Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal, and Ruth Roman have "Three Secrets"

Three Secrets (1950) is an American drama directed by Robert Wise and starring Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal, and Ruth Roman. The supporting cast includes Frank Lovejoy, Leif Erickson, and Ted de Corsia.

Three women (Parker, Neal, and Roman) gave up a son for adoption when their lives were in turmoil. After a private plane crashes in the California mountains the sole survivor is a five-year-old boy. All three women believe that the boy on the mountain may be the son they gave up for adoption. 

As the drama on the mountain becomes a national story, all three women recall what their lives were like five years ago. How will the news of their past affect their present and future?

Publicity photo of Ruth Roman, Patricia Neal, and Eleanor Parker

Robert Wise (1914 - 2000) was an American director, producer, and editor. Wise began his movie career at RKO as a sound and music editor. For several years, he worked with senior editor William Hamilton. Wise’s first solo film editing credits were on Bachelor Mother (1939) and My Favorite Wife (1940). He was the film editor of Citizen Kane and was nominated for an Academy Award for Film Editing. Wise got his chance to direct at RKO from Val Lewton, the producer of horror classics like Cat People (1942). The Curse of the Cat People (1944) was the first film that Wise received director credit for. He eventually directed films noir, westerns, melodramas, and science fiction. Some popular films directed by Wise include The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951), Executive Suite (1954), and I Want to Live! (1958), which earned Wise his first Oscar nomination for Best Director. He went on to win Best Director Oscars for West Side Story (1961) and The Sound of Music (1965).

Eleanor Parker (1922 - 2013) was an American actress in film and a three-time Best Actress Academy Award nominee. She signed a long-term contract with Warner Bros. in 1941. For the next few years she played minor roles in some important films, but her first big role came in Between Two Worlds (1944) opposite John Garfield and Paul Henreid. She was again cast alongside Garfield in Pride of the Marines (1945) and that film made her a star. Some of the films she made after that were not as successful and Parker was more careful choosing film roles, often refusing parts and being put on suspension. Warners cast her (after much lobbying from Parker) in Caged (1950), a film about a woman’s prison. The film was a hit and her performance earned Parker her first Best Actress Academy Award nomination. For her performance, she won the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival. After leaving Warners, Parker freelanced for a while with limited success. In 1953, she signed a long-term contract with M-G-M. At her new studio, she co-starred with Clark Gable, Robert Taylor (they made three films together), and Glenn Ford. One of her most celebrated roles was as opera singer Marjorie Lawrence in Interrupted Melody (1955) which earned her third Oscar nomination. In the mid-50s, Parker was one of the most popular female stars in the movies. With all her accomplishments during her prime, she will most likely be remembered for her role as Baroness Elsa Schraeder in The Sound of Music (1965), one of the most popular and successful films of all time.

Patricia Neal (1926 - 2010) was an American film and stage actress. Neal gained fame on Broadway, winning the 1947 Tony Award for Best Featured Actress in a Play for her role in Another Part of the Forrest. Coincidentally, 1947 was the first year the Tony Awards were presented. Hollywood came calling and Neal signed a contract with Warner Bros. In 1949, she made three films including The Fountainhead co-starring Gary Cooper. In 1951 she starred in the science fiction classic The Day the Earth Stood Still. In the early 1950s, she left Hollywood to go back on the stage. She returned to the screen in 1957's A Face in the Crowd co-starring Andy Griffith. She co-starred with Audrey Hepburn and George Peppard in Breakfast at Tiffany's and she won the Academy Award for Best Actress in 1963 for Hud. Neal continued to act in film, stage, and television until 2009.

Ruth Roman (1922 – 1989) was an American film, stage, and television actress. Roman got her start in the movies starring in the Jungle Queen (1945) film serial. She had a notable role in The Window (1949) which lead to her being cast in Champion (1949) co-starring Kirk Douglas. These successes earned her a contract with Warner Bros. During her years under contract, she co-starred with some of Hollywood’s top leading men including Gary Cooper, Errol Flynn, Glenn Ford, and James Stewart. Roman also worked steadily on television during the 1950s and beyond, appearing on such popular shows as Mannix, Marcus Welby, M.D., The Mod Squad, The FBI, and The Outer Limits.

To watch the film on YouTube, click the link below.

To join the discussion on October 10, 202, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time, click here. Once you RSVP, you will receive an invitation and link to join the discussion on Zoom.

Discussion questions

1. Did you find the situation realistic or believable?
2. Of the three women, did you have a favorite? 
3. If this film were made today, how might it be different or the same?
4. What did you think of performances? Did one of the actresses outshine the others?
5. Did the film remind you of other films you've seen?

Joan Fontaine and Louis Jordan in “Letter from an Unknown Woman”

Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948) is an American drama directed by Max Ophuls and starring Joan Fontaine and Louis Jordan. The movie is based on the novella of the same name by Stefan Zweig.

Joan Fontaine (Lisa) and Louis Jordan (Stefan)

During the early days of the twentieth century in Vienna, Lisa, a teenage girl (Fontaine) becomes enamored by concert pianist Stefan Brand (Jordan) who is a new tenant in her apartment building. As Stefan’s career gains traction, Lisa becomes obsessed with him. She stays up late to listen to him play, and even sneaking into his apartment to see how he lives and to admire him from afar.

