Perry Kate Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Skunkyrate Gripping story with well-crafted characters

Catangro After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

firefoxpies-139-635676 Paul Douglas-Linda Darnell, sensuous, electric, lots of spit between these two. Kirk Douglas can barely restrain his animal self, in a milquetoasty role that he isn't suited for, but is still terribly attractive in. Thelma Ritter, what can you say? Brilliant as always; so genuine, so likable. Connie Gilchrist ditto. Jeanne Crain had an admirer at the studio, so despite her being obnoxious to listen to and look at, she still shows up in movie after movie. She is par for the course in this one. Ann Sothern is cute and does her best with a silly storyline, but now for the spoiler:it was BRAD who ran away with Addie-Here's whyWhen Brad's wife Deborah returns home from the picnic, the house man gives her a note, the message being that Brad won't be home that evening. When Deborah reads the message to herself, it is read to us in the audience by narrator ADDIE--ADDIE reads the message in a snide fashion, that Brad won't be home. Later, at the club dance, when Porter says he ran away with Addie, but changed his mind, George tells Porter, "you're quite a guy". Why would George congratulate Porter saying he ran off with another woman? Also, Rita states, "She would have known in the morning, anyway" referring to Brad staying gone for good. When her husband did not return in the morning, Deborah would realize it was definitely Brad, not Porter who had run away with Addie, despite Porters' confession, which he made so that Deborah wouldn't worry all night. Also, nobody reacts to Porter having tried to leave Lora Mae, not even Lora Mae! Porter's confession was an obvious attempt to draw a line in the sand of the relationship between himself and Lora Mae. No one seems the least bit concerned that Porter's confession is true, because they know it isn't. It's obvious, despite some who may believe differently, that it was Brad who ran off with Addie; if not, then why have Addie narrate Brad's message for Deborah?? Duh

preppy-3 Three wives and friends (Jeanne Craine, Ann Southern, Linda Darnell) get a letter from a woman they know. She said she is leaving town...and taking one of their husbands (Jeffrey Lynn, Kirk Douglas, Paul Douglas) with her. The women have no access to a phone so they all think back to why their husbands might be the one leaving.This starts off as a sharp cynical look at marriage and love and ends up being soapy and sentimental...but it still works. The script (a deserved Oscar-winner) is sharp. It's full of great one-liners and perceptive views of love and marriage. The cast is great and put over all their lines perfectly. Joseph Mankiewicz also won an Oscar as Best Director which he deserved. There are some very clever camera movements or techniques that clearly tell you what the characters are thinking without calling attention to itself. So, phony ending aside, this is a smart, beautifully written, acted and directed movie. Worth catching.

vincentlynch-moonoi First off, I think this is a good film. I'm in agreement with that.But from my perspective, this is not a comedy...as Robert Osborne describes it. One reviewer here suggested it is a satire. Well, maybe; I'll have to think that over. To me, it was a drama. Yes, there is humor in it. But, what exactly is funny about three women spending an agonizing day wondering if it is their husband who has run away with their best friend...wondering if it is their marriage that has ended...and unable to do anything about it because they are on tour boat of the Hudson River chaperoning a field trip? Wife #1 is Jeanne Crain. A country girl who grew up and had a seemingly good marriage. Her husband is away on an overnight business trip. Crain is excellent...as she always was. No humor there.Wife #2 is Ann Southern, who is married to a rather young Kirk Douglas. This is Douglas before he got intense...here he's a bit more of the flip type, though he's also serious about the change that has come over his wife...that she's gotten too wrapped up in her job as a script writer, and has forgotten her roots and what their marriage in based on. Yes, there's a little humor here, but it's none to funny as Douglas tells off his wife's boss. BTW, Douglas is great, but this film is apt to remind moviegoers just how good Ann Southern really was. Her t.v. years later out-shined her movie success, but she was an excellent actress.Wife #3 is Linda Darnell. Not really a favorite of mine. But here, she is quite good as a floozy who catches a department store magnate in a marriage that seems off-base, but -- much to their own surprise -- gives each what they need. There is some humor here, but it's also very difficult to like Darnell's character, or for that matter Douglas'. Where should the sympathy go? And, in the end it turns out that Douglas was the husband who ran away with "the other woman", but then changed his mind.The other performance of note here is Thelma Ritter, as always old reliable. Connie Gilcrist and Florence Bates were also fine in their roles here.The script is very good as each wife spends some time thinking back to why it might be her husband that has run away with another woman.Well worth watching, and a possibility for your DVD shelf!

evanston_dad This superbly written and acted soap opera brought writer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz Best Director and Best Screenplay Oscars the year before he repeated the exact same wins with "All About Eve," to my knowledge the only time that's happened.Jeanne Crain, Ann Sothern and Linda Darnell play three friends who go off on a children's' outing for the day. Before they leave, they receive a letter from the fourth member of their circle, the enigmatic Addie Ross, who tells them she has run off with one of their husbands. The rest of the film plays out like a murder mystery, each woman thinking back over her marriage and wondering if her husband's the guilty party.In both this and "All About Eve," Mankiewicz proved himself to be a wonderful writer for women. He had a knack for addressing some of the negative aspects of the female personality, but in a way that felt honest rather than stereotypical. Many of the usual "types" are present in this film -- the career woman, the golddigger, the man stealer -- but the women themselves are so richly written that they're not easily pigeonholed. Crain plays the country bumpkin who feels inadequate among her affluent husband's set; Sothern is the working woman who begins to lose her identity to a job; Darnell is the aforementioned golddigger who treats marriage like a business deal. All three actresses give lovely performances, especially Sothern and Darnell, and the film builds a great deal of suspense as it works toward its revealing conclusion.The supporting cast features Kirk Douglas and Paul Douglas as two of the husbands; Thelma Ritter, unsurprisingly stealing scenes as Sothern's maid; and Celeste Holm, heard but never seen as the voice of Addie Ross.Grade: A+