Saturday, August 20, 2022

A Letter to Three Wives (1949)

IMDb plot summary: A letter is addressed to three wives from their "best friend" Addie Ross, announcing that she is running away with one of their husbands - but she does not say which one.
Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Starring Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, and Ann Sothern.

A Letter to Three Wives features three women in unsatisfying marriages who all get a letter from a woman in town saying she's run off with one of their husbands but doesn't say who. The women are participating in a social event at the time, so we follow them throughout the day as they work and socialize, interspersed with flashbacks about their relationships that set up the mystery of who's run off and why? These three women are all so different that we never get bored watching each of their relationships go through their own unique struggles, and the mystery of which woman is going to end up alone is genuinely intriguing throughout the whole thing. It's one of those movies that has such a simple premise but makes its characters and plotlines so engaging that they hold your attention through the whole thing. And my favorite part is that a story that could easily be incredibly snarky and cynical makes to keep a throughline of kindness and hope running through the whole thing, and even perhaps romance. It's a great movie that I'm glad I finally watched.

How it entered my Flickchart:
A Letter to Three Wives > Beauty and the Beast (1946)
A Letter to Three Wives > La La Land
A Letter to Three Wives < The White Tiger
A Letter to Three Wives > Onward
A Letter to Three Wives > Le bonheur
A Letter to Three Wives < Black Panther
A Letter to Three Wives > Driving Miss Daisy
A Letter to Three Wives < Romy and Michele's High School Reunion
A Letter to Three Wives > Crossing Delancey
A Letter to Three Wives > Smashed
A Letter to Three Wives > Million Dollar Baby
A Letter to Three Wives > Black Narcissus
Final spot: #530 out of 3667, or 86%.

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