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Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Tired Old Queen at the Movies: A Letter to Three Wives


Steve Hayes reviews the 1949 classic:
Linda Darnell, Jeanne Crain and Ann Sothern make a beautiful and sophisticated trio in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Oscar-winning comedy A Letter to Three Wives (1949). Set in a small town on the Hudson, three friends receive a letter from the town flirt saying she's run off with one of their husbands. Trapped on a boat ride for the day and unable to contact their spouses, the girls review their respective marriages in three flashbacks. It won Mankiewicz Oscars for writing and directing and has superb performances by Kirk Douglas, Paul Douglas, Connie Gilchrist, and the irrepressible Thelma Ritter. It's also filled with the wittiest dialogue this side of All About Eve, which won him Oscars in the same two categories the following year. It's a not-to-be-missed laugh riot and the perfect antidote for a cold November.

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