An early triumph for Joseph Mankiewicz from 1949. Before hitting the Oscar jackpot w/All About Eve in 1950, Mankiewicz wrote & directed this yarn of a letter dispatched to a trio of wives stating she ran off w/one of their husbands. What essentially is a guessing game of the wrong kind plays on the fears & doubts of the housewives as each put stock into where they lives were & where they are now as the identity of the errant man of the house is exposed. I guess there's a certain feminine fascination w/the reveal of who the man is but I thought the whole affair maybe played better in the novel (there are 5 husbands in the book as explained by the director's nephew, host Ben Mankiewicz, during TCM's recent broadcast) while in visual form I could not sympathize w/any of the women's predicaments since although a huge emotional blow to be sure, a husband leaving the nest is not something that would be the end all of most women (especially these strong willed three) since the husband is the scoundrel here & the letter writer is just a bitter shrew out playing spoils. Definitely a well done pot of tea but none for me, I'm afraid.
Review of A Letter to Three Wives
