Three Secrets (1950) User Reviews

Three stars shine in low-key melodrama directed by Robert Wise...

[Doylenf · 6/10 · 26 November 2006]

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.

Buon Giorno, Mr. Campbell

[writers_reign · 7/10 · 18 October 2009]

Most of the other reviews posted here have compared this movie unfavorably with Mank's A Letter To Three Wives and whilst there are similarities it is actually closer - as my summary indicates - to a much later movie, Buona Sera, Mrs Campbell, in which any one of three GIs could be the father of Gina Lollobrigida's now fully grown daughter. This time around any one of three women could be the mother of an adopted boy who is the sole survivor of an air crash. How so?Seems that Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal and Ruth Roman all had a son born September 25th in the same year and all three, for various reasons, placed him with the Shelter Adoption Agency and signed away all rights. Now he is in the news and his date of birth revealed all three converge on the scene and we get their backstorys in flashback. It's a taut, well-handled entry and though light years short of Letter To Three Wives is nevertheless highly entertaining. All three leads are fine actresses - Parker picked up a Best Actress gong at Venice that same year for Caged - and the male support is interesting for nostalgia buffs throwing out such names as Frank Lovejoy, Ted de Corisa, Kenneth Tobey etc. Definitely recommend.

Solid drama, but .....

[eddie-83 · 7/10 · 3 October 2000]

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.

The Aftermath

[boblipton · 7/10 · 31 August 2021]

A plane crashes on a mountain peak. Everyone is dead, except possibly the five-year-old adopted son of two of the passengers. As reporters gather to cover the story of the men preparing to climb to mountain to rescue the child, the movie concentrates on three women present: tough-as-nails reporter Patricia Neal, married, childless housewife Eleanor Parker, and Ruth Roman, convicted of slaying the father of her unborn child. Each had given a child up for adoption on the same day to the same adoption agency, the day the child was adopted.

The situation is remarkably similar to Wilder's mordant ACE IN THE HOLE, but Robert Wise's movie is more about the story of the three women and their suffering. The performances are prime work; even Leif Erickson as Miss Parker's lawyer husband recites his few lines in stalwart tones. 1920s Sennett clown Billy Bevan gets three lines, and other actors like Frank Lovejoy and Larry Keating give good performances, but the emphasis is on the three women: tamped-down Miss Neal, fragile Miss Parker and almost hysterical Miss Roman. I'm not terribly fond of these stories, but this is a well told one.

Clone of A Letter to 3 Wives..but WORKS!!

[olddiscs · 7/10 · 12 January 2004]

Spin offs, copy cats clones, Three Secrets is easily compared to its earlier & far better film A Letter To 3 Wives Basically both plots involve 3 women in a quandry.or a dilemma..in 3 Wives .one of their husbands has run away with another woman (Miss Addie Ross).. who which ? stream of conciousness flashbacks..witty & brilliantly directed by Joseph L.Mankiewiecz a superb cast & even better supporting cast "Letter "is one of the all time great films.."Tree Secrets 3 women face another dilemma, a boy is involved in a plane crash in the mountains. Boy was adopted by parents who were killed in crash..Boy survives crash 3 women gave birth to a boy same day..& gave up for adoption to the same shelter..Whos child is this? Does anyone care.?Yes it is agood film very a sorbing & very well acted. 3very good actresses Eleanor Parker Patricia Neal & Ruth Roman are the 3 women in despair,,and give very fine performances.Direction is very good also by future Oscar winner Robert Wise.. but a lot is borrowed from "Letter" the basic 3 women plot, the miasma, and the stream of concsiousness flashbacks.They worked well for "Letter" & work well here also... but the conclusion is smaltzy & the film lacks the wit and intelligence of its predecessor.. Worth seeing.. a "Chick" flick & some good actors involved..but Letter to 3 Wives is an original & a masterpiece !!

Three Secrets - The Story of Real People

[JLRMovieReviews · 9/10 · 8 April 2014]

A young boy is the sole survivor of a plane that went down in the mountains and a rescue mission of mountain-climbers are on their way to get him. The news flash reveals that today is his birthday and that he had been adopted through a certain agency. When Eleanor Parker hears this, she loses it, as she had given her baby up five years ago and that today would have been his birthday. She never told husband Leif Ericson. She hightails to the site where the press is stationed near the mountains. There she meets Patricia Neal and Ruth Roman, who both had used the same agency to give up their babies on the same day. Through the device of flashbacks, we are allowed the story of each and how each came to this point of their lives. This is excellent little film with great actresses for the lead roles, fleshing out the characters and making them three-dimensional. I grant you actresses like Bette Davis, Susan Hayward, and Joan Crawford has guts, but no one could quite deliver a line like Patricia Neal with her sarcastic coyness. And, Ruth Roman is one tough cookie, too. But the story is what really takes center stage with a taut pace and the outdoors being used to good advantage by the film's director. But who's baby is it? We are told, but there is more to it than any happy ending. The film reflects the struggles, loves, and yes secrets of three women, who were existing in a world and trying to come out a survivor, and that's what makes this film successful: the story of people. People are the story.

