The New Pictures, Jan. 17, 1949

A Letter to Three Wives (20th Cenury-Fox) is a bright, unusual comedy that sets itself some high hurdles and clears them all—mostly with room to spare. The picture begins as three young matrons in station-wagon suburbia learn that one of their husbands has run off with a feared and envied local charmer. Leaving the runaway husband's identity dangling (neither the wives nor the audience is in on the secret at first), Writer-Director Joseph L. Mankiewicz explores each wife's marital security in three long flashbacks. Then, with considerable skill and a sort of hard-bitten humor, he pulls off an ending that is...