Secrets de femmes

Smartly combining a bit of the disaster movie with melodrama, Robert Wise was very good at directing actresses; his precedent movie, "the set-up" ,although taking place in the boxing world , featured a prominent female character (the boxer's wife was not only decorative and she had this sublime sentence :" WE've won tonight" .)

By and large ,the first part is given over to Parker, then Neal dominates the second one -and her evolution from an arrogant journalist to a compassionate woman is convincing - ;Roman appears late in the story (apart from a brief glimpse in "the shelter" ) but her character is the only one who does not belong to a privileged milieu :an ex-convict ,she 's lost everything and she clings to this hope : a child who could be hers ,should he be found still alive. The audience sides with her when she slaps in the tabloid press journalist's face.

The rapport the three actresses have is deeply moving , and although we eventually learn the true identity of the mother ,it does not seem to matter anymore ; it's OUR child .

From 1950, Three Secrets stars Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal, and Ruth Roman in a dated but well-acted story.

There are many horrible things a person can do; evidently, the most unforgivable, horrific things was having sex before marriage resulting in a pregnancy.

When an adopted five year-old boy is the sole survivor of a plane crash that killed his parents, three women believe he is the child she gave up.

As they gather at the rescue site, a mountain, we learn their stories: Susan (Parker) loved a soldier and finds out he loves another girl at home; Phyllis (Neal), an ambitious reporter whose husband objects to her career, learns she's pregnant after he remarries; and Ann (Roman), pregnant by a man she believes loves her, goes to prison after she kills her boyfriend when he dumps her.

Well directed by Robert Wise, the three women are fleshed out so that we feel for them - we know who we want to be the mother - and, like the women, we wait to find out. A stunning Neal's dry wit and sarcasm come through, as well as her heart. Hers is the strongest role, but Parker and Roman are wonderful with sad stories.

I thought the film was a bit too long - too much footage of reporters interviewing the climbers, etc.

There ending is very touching. Recommended.

Three women review their past lives while they wait for news that will change the future totally for one of them.

But it isn't "Letter to Three Wives"!

Putting aside the shameless use of the formula from Mankiewicz' masterwork, "Three Secrets" is an enjoyable, well-written drama. Another similarity to "... Three Wives", and one that I have no objection to, is leads Patricia Neal, Eleanor Parker & Ruth Roman being mature, extremely attractive women; not a teenybopper or nymphet in sight.

A second movie that came to mind while watching "Three Secrets" was "The Big Carnival" with its media circus of cynical reporters covering and exploiting a disaster. However Wilder's film followed this one.

The beautiful Cole Porter tune `I get a kick out of you' is well used on the soundtrack.

Whatever suspense THREE SECRETS has is derived from the audience not knowing (until the end) which woman's boy has survived a plane crash. Each woman (ELEANOR PARKER, RUTH ROMAN and PATRICIA NEAL) thinks it's her own abandoned five year-old son. As they wait patiently for more news on the identity of the boy, each woman reflects in flashbacks on what led up to their heart-breaking decision.

Robert Wise has directed all of the melodrama with some fine touches and a steady hand, so that Parker, Roman and Neal are all seen to advantage in a plot vaguely similar to that of A LETTER TO THREE WIVES in which three women await news on which husband deserted them.

Parker is a woman who had an illegitimate child; Roman had to give up her child while she served a jail term; Neal was a career woman who preferred career to domestic chores.

Sensibily acted and directed, it's a rather low-key melodrama that might not meet the demands of fans not enthusiastic about so-called chick flicks.

Everything is perfect about this film, the story, the actors, the direction, Wise at an early stage extremely efficient, and even the music, never dominating but always reflecting the right mood. This is a literary film telling the stories of three women who all had to give up their only child because of circumstances, usually related to the war: the child was born September 15th 1944, so they all got pregnant at the highlight of the war, one by a soldier who had to obey orders, and the other two by men who left them - one of them we'll never even see. At the same time, it's a great story of journalism, Patricia Neal making the almost too perfect journalist which costs her her marriage, and the insights into her handling her profession in the quest for saving the child from the top of a mountain are almost documentary in their authentic character, while at the same time it develops into somethinbg of a thriller - there is even a murder here. Enough said, only superlatives, and they can only be repeated and continuously insisted on.