Three mothers of an adopted child rescued from an air crash

[clanciai · 10/10 · 24 August 2019]

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.

This Is No Secret-A Wonderful Film ****

[edwagreen · 10/10 · 24 January 2006]

This marvelous 1950 film deals with 3 women who gave up their baby boy for adoption. 5 years later, the child is involved in a plane crash that killed his parents. Each of the women believe that the boy is theirs.

Patricia Neal, as one of the women, is a hard-nosed reporter. As with the others, the film goes back to show the situation that would lead them to give up the baby. Neal had divorced her husband only to learn that she was a reporter. A career woman, she could never care for a child or hold on to her marriage.

Then there is Ruth Roman who went to prison for killing her boyfriend. The latter wanted her to have an abortion when she told him of her pregnancy.

Eleanor Parker is a sweet woman who gave up an illegitimate child and is now happily married. You're rooting for Parker to be the mother. She can provide the boy with the proper upbringing. True, it will mean that she will have to tell her husband about her past, but she can provide the right nurturing environment.

Of course, the 3 women will come to the mountain area where the boy is in the plane. Neal will have to use her paper connections to get to who the real mother is.

As a reader, please connect to this film via your video store. It's well worth the trip.

Naturally, each of the women

Convoluted, if well-acted melodrama, with three great leading ladies.

[mark.waltz · 5/10 · 20 October 2011]

I am very surprised that they have not re-made this film with Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Brittany Spears. This is the type of women's film that calls to be updated, and focus on the three current ladies of scandal. In this 1950 melodrama (directed by the legendary Robert Wise), three women gather together at the base of Thunder Mountain where a young boy has been stranded, still living after a plane crash that took the lives of his adopted parents. The three women each think they could be the boy's natural mother, and through flashback, the audience learns their story. The first story surrounds unwed mother Eleanor Parker who was about to tell her boyfriend about her pregnancy when he announced he was returning to an old girlfriend. The second story surrounds a career woman (Patricia Neal) whose marriage ends, and rather than give up her position as head of a scandal magazine, gives the child up instead. The third involves nightclub chanteuse Ruth Roman, a gangster's moll who is forced to give up her child when she murders the louse who was too chicken to break up with her. Get the connection between the three current ladies of scandal? Two "bad girls" and one "nice girl" gone wrong...

The problem with this film is the convoluted and sometimes unbelievable way it is told. Is it really realistic at all that Parker's new husband (Leif Ericksen) would happen to be one of the reporters covering the story and tell her about the child? She rushes to the scene of the crash where she encounters Patricia Neal, who recognizes her from the foundling home. Then, Roman storms in, drunker than all three of the current ladies I mention put together, and her story is revealed. And Ross Hunter's name is nowhere in sight on the producing credits for this movie.

In the film's favor, it is very fun to watch, the type of soap opera that would soon take over TV. In fact, the storyline could belong to any of the three good or bad girls of soon-to-be broadcast on daytime ("Search For Tomorrow's" Jo; "Guiding Light's" Meta, and "Love of Life's" Meg). In some ways, this film reminded me of "Ace in the Hole" (aka "The Big Carnival"), where reporters gather together along with the curious public while a man is trapped in a mine cave-in. The film has a nice conclusion where the two "bad girls" reveal themselves to be quite noble.

Our child.

[ulicknormanowen · 8/10 · 5 April 2022]

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 .

Better than I expected

[rdoyle29 · 8/10 · 19 December 2022]

A small plane crashes in the mountains and everyone aboard is believed to be dead. Aerial photography reveals that one passenger, a 5 year old boy, has survived. News coverage of the event reveals that not only did the crash happen on the boy's birthday, but that he was adopted (and now orphaned). Three women (Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal and Ruth Roman) who gave up babies for adoption exactly 5 years ago realize that he may be their son and travel to the accident site.