Lisa’s mother reveals that she is engaged to be married to a wealthy gentleman and that they will be moving to Linz. This makes Lisa distraught and she finds her life in Linz almost unbearable. Eventually, Lisa moves back to Vienna, working as a dress model. She lingers the streets of her old neighborhood hoping to get a glimpse of her idol and love, Stefan.

Will he notice her? Will the love she has for Stefan bloom into a relationship between the two of them?

The Backstory

Max Ophuls (1931-1957) was born in Germany where his film career began. After it was clear the Nazis would take power in Germany, Ophuls, a jew, moved to France in 1933 where he became a French citizen in 1938. After the fall of France, he traveled through Switzerland and Italy, eventually ending up in the United States. In Hollywood, Ophuls directed Douglas Fairbanks Jr. in The Exile (1947), Joan Fontaine and Louis Jordan in Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), Caught starring James Mason, Barbara Bel Geddes, and Robert Ryan. The Reckless Moment would be his last Hollywood film before he returned to France, where he directed major successes La Ronde (1950) and The Earrings of Madame de…(1953) starring Charles Boyer and Danielle Darrieux.

Joan Fontaine (1917 – 2013) was a British-American actress who starred in more than 45 films during Hollywood’s “Golden Age.” After secondary roles in Gunga Din (1939) and The Women (1939), her fortunes turned with her starring role in Alfred Hitchcock’s first American film, Rebecca (1940). She was nominated for Best Actress for her role in that film but lost to Ginger Rogers. The next year, she worked with Hitchcock again in Suspicion and this time won the Best Actress Oscar, beating out her older sister Olivia de Havilland. She received a third and final nomination for The Constant Nymph (1943). Other popular Fontaine films include This Above All (1942), From This Day Forward (1946), Ivy (1947), Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948), The Emperor Waltz (1948), and Ivanhoe (1952). After the late-1950s, she appeared less in films and more on stage and television. Fontaine and her sister are the only siblings to have won major acting Academy Awards.

And older Lisa and Stefan

Louis Jourdan (1921 - 2015) was a French film and television actor. Jourdan worked on the stage in Europe and even began working in films as early as 1939, but his film work was interrupted due to World War II. After the war, Jourdan was brought to Hollywood by producer David O. Selznick. His first film in Hollowood was Alfred Hitchcock’s The Paradine Case (1947). The next year he made Letter from an Unknown Woman, one of his most famous roles during his long career. Jourdan made movies in Europe and Hollywood and starred on Broadway in The Immoralist in 1954 co-starring with Geraldine Page and James Dean. Jourdan’s most famous and successful American film was Gigi (1958). The film cos-starred Leslie Caron and Maurice Chevalier and won nine Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Letter from an Unknown Woman trivia:

• Fontaine was 30 years old when she played Lisa, who was 16 years old at the beginning of the film.
• The film was made by Rampart Productions, an independent film company formed by Fontaine and her then-husband William Dozier.
• Japanese film director, Hideo Nakata considers this “The best film in the entire movie industry.”
• Both Fontaine and Jourdan were under contract to David O. Selznick at the time of production.

To watch the film on YouTube, click on the link below.

To join us on Zoom for a discussion of the film on February 6, 2021, at 6:30 p.m. Central Time, click here. Once you RSVP, you will receive an invitation and link to the Zoom meeting.

Questions for discussion:

1. Do you think Fontaine was convincing as a teenager early in the film?
2. Was Jourdan convincing as a concert pianist and playboy?
3. Do you think Stefan ever loved Lisa?
4. What did you think of the film’s production?

10 Things You May Not Know About Barbara Stanwyck

Barbara Stanwyck (1907 – 1990) was one of the greatest movie stars from Hollywood’s Golden Age. She starred in many classic films, including the Pre-Code Baby Face (1933), Stella Dallas (1937), The Lady Eve (1941), and Double Indemnity (1944) to name a few. She became a major TV star portraying Victoria Barkley on the hit series The Big Valley (1965 – 1969). Find out how much you know or don’t know about this legendary actress.

1. Stanwyck (born Ruby Stevens) was orphaned at the age of four. She and her older brother Byron spent their childhood in and out of foster homes.

2. She was a dancer in the Ziegfeld Follies during the 1922 and 1923 seasons.

3. Her big break came on Broadway playing a chorus girl in The Noose (1926); this is when she became Barbara Stanwyck.

4. The next year, Stanwyck was the toast of Broadway for her starring role in Burlesque (1927).

5. Oscar Levant introduced Stanwyck to her first husband, Frank Fay.

Stanwyck, director Mitchell Leisen, and Fred MacMurray on the set of  Remember the Night (1940)

6. As Stanwyck’s star rose, Fay’s fell. Many believe their disintegrating marriage was the inspiration for the original film version of A Star Is Born (1937).

7. Zeppo Marx was Stanwyck’s manager and he along with Stanwyck and his first wife, Marion Benda, owned a thoroughbred horse farm called Marwyck.

8. In 1944 she was the highest paid woman in the United States.

9. She was nominated four times as Best Actress, but never won a competitive Oscar; she was awarded a special Academy Award in 1982.

10. Producer Earl Hamner Jr. originally wanted Stanwyck to play Angela Channing in the hit TV series Falcon Crest.

Looking for more information on this screen legend, check out A Life of Barbara Stanwyck: Steel True 1907- 1940 by Victoria Wilson.