Starring Jeanne Crain, Ann Sothern, Linda Darnell, Kirk Douglas, Paul Douglas, Celeste Holm

(8-Exceptional Film)

Intelligent. Intriguing. Literate.

Writer/director Mankiewicz wrote some great scripts in his day. A year before his masterpiece, All About Eve, he won the Oscar for directing this, A Letter to Three Wives, a film boasting razor-sharp dialogue and a terrific structure that turns this melodrama into a whodunnit. Rita Phipps (Sothern), Lora Mae Hollingsway (Darnell), and Deborah Bishop (Crain) make up the three wives of the title. They receive a letter from the vindictive local beauty, Addie (voiced by Holm), who tells them that she’s run off with one of their husbands. The three wives think back on their marriages and wonder if it could possibly be their husband. Terrifically written and acted drama with a clever premise. Terrific film.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

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