Waverley Film Society Volume 5 February 2018 Issue 1

February Meeting Waverley Film Society will meet at St John’s Uniting Church, 37 Virginia Street, Mt Waverley on Wednesday, 14th of February at 7:45pm. Apologies can be left with Brett on 9807 3426. Visitors are welcome. Bring your friends. This month’s film is A Letter to Three Wives (our Valentine’s Day special?! (see page 2 for more information). Thank You to ...... 1. Anne for preparing three desirable Christmas hampers that were raffled at the December meeting. The happy winners were James, Keith and Ros, and Lance and Chris. 2. All WFS members for their hamper donations and supper contributions at the December screening. 3. Brett for sending Christmas cards to Burwood Bulletin, Eastern FM 98.1 and Jan Bylstra for their support and assistance in promoting WFS during 2017 4. Brian and Anne for preparing the 2018 Film Program. Copies will be available at the meeting.

Community Raffle Tickets  The annual Gary and Warren Smith Community Raffle is an important fundraiser for our society.  As it is being held earlier in 2018 than previously, Barry will need to provide tickets at the February meeting rather than survey each member for the number of tickets re- quired.  So he will provide each of us with the same number of raffle books (10 tickets) as in 2017, but there is no pressure to sell the same number. He will have some spare books for newer members.  First prize this year is a Kia Picanto, with a $1000 BP fuel voucher and a window tint as further prizes.

Last Month Next Month  Thirty people attended, Wednesday, March 14thth: including two visitors. “Death at a Funeral” There were three apolo- We will conduct a brief Annual gies. General Meeting prior to the  The Lady in a Van recorded film. a rating of 3.5stars.  People brought a plate and Posters advertising this screen- all enjoyed a tasty and so- ing are available. Please post ciable supper. them in community spaces. A Letter to Three Wives (Reference: www.imdb.com) Director Joseph L Mankiewicz Writing Credits Cast includes Novel: John Klempner Jeanne Crain Deborah Bishop Linda Darnell Lora May Hollingsway Adaptation: Vera Caspary Ann Sothern Rita Phipps Screenplay: Joseph L Mankiewicz Kirk Douglas George Phipps Music Alfred Newman Paul Douglas Porter Hollingsway Jeffrey Lynn Bradford ‘Brad’ Bishop Cinematography Arthur C Miller Trivia  Joseph L. Mankiewicz won the Best Director and Best Screenplay Oscars for his work on this film and would do the same again the following year with _All About Eve_. This has never been repeated.  This film was based on John Klempner's novel, "A Letter to Five Wives." Two wives were lost in the transition to the screen.  At one point the film was called "A Letter to Four Wives". Upon submitting the adapted screenplay to 20th Century-Fox chief Darryl F. Zanuck, Joseph L. Mankiewicz mentioned that he found it too long and asked how he felt the movie could be shortened. "Take out one of the wives," Zanuck replied.  (at around 47 mins) Joseph L. Mankiewicz had a real battle with the American censors at the time who would not per- mit him to use words like "laxative" and "toilet" in his script. He got his revenge with a famous double-entendre laden exchange which used words like "penetration" and "saturation".  Linda Darnell's home which shakes when the train passes by was inspired by Joseph L. Mankiewicz's childhood home in New York City. His father would always stop talking as he waited for the Third Avenue El to pass by.  Linda Darnell and Joseph L. Mankiewicz became romantically involved during the making of the film. Darnell consid- ered Mankiewicz to be the great love of her life but he refused to leave his wife.  The identity of the actress Celeste Holm who did the voice-over for Addie Ross was kept secret when the film was re- leased. The studio held a number of "Who is Addie?" contests around the country where moviegoers could guess the actress' name.

Review: 10 sided triangle . (Adapted from a review by jc-osms12 August 2008). A highly watchable and occasionally intriguing movie which rises above its "Woman's Own" magazine origins by a combina- tion of imaginative construction, sharp dialogue and fine ensemble acting. The imaginative construction of course revolves around director Mankiewicz's use of amongst other things, a starting and concluding voice-over by the never-seen epicentre of the drama, "other woman" Addie, the interweaving of three separate stories of post-war upper middle-class suburban American married life and the disruption caused by the pervading influence of afore-said "everybody (make that every man) loves" Addie leading to a genuinely mysterious ending with the viewer (well this one anyway) left scratching their head over the denouement. I think the film might have benefited however with Addie's voice-overs continuing throughout the film although we are teased throughout with just-out-of-camera scenes throughout. Along the way we get some trademark pithy and racy dia- logue, typical of this director, taking shots along the way at snobbery, sex and consumerism as well of course, marital mores. Although the attack on consumerism seems a little high-brow today, as school-teacher Kirk Douglas bemoans the fall in cul- tural values with the unstoppable growth in popularity of cheap, Philistine radio soap operas at the expense of an apprecia- tion of the finer arts, it still resonates today as we seem submerged in a never-ending TV diet of trashy soaps, daytime TV and reality shows. The acting is very good, particularly Linda Darnell as the sassy shop-girl on the make with her much older boss and I also en- joyed the humorous interjections of Thelma Ritter as a put-upon maid. The device of introducing the flashback sequences with onomatopeic background noises was used later to comic effect in the Danny Kaye vehicle "Secret Life of Walter Mitty". Whilst you never quite escape the feeling that this is a 1940's "chick-flick", with a story-line at its heart every bit as incredible as any of the empty radio dramas so vilified by Douglas (obviously speaking for Mankiewicz), I can accept it as superior soap. And yes, my eyebrows did rise upwards at the infamous double-entendre kitchen dialogue scene!