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A Letter to Three Wives

A Letter to Three Wives

Romance · Drama · Mystery · 1949

A letter is addressed to three wives from their 'best friend', announcing that she's running away with one of their husbands – but she doesn't specify which one.

Movie details

A Letter to Three Wives

“ALL OF THEM WONDERED WHILE ONE OF THEM WANDERED!”

1949 Romance · Drama · Mystery 1h 43m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

7.7 / 10

11.3K votes

Rotten Tomatoes

100 %

Tomatometer

TMDB

7.2 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

A letter is addressed to three wives from their 'best friend', announcing that she's running away with one of their husbands – but she doesn't specify which one.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over A Letter to Three Wives?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Written by

Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Ann Sothern

Ann Sothern

Rita Phipps

Linda Darnell

Linda Darnell

Lora Mae Hollingsway

Jeanne Crain

Jeanne Crain

Deborah Bishop

Kirk Douglas

Kirk Douglas

George Phipps

Paul Douglas

Paul Douglas

Porter Hollingsway

Jeffrey Lynn

Jeffrey Lynn

Bradford 'Brad' Bishop

Barbara Lawrence

Barbara Lawrence

Georgiana 'Babe' Finney

Court is in session

Put A Letter to Three Wives on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.