A Letter to Three Wives

One of Mankiewicz's most cleverly built films. Three women set off on a day trip and a letter reaches them. It is from Addie Ross, a mutual friend: she writes that she has left town, and that she has gone with one of their husbands. She does not say which. For the rest of the day the three review their own marriages, and the film tells each of their stories in flashback: class, money, being looked down on, and accounts that were never settled aloud. Addie Ross is never seen. She has only a voice; she dominates the film as narrator and never once enters the frame. That choice turns her into a concrete threat for its entire length. Ann Sothern, Linda Darnell and Jeanne Crain play the three women, with Kirk Douglas and Paul Douglas as two of the husbands. Mankiewicz won the Oscars for both direction and screenplay for it, and took the same two again the following year for All About Eve. Near the top of the genre for anyone who likes classical Hollywood drama and sharp dialogue. For a viewer wanting pace it proceeds in flashback and moves slowly.