Off topic: A Letter to Three Wives and Gingersnaps

Recently, I had a nasty case of conjunctivitis, also known as pink eye (how very 4^th grade). For the most part, I felt perfectly fine, but since it’s very contagious, I missed a day of work. Sometimes, if I’m sick, I’ll put the television on just to have some background noise while I lie around in misery. But on this particular sick day, I watched A Letter to Three Wives. This is not a movie you want on in the background. It’s one you want to pay attention to.

Movie: A Letter to Three Wives (1949)

My thoughts: Movies like this embody the word “classic.” It’s such a great film. It’s directed by Joseph L. Manciewicz, who also happened to direct my all-time favorite film, All About Eve. This movie is the story of, well, three wives: Deborah Bishop (Jeanne Crain), Lora Mae Hollingsway (Linda Darnell), and Rita Phipps (Ann Sothern), who have a frenemy in their circle named Addie Ross (who narrates the story and is voiced seductively by Celeste Holm). Deborah is a farm girl who married up and feels as if she doesn’t fit in among her husband’s wealthy friends. Rita writes for a radio soap opera, and makes more money than her English teacher husband (which qualified as a serious issue at the time…hopefully not now).  And Lora Mae is a bombshell from the wrong side of the tracks who marries her former boss, the owner of several department stores. One afternoon, as all three ladies are ready to go on a boating trip with a group of children, they receive a letter from Addie, who all of the ladies’ husbands view as a sort of ideal woman. Addie informs them that she left town—with one of their husbands. Only Addie doesn’t say whose husband… Each woman ponders her relationship in a series of flashbacks.

There is an interesting-in-a-21^st-century-way scene where Deborah, Lora Mae, and Rita notice and stare longingly at a payphone—their only chance to call their husbands and ask, “Have you left me for Addie Ross?”— as the boat they are on sails away. And since the trip is an all-day thing, they won’t be able to find out whose husband has left until that evening. As I watched the scene, I couldn’t help but think that it would have been so different if cell phones had been around. Of course, the title of the movie would be different as well (A Text to Three Wives?) Also, we as the audience never see Addie Ross, which adds to her mystique.

While writing this, I started to think about why this movie is so great. The script is amazing, and Manciewicz crammed this movie with great actors. Kirk Douglas is great as Rita’s husband, an English teacher who corrects the grammar of those around him (I must say that I saw myself in him in this regard). And Thelma Ritter, the great Thelma Ritter, is the sarcastic Sadie, who works for Rita. This is a genuinely funny movie. It’s such a cliché to say this, but they really don’t make movies like this anymore.

Great lines:
Lora Mae: How do I look?
Sadie: If I was you, I'd show more of what I got. Maybe wear somethin’ with beads.
Lora Mae: What I got don't need beads.

Days later, after my eye turned back to its natural color, I decided to use up some leftover molasses and make gingersnaps from this recipe I saw on seriouseats.com. I hadn’t made these since Christmas 2010, which is a crying shame because they are SO GOOD.

Great way to use up leftover molasses!

P.S. I’m still reading A Hope in the Unseen, which, like the gingersnaps, is very good.