A Letter to Three Wives is a 1949 American romantic drama directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz and starring Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell and Ann Sothern.
Friends Deborah Bishop, Rita Phipps and Lora Mae Hollingsway are just about to take a group of children on a riverboat outing when they receive a message from Addie Ross informing them that she has taken one of their husbands as a lover.
Adding to her insecurity, she learns that everyone expected Brad to marry Addie, a woman on whom all three husbands lavish their attention.
When he appears and hears his wife's suspicions, he accuses her of being happy at the thought of establishing grounds to divorce him and reap a big chunk of his fortune.
As Deborah happily leaves to find her late-working husband, Porter tells Lora Mae that admitting his intended abandonment in front of witnesses is enough for her to divorce him and claim everything she wants.
Seven months after it was first published in a magazine,[5] film rights to John Klempner's A Letter to Five Wives were acquired by 20th Century-Fox in February 1946.
[5] Studio head Darryl F. Zanuck and Mankiewicz decided in mid-1948 to reduce the number of marriages to three, and Vera Caspary adapted the story to A Letter to Four Wives.
[9] Even before a script was finished, Gene Tierney, Linda Darnell, Maureen O'Hara, Dorothy McGuire and Alice Faye were cast in the proposed A Letter to Five Wives in November 1946.
[11] Joan Crawford, Ida Lupino and Tallulah Bankhead all desired to play the unbilled voice role of Addie that was awarded to Celeste Holm.
[16] Other area filming locations included Lake Mahopac, Stamford, Connecticut[17] and Hook Mountain State Park.
The two wives who do not appear in the film are Martha, who argues with her husband about child-rearing issues, and Geraldine, who devotes herself to her singing career with meager results.
A Letter to Three Wives was made available for preview by critics in December 1948,[21] including the National Legion of Decency, which classified the film as A-III (for adults only).
In a contemporary review for The New York Times, critic Bosley Crowther wrote:[I]n the reflections of these ladies, Mr. Mankiewicz cleverly evolves an interesting cross-sectioned picture of the small-town younger-married set.
[1]In the Chicago Tribune, reviewer Mae Tinee wrote: "Here's a picture that actually deserves some of the adjectives so often lavished on Hollywood products.
"[23] Critic Edwin Schallert of the Los Angeles Times wrote: "Its ultimate message is to put trust in your husband, though it never states this with any bald emphasis.
"[25] In 1985, the film was remade as a television movie of the same name starring Loni Anderson as Lora Mae, Michele Lee as Rita, Stephanie Zimbalist as Debra, Charles Frank as Brad, Michael Gross as George and Ben Gazzara as Porter, with Ann Sothern appearing in a small role.