Rent A Letter to Three Wives (1949)
3.8 of 5 from 80 ratings
1h 38min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- The letter of the title is written with a poisonous pen: the three women (portrayed by Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, and Ann Sothern) receive a note stating that one of their husbands has run off with a woman named Addie Ross - which husband in particular, however, remains unmentioned, though each husband had their own affinity for Ross. And so amid the women's mounting anxiety commences a series of flashbacks, each telling the story of how the three individual marriages had come in their own way to be so strained at the present...
- Actors:
- Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, Kirk Douglas, Paul Douglas, Barbara Lawrence, Jeffrey Lynn, Connie Gilchrist, Florence Bates, Hobart Cavanaugh, James Adamson, Joe Bautista, Patti Brady, Ralph Brooks, John Davidson, Sayre Dearing, Franklyn Farnum, Sam Finn, Stuart Holmes, Wilbur Mack
- Directors:
- Joseph L. Mankiewicz
- Producers:
- Sol C. Siegel
- Voiced By:
- Celeste Holm, Charles Tannen
- Writers:
- Vera Caspary, John Klempner, Joseph L. Mankiewicz
- Studio:
- Optimum
- Genres:
- Classics, Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Collections:
- Award Winners, Best Film Quests and Adventures, Films by Genre, inema Paradiso's 2023 Centenary Club: Part 2, Ireland At the Oscars, New waves of Latin American Cinema, Oscar's Two-Time Club, Oscars: Winners & Losers, The Biggest Oscar Snubs: Part 1, A Brief History of Film..., Top 10 Best Picture Follow-Ups, Top Films, What to watch by country
- Awards:
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 29/06/2015
- Run Time:
- 103 minutes
- Languages:
- English Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles:
- English Hard of Hearing
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Full Screen 1.37:1
- Colour:
- B & W
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Feature-length audio commentary with Mankiewicz biographers Kenneth Geist and Cheryl Lower and the director's son Christopher Mankiewicz
- Two radio adaptations of the film
- Movietone Newsreel
- Original Theatrical Trailer
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Reviews (2) of A Letter to Three Wives
Social Comedy. - A Letter to Three Wives review by Steve
Social comedy which is lightweight but clever. Though made shortly after WWII it feels more like the fifties America of prosperity and consumerism. Even the maid has bought a new fridge, by instalments. Class divisions are obvious, but cordial. Three friends receive a letter informing them that the sender has eloped with one of their husbands.
She doesn't say which. There's the timid wallflower (Jeanne Crain), the career woman (Ann Sothern) and the beautiful devil (Linda Darnell). As they spend a day together on an island retreat they reflect on their marriages and wonder which will return to an empty house on a conventional street in their small, quiet town.
They live ultra-conservative lives of dinner parties and evenings at the country club. There is satire at the expense of radio, materialism and difficult servants. Dig deeper and there are pokes at patriotism and conformity. Kirk Douglas (husband of feisty Ann Sothern) gets the best dialogue as an intellectual school teacher with an inferiority complex.
My favourite of the leads is Linda Darnell as a pragmatic but spirited working girl who marries into money. It's a well observed commentary on ordinary middle class life. The expectations of women have been transformed but the social themes remain relevant. They all want something else, maybe someone else's husband. Nobody values their privilege.
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“Bad, not badly! You feel badly this way.” - A Letter to Three Wives review by LJ
Three women receive a letter from another woman telling them that she has run off with one of their husbands. We then get flashbacks showing each woman's strained marriage, leaving both the women and audience trying to figure out which is the unfaithful husband. It's an enjoyable comedy-drama, but the flashbacks aren't weighted evenly, with one of the husbands being in it a lot less, which makes it much harder to get invested.
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