Before he wrote and directed "All About Eve", Joseph L. Mankiewicz won another Oscar, for a picture called "A Letter to Three Wives", which has long been a favorite of mine. It stars Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, and Ann Sothern as three best friends, who one Saturday morning, receive a letter from another friend, stating that she is not only leaving town, but that she's leaving with one of their husbands (played by Jeffrey Lynn, Paul Douglas and Kirk Douglas). The rest of the movie is spent in flashbacks, as each wife reviews her relationship to determine if she is the one who will come home to an empty house that night.
From the above description, you might think this picture would be maudlin, and a bit of a downer. But it's neither. Would you believe it, it's actually considered a comedy. It's warm, it's funny, and it's realistic in it's depiction of typical marital spats. And it takes the point of view that marriage isn't something you give up on just because you go through difficult times. The acting is first-rate, and it's easy to relate to the characters, because they display similar foibles that any of us could recognize in ourselves.
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