It was my turn to pick a movie last night and I decided to punish the people that I love by forcing them to watch old black and white movies from the 40s. *Maniacal laugh.*This was like Desperate Housewives but not as annoying. Three upper class ladies, Mrs. Bishop (Jeanne Crain), Mrs. Hollingsway (Linda Darnell), and Mrs. Phipps (Ann Sothern), are about to leave for a ride up the Hudson on a field trip for the local school, when they receive a letter addressed to them from their dear "friend" Addie Ross (voiceover by Celeste Holm) informing them that Addie has run off with one of their husbands. But which one? Over the course of the movie, each of the three women reflects on their marriage and on the effect Addie has had, even in absentia: there's the career woman who finds fault with her school teacher husband (Kirk Douglas) because she makes more money, the ingenue who is desperately afraid she's not good enough for her suave man-of-the-world (Jeffrey Lynn) and the gold-digger worried her loveless marriage to a department store magnate (Paul Douglas) might be just that.
It's witty, catty, urbane and sly, managing somehow to be heartwarming without dipping into schmaltz. The banter in this movie is fantastic, especially between Mr. and Mrs. Hollingsway. I'm pretty sure everyone knows a couple like them where they bitch at each other so much you wonder why they're still married but you get them on their own and they can't function without the other one? The other breakout star for me was Sadie the maid, played by Thelma Ritter. She brought that character to life. Also, I'm not going to call Kirk Douglas a breakout star because the man is still freakin' charismatic, as the 2011 Oscars will attest. It was nice to see him looking so amazingly young and full of fire though.
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