MovieChat Forums > A Letter to Three Wives (1949) Discussion > What Makes the Ending So Confusing

What Makes the Ending So Confusing

posted 8 years ago by trippycheez (37)
3 replies | jump to latest

I think what makes the ending difficult to get at first is that the story we have been seeing is so symmetrical.

We meet three women. Each one is upwardly-mobile and insecure in her own way. There's the farm girl trying to figure out country club society; the working-class girl who married the boss; and the working wife who tries to elevate the family into the upper class through her own ambitions and career.

All three women are jealous of Addie. Addie seems to be the ideal that they are all trying to achieve. She is not just beautiful or wealthy -- she has "class," that ineffable quality which is what they are all striving for.

We are told that Addie always has perfect timing -- she knows exactly what to do and when to do it. So when they receive her letter just as they set off to "Kid Island" for the day, it creates emotional havoc that Addie would have predicted exactly.

At first, I thought perhaps Addie wasn't running off with any of the husbands. She knew about her friends' insecurities and how they all disliked her, so she had decided to move on. But first, she decided to play a prank on them that would ultimately be a great gift. Basically, she would have them all frantically worried about their marriages for a day. Then, they would gradually realize that their husbands were still there, and they would appreciate what they had so much more. Ultimately Addie would be strengthening their marriages while removing herself from the scene and diminishing her own social standing -- a great "classy" gift to all of them, in their parallel stories.

The fact that she *had* planned to run off with one of the husbands was so surprising to me that at first I didn't get it. The stories had all been so symmetrical up to that point. I thought Porter was making it up to soothe all the feelings at the table.

But after thinking through the tipped glass and the disappointed "Hi ho!" at the end, I'm pretty much convinced that Addie had planned to run off with Porter. He was about to become a "giant" and become even more incredibly wealthy, and he had clearly adored her. Despite his older age, less-debonair manners, and rough way of being, he could have been the best catch. But, ironically -- her own willingness to break up a marriage and run off with him might have lessened his regard for her. She was more alluring to him when out of reach and on a pedestal of "classiness." She had played it all wrong.

[–] 9 (1235) 8 years ago

[–] trippycheez (37) 8 years ago

Thanks for the tip!

[–] PlaintiveMelody (245) 7 years ago

Yes, I think the ending can be confusing to some viewers. I have read that some people thought Porter just said he ran off with Addie in order to be kind to Deborah, and Addie had really run off with Brad.

I never got this interpretation and thought that Porter was the one Addie had run away with, after watching Porter and Lora Mae's story, which was kind of bereft of love. Their marriage seemed to be based on a transaction, rather than mutual love (unlike the other two couples), so the first time I watched it, I was shocked that it seemed to be Brad was the erring fellow.

I like your interpretation of what happened with Porter. He didn't think Lora Mae was "class" because she'd come from the wrong side of the tracks (literally). Maybe something clicked inside him, like he thought Addie was class due to her breeding, but he figures out "Lora Mae is the one with class, because she's a faithful wife." I like to think that Porter would not have entertained the idea of running away with Addie at all, except he was under the impression that Lora Mae didn't love him.

The whole film is about miscommunication and how relationships can get into a tangle because of it, so the ending being miscommunicated is sort of appropriate in a weird way.