8:45 p.m.	A Letter to Three Wives Joseph L. Mankiewicz (U.S., 1949)

Surely there is no other voice-over in this series as delightfully bitchy, or as wonderfully ambiguous ideologically, as that of the snobby, sneering Addie Ross. Addie has a letter delivered to her three “best friends” informing them that she has stolen one of their husbands—sending them into a daylong flashback panic in which they examine their marital deficiencies. Addie’s omnipresent voice directly addresses the viewer, interrupts conversations between on-screen characters, reads their thoughts, and generally displays all the attributes and powers of a detached and powerful author. An apparent paragon of docile and alluring femininity to which the men wistfully compare their ego-bruising wives, she also flouts convention, showcasing disdain for patriarchy in her easy manipulation of clueless males, mocking bourgeois notions of romantic love, and subtly exposing how the women are “controlled” by an inner but alien voice that works to keep them in their social place.

—Britta Sjogren

• Written by Mankiewicz, based on the novel A Letter to Five Wives by John Klempner. Photographed by Arthur Miller. With Jeanne Crain, Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern, Kirk Douglas. (103 mins, B&W, 35mm, From 20th Century Fox)