THREE SECRETS

US, 1949, 98 minutes, Black and white.
Eleanor Parker, Patricia Neal, Ruth Roman, Frank Lovejoy, Leif Erickson, Ted de Corsia, Edmond Ryan, Larry Keating.
Directed by Robert Wise.

Three Secrets is a soap opera melodrama directed by Robert Wise who started work as an editor with Orson Welles and as a director with producer Val Lewton. He was to make more and more ambitiously successful films, winning Oscars for West Side Story and The Sound of Music. Three Secrets is women's material, presented with the melodramatic