A Letter To Three Wives - Production

Production

The rights of John Klempner's Letter to Five Wives was acquired by 20th Century Fox in February 1946, seven months after it was first published in a magazine. Melville Baker and Dorothy Bennett wrote the first treatments of the script. Even though he was not credited for the final film, Baker was responsible for coming up with the idea that the character Addie was only to be heard, and not seen. In October 1946, F. Hugh Herbert was assigned to write the screen adaptation. His final participation was not confirmed. In the same month, it was announced that Samuel G. Engel took over production from Joseph L. Mankiewicz. Even before a script was finished, Gene Tierney, Linda Darnell, Maureen O'Hara, Dorothy McGuire and Alice Faye were cast in A Letter to Five Wives in November 1946.

For a while, the project was shelved, until Mankiewicz started working on the first drafts of the script between March and late April 1948. Around this time, Sol C. Siegel was assigned to replace Engel as the film's producer. Vera Caspary adapted the story to A Letter to Four Wives, and Mankiewicz eventually decided in mid-1948 to focus on only three marriages, thus retitling it to A Letter to Three Wives. In June 1948, it was on the top of 20th Century Fox' list of films to be produced over the following ten months. In addition to the actresses already named as cast members, Anne Baxter, Tyrone Power were also at one point cast. Furthermore, Joan Crawford and Ida Lupino were considered for the (eventually offscreen) role of Addie.

When Baxter was cast, in April 1948, the film was still known under its working title A Letter to Four Wives. She was cast a day after Jeanne Crain, who signed on for the role after months of rumors of her participation. By May 1948, Baxter, Crain, Darnell and Ann Sothern were the four actresses to portray the title roles, and Macdonald Carey campaigned for a secondary role.