover almost the entire spectrum in hair color, because they represent us, the ladies of the moviegoing public. They also cover the spectrum financially. Farm girl Crain is married to young upper class Jeffrey Lynn. Radio writer Southern is married to middle-class but noble schoolteacher, Kirk Douglas; and lower-class Darnell has hooked herself a big fish - business baron Paul Douglas. The casting couldn't have been better - it's as if these people had sprung from the pages of the script fully realized. They are all friends.... the ladies share rides together, and they share something else.... a hatred of Addie Ross, a "friend" who happens to have been involved with all three of the gals' husbands at one time or another. Addie is looked on with something akin to adoration by all of the unsuspecting hubbies (Men are so stupid). ADDIE has class,we are reminded time and time again. She always does the right thing at the right time.... never makes a mis-step. Beautiful, so we're told, because we never actually see Addie, a conceit that works surprisingly well. I hated her myself.
The movie opens when the three wives receive a letter, just as they are about to embark on a boat to the annual picnic, on an island where there is no communication service. The letter is from Addie, and this is where I wish I had screen caps to show you her impeccable handwriting (for that alone I hate her). The ladies are informed that Addie has run off with one of their husbands. Always the thoughtful one, dear Addie neglects to tell them which husband it is. The three wives look nervously at the phone booth from the deck of the boat as they are pulling away from shore..... it's going to be a long day, full of worry, and with no answers till late that night. Each wife reacts in ways that are surprising.
I won't say too much more, because you really need to see it to find out which husband has transgressed. Yes, I am going to make you want to watch it desperately - I will torment your mind, giving you only little snippets of information .... I'll toy with you... for you see, I am Addie Ross! No not really... but you have to see this film. It's spellbinding, and incredibly fun, like a good schmooze with a girlfriend.
As each woman worries, we are treated to flashbacks in which each wife thinks of an event that might have led to the breakup of her marriage. It's a cautionary tale - we all could work on our relationships, try to make our husbands happier.... but until our marriage is threatened, do we really try? One of the most exciting aspects of the film was the music and sound.... used to great effect as an entry into the mind of each woman. A sense of foreboding is translated into the sound of a sink dripping, which then slowly becomes a sing-song phrase in the woman's mind, such as, "Why didn't George go fishing.....? " This phrase is then translated into music - a sort of talkbox (remember Peter Frampton?) distorted singing of that phrase slowly over and over....until we are suddenly in the flashback.
I can't say any more about the film.... please, just go watch it.... maybe it will give you some class, like it did me.
Your friend,
Addie
P.S. Watch your husbands, ladies....
Before we get on to the juicy stuff, I just want to ask, why doesn't anyone write like this anymore? Did they ever? Or is Joseph L. Mankiewicz a figment of my feverish imagination? The script was bubbling over with one liners. The basis for the movie was an extremely strong storyline, the same as in All About Eve. Of course, that's an apt comparison since Joseph Mankiewicz wrote and directed both films. Within ONE YEAR of each other, in fact. Now the real question is why Letter to Three Wives isn't better known, and why Mankiewicz isn't a total household name.
The film had me curious from the first minute - that beautiful handwritten note in the lower left corner of the screen during the credits was tantalizingly mysterious. Of course, I love a good voice over, and Celeste Holm does the honors here. I was caught off guard by her delivery of the word, "dearest" as in, "two of my dearest friends". The stress on the word made it seem just a little bit phony. I started to look and listen closer to that voice over. I was drawn in, like a gossip is drawn into a conversation taking place behind a door left ajar.
Oh, yes, this film appeals to my baser nature - the side of me that wants to hear about that other mom, the snooty one with the nice clothes and the perfect hair, and how she got arrested for DUI the other day. It's like a train wreck waiting to happen, and the suspense is wonderful. I shouldn't get such a gleeful thrill out of it, but there it is. I do.
If you are going to have a gossipy story, you have simply GOT to have Thelma Ritter in the cast. She almost stole the show from the likes of Jeanne Crain, Ann Southern, Linda Darnell, Paul Douglas, Kirk Douglas, and Douglas Dumbrille. Actually Douglas Dumbrille was not in the cast.... I just got carried away with my Douglases. Connie Gilchrist, Jeffrey Lynn, the wonderful Florence Bates, Hobart Cavanaugh and Barbara Lawrence round out the cast. The production was top notch, with extremely high values. You could tell this gossipfest was going to be full of class....I like class. You like class? We hit the jackpot in this film - class plus money....plus dirt. An awesome combination.
The film starts with three married friends, Crain, Southern and Darnell, and, well, it's no accident that they cover almost the entire spectrum in hair color, because they represent us, the ladies of the moviegoing public. They also cover the spectrum financially. Farm girl Crain is married to young upper class Jeffrey Lynn. Radio writer Southern is married to middle-class but noble schoolteacher, Kirk Douglas; and lower-class Darnell has hooked herself a big fish - business baron Paul Douglas. The casting couldn't have been better - it's as if these people had sprung from the pages of the script fully realized. They are all friends.... the ladies share rides together, and they share something else.... a hatred of Addie Ross, a "friend" who happens to have been involved with all three of the gals' husbands at one time or another. Addie is looked on with something akin to adoration by all of the unsuspecting hubbies (Men are so stupid). ADDIE has class,we are reminded time and time again. She always does the right thing at the right time.... never makes a mis-step. Beautiful, so we're told, because we never actually see Addie, a conceit that works surprisingly well. I hated her myself.
The movie opens when the three wives receive a letter, just as they are about to embark on a boat to the annual picnic, on an island where there is no communication service. The letter is from Addie, and this is where I wish I had screen caps to show you her impeccable handwriting (for that alone I hate her). The ladies are informed that Addie has run off with one of their husbands. Always the thoughtful one, dear Addie neglects to tell them which husband it is. The three wives look nervously at the phone booth from the deck of the boat as they are pulling away from shore..... it's going to be a long day, full of worry, and with no answers till late that night. Each wife reacts in ways that are surprising.
I won't say too much more, because you really need to see it to find out which husband has transgressed. Yes, I am going to make you want to watch it desperately - I will torment your mind, giving you only little snippets of information .... I'll toy with you... for you see, I am Addie Ross! No not really... but you have to see this film. It's spellbinding, and incredibly fun, like a good schmooze with a girlfriend.
As each woman worries, we are treated to flashbacks in which each wife thinks of an event that might have led to the breakup of her marriage. It's a cautionary tale - we all could work on our relationships, try to make our husbands happier.... but until our marriage is threatened, do we really try? One of the most exciting aspects of the film was the music and sound.... used to great effect as an entry into the mind of each woman. A sense of foreboding is translated into the sound of a sink dripping, which then slowly becomes a sing-song phrase in the woman's mind, such as, "Why didn't George go fishing.....? " This phrase is then translated into music - a sort of talkbox (remember Peter Frampton?) distorted singing of that phrase slowly over and over....until we are suddenly in the flashback.
I can't say any more about the film.... please, just go watch it.... maybe it will give you some class, like it did me.
Your friend,
Addie
P.S. Watch your husbands, ladies....