This superbly written and acted soap opera brought writer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz Best Director and Best Screenplay Oscars the year before he repeated the exact same wins with "All About Eve," to my knowledge the only time that's happened.
Jeanne Crain, Ann Sothern and Linda Darnell play three friends who go off on a children's' outing for the day. Before they leave, they receive a letter from the fourth member of their circle, the enigmatic Addie Ross, who tells them she has run off with one of their husbands. The rest of the film plays out like a murder mystery, each woman thinking back over her marriage and wondering if her husband's the guilty party.
In both this and "All About Eve," Mankiewicz proved himself to be a wonderful writer for women. He had a knack for addressing some of the negative aspects of the female personality, but in a way that felt honest rather than stereotypical. Many of the usual "types" are present in this film -- the career woman, the golddigger, the man stealer -- but the women themselves are so richly written that they're not easily pigeonholed. Crain plays the country bumpkin who feels inadequate among her affluent husband's set; Sothern is the working woman who begins to lose her identity to a job; Darnell is the aforementioned golddigger who treats marriage like a business deal. All three actresses give lovely performances, especially Sothern and Darnell, and the film builds a great deal of suspense as it works toward its revealing conclusion.
The supporting cast features Kirk Douglas and Paul Douglas as two of the husbands; Thelma Ritter, unsurprisingly stealing scenes as Sothern's maid; and Celeste Holm, heard but never seen as the voice of Addie Ross.
Grade: A+
Jeanne Crain, Ann Sothern and Linda Darnell play three friends who go off on a children's' outing for the day. Before they leave, they receive a letter from the fourth member of their circle, the enigmatic Addie Ross, who tells them she has run off with one of their husbands. The rest of the film plays out like a murder mystery, each woman thinking back over her marriage and wondering if her husband's the guilty party.
In both this and "All About Eve," Mankiewicz proved himself to be a wonderful writer for women. He had a knack for addressing some of the negative aspects of the female personality, but in a way that felt honest rather than stereotypical. Many of the usual "types" are present in this film -- the career woman, the golddigger, the man stealer -- but the women themselves are so richly written that they're not easily pigeonholed. Crain plays the country bumpkin who feels inadequate among her affluent husband's set; Sothern is the working woman who begins to lose her identity to a job; Darnell is the aforementioned golddigger who treats marriage like a business deal. All three actresses give lovely performances, especially Sothern and Darnell, and the film builds a great deal of suspense as it works toward its revealing conclusion.
The supporting cast features Kirk Douglas and Paul Douglas as two of the husbands; Thelma Ritter, unsurprisingly stealing scenes as Sothern's maid; and Celeste Holm, heard but never seen as the voice of Addie Ross.
Grade: A+