A movie with a tearful title and containing a cast of Jeanne Crain, Ann Southern, and Linda Darnell, is likely to be by-passed by the discriminate moviegoer. That would be a great mistake in the case of "A Letter to Three Wives." It is one of the most witty, intelligent, and well-acted comedies within reasonable memory.

It is common in Europe to have one man both write the script and direct the film. (Rossellini and Pagnol are outstanding examples of the success of this method.) Well, somehow or other, a man named Joseph L. Mankiewiez convinced 20th Century Fox that he could do it too. "A Letter to Three Wives" is by no means a work of art; but it is very funny, and has some value as a critical commentary on the American Way of Life.

The story is told in three episodes which begin jointly when three young matrons receive a letter saying "I am running off with your husband tonight." The action is then in flashbacks in which each wife recalls her married life to see if it has been such a failure as to force her husband to leave her. The best episode is the one involving Ann Southern and Kirk Doughlas. In it, Mankiewiez, through Douglas, makes a keen and cogent attack on the social status of the school teacher in America and on the candy-coated moralities daily gushing forth from the radio. Nothing is said, or shown, on these subjects, or any other in the film, that must not have occurred to any thoughtful person, but it is vicariously satisfying to hear them from the silver screen at long last. The strongest propaganda medium in the world has been here put to good use.

The sequence with Linda Darnell and Paul Douglas--she as a girl with a price tag and he as a man with the price--is next best. This is partially because Thelma Ritter, as a sharp-tongued servant, is seen more in this episode than in the others. Miss Ritter, with the two Mr. Douglases, are most cordially welcomed to the cinema. And Mr. Mankiewicz deserves considerable congratulations, too.