A Letter To Three Wives

A Letter To Three Wives is an intriguing and unusual film in as much as the three leads are all played by women – this is possibly a first!

The story tells the tale of three married women: Deborah Bishop (Jeanne Crain), Lora Hollingsway (Linda Darnell), and Rita Phipps (Ann Sothern), all of whom live in the same little town. The three receive a joint letter informing them that one of their husbands has run off with the writer of the letter – one Agie Ross, a woman with each of the husband’s had at one time been ‘very close’. It would appear that all of the men are still very fond of this woman…

We then go into flashback and explore each woman’s relationship with her husband. Of course there is considerably more to the story than this. The first story we hear is Deborah Bishop’s. Newly married to Brad Bishop (Jeffrey Lynn), a swell guy who would, it appears, to be a bit of a catch. Poor Deborah has at this time only one dress which she got from a mail order company – this causes quite a bit of undue stress and leads to an embarrassing situation. At a dance where all the protagonists are gathered a bottle of champagne is delivered, a present from Addie Ross who is yet to arrive. The highly insecure Deborah accidentally tears her dress during a dance, bursts into tears and leaves the room. She is comforted by her friend Rita who asks her to return. On her return Deborah cannot help but to notice Brad is out on the veranda enjoying himself in the company of Addie. By this time it is obvious that we are never going to SEE Addie Ross.

Next story up is Rita, married to the idealistic schoolteacher George Phipps (Kirk Douglas) with a tendency to be outspoken. Rita, who has landed herself a pretty good job in radio broadcasting, has arranged for a dinner party. Shortly before the guests turn up a present arrives for George – a record of a Brahms concerto. Yes you guessed it… a present from Addie Ross with the inscription of a poem which could be misunderstood by Rita. Things don’t go to well when the all too honest George tells one of the guests (who happens to be Rita’s boss Mrs. Manleigh) what he thinks of her juvenile radio show which they have been forced to listen to after dinner.

Last story up is that of Lora, a sharp girl who lives in comparative poverty with her mother and sister in a house located next to a railway track. Lora is courted by the slightly cynical and wealthy businessman Porter Hollingsway (Paul Douglas). This would not appear to be love at first sight, certainly not from Lora’s perspective seeing how Porter is considerably older and not overtly attractive. Despite his cynicism and lack of good looks Porter is not really a bad guy at all and eventually wins her over! But there has been, and may still be, another woman in his life… and no prices for guessing who this might be.
The insecure Deborah is pretty sure that it is her husband Brad who has run off with Addie, but this may not be the case.

This is a very well written and directed film and works equally well as a radio play which we are treated to as part of the bonus material on this Dual Format release. The film is brilliantly cast and three female leads give outstanding performances. Linda Darnell’s ‘Lora’ is perhaps the more interesting and this is possibly her finest performance on film. Kirk Douglas, who would not have been an obvious choice for the part of ‘George Phipps’ is also surprisingly good.
Director Mankiewicz went on to give us the much better known Bette Davis vehicle All About Eve, but nevertheless got awards for A Letter To Three Wives which turned out to be a huge success at the time of its release – scoring Academy Awards for Best Director and Best Screenplay.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

* Gorgeous 1080p presentation of the film on Blu-ray
* Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard-of-hearing
* Feature-length audio commentary with Mankiewicz biographer Kenneth Geist, film historian Cheryl Lower, and actor Christopher Mankiewicz, the director’s son
* Fox Movietone newsreel covering the Academy Awards ceremony
* Original theatrical trailer
* 36-page booklet containing essays, interview material, and rare archival imagery