THREE SECRETS (1950)

Irresistible ‘Woman’s Pic’ plays like the bastard middle sibling between 1949's A LETTER TO THREE WIVES and 1951's ACE IN THE HOLE.  This little-known Robert Wise title, a one-off indie released thru Warners, squeezed in post-R.K.O./pre-20th/Fox contracts.  He probably couldn’t resist this hook of a storyline: Mountainside plane crash kills Mom & Dad, leaves adopted five-yr-old son injured but alive . . . if daring volunteer climbers can reach him in time.  Yikes!  And now, amid a crowd of news reporters gathered at the base, three strangers discover they have a special secret in common.  Each one is the possible birth mom, forced to give up a child for adoption at the same Women's Shelter five years back for the usual causes: unmarried wartime romance (Eleanor Parker); scandalous mob-boss moll (Ruth Roman); divorced career-first woman (Patricia Neal).  Flashbacks tell their separate tales as the women bond in wary friendship and wait for news (alive or dead; theirs or hers).  Simply, but effectively done, with just amounts of heartbreak & life-lessons, along with a twist ending to satisfy all but the pickiest of realists.  Wise moving things along and finding great acting partners for each Mom.  Special nod to perennial tough-guy Ted de Corsia as the seen-it-all  gangster gatekeeper trying to keep Roman from disappointment.

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  Good as all three putative mothers are, Patricia Neal (soon to join Wise @ Fox) works on a different acting level than her co-stars.  Something Wise remembered when he was casting THE DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL/’52.

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: As mentioned, LETTER TO THREE WIVES and ACE IN THE HOLE.  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2022/02/a-letter-to-three-wives-1949.html