This admittedly far-fetched premise sets up a pretty compelling little melodrama as we learn each woman's back story in flashback. The three very different stories are fairly honest portrayals of the kinds of reasons that women have for having children outside of marriage, and while staying inside the confines of the production code, moralizing is kept to a minimum. Neal turns in the most compelling performance (and her story is the most interesting), but all three are good.

Wise's first film for a studio other than RKO is an interesting departure from the genre work he specialized in.

A very good film...that reminds me of "A Letter to Three Wives"

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 4 February 2024]

A year before "Three Secrets", rival studio Twentieth Century-Fox brought out "A Letter to Three Wives"...a truly great film. Warner Brothers created a film a year later with many similarities...too many in my opinion to be a complete coincidence.

The story begins with a plane crash on Thunder Mountain. Everyone aboard is assumed dead but after taking reconnaissance photos, they notice that the body of a boy had moved...and he must be alive. Soon a group of mountaineers are recruited to scale the mountain.

During this rescue mission, three women arrive at the lodge near the mountain. Why? Well, all three gave up a child for adoption five years before...and the child one of them gave up is that child on the mountain. But neither of the three know if it's their biological son...and in the meantime, through flashbacks you learn their stories and why they each decided to put the child up for adoption.

The structure, style and 'three' in the film are all reminiscent of the earlier movie. Both are also written and acted extremely well, though I think "A Letter to Three Wives" is a better film overall...though "Three Secrets" clearly IS a very good and very engaging story and when I watched it, it was near bedtime and I intended to only watch a little and head to sleep.... I at least INTENDED to do this. Instead, I watched it all...because it was just too good to see later.

A fair movie

[phuckracistgop · 5/10 · 10 April 2024]

The acting is a bit wooden with a large dose of misogyny to boot.

You can't help but notice how Eleanor Parker's character is weak frail, but also show a limited range of emotions.

Whereas Patricia Neal's character has a bit more of a independent woman which causes Frank Lovejoy's character to get his feelings hurt because she won't cater to his desire to dominate and control her. "Typical chauvenism that defines the republican party" Hence his pity party complete with tail between the legs as he skulks off in search of a weaker woman who will stroke his pitifully weak male ego.

Now enters Ruth Roman character who gets physically abused by yet another Sloped headed backwards facing knuckles dragging across the pavement Neanderthal. With the typical grabbing the woman's shoulders to restrain her.

Now Ruth Roman's character has a criminal background and shows a tougher side of feminism with a dose of substance abuse to cliche the part.

Both Eleanor and Ruth speak in hushed tones with little variance.

One thing about these older movies, stereotypical male chauvenism all over the place.

Heavy melodrama

[MrDeWinter · 1/10 · 20 September 2021]

Its heart is in the right place but very dated and typical product of its time.

Three women and a child

[jarrodmcdonald-1 · 20 January 2022]

This film is directed by Robert Wise and stars three unique actresses-- Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal and Ruth Roman.

We learn in detail that Susan Chase (Parker) was pregnant with a soldier's baby at the end of the war, and due to unforeseen circumstances she was forced to carry the baby to term on her own. At her mother's insistence, she put the child up for adoption though she quickly regretted it. A year or two later Susan has married an attorney named Bill (Leif Erickson). They have a strong marriage; however, Susan discovers she is unable to have any more children which causes more regret about not keeping her son.

In the next part of the film we meet Phyllis Horn (Neal), a career woman. An extended flashback shows that she was getting a divorce from a fellow named Bob (played by Frank Lovejoy). Just as the divorce was to become final, Phyllis learned she was pregnant. But she didn't tell Bob about it, since he had already moved on with another woman.

Phyllis gave up her son because there was no way to reconcile with her estranged husband; plus she felt raising a child might interfere with her job as a globe trotting reporter.

In the third arc we meet Ann Lawrence (Roman). She's a low-class gal who has killed a no-good lover. She's imprisoned for her crime and later gives birth to a son behind bars. But he's taken away from her.

This is Warner Brothers' version of A LETTER TO THREE WIVES. Only this story is not about a cheating spouse...it's about an adoption. After revealing their backstories, the action flashes ahead five years later. The three women now converge on a rescue scene, because a young boy has been in a plane crash and his adoptive parents were killed. He is eventually pulled from the wreckage and saved. But we have no idea, which one of the three women is his biological mother.

THREE SECRETS is an effective melodrama because we become invested in the situations of the main characters. And by putting a helpless child into the scenario, it becomes a lot more dramatic and emotional. Viewers can invest in a boy being reunited with his mother.

So which one is it? Who is actually his mother? You'll have to watch and find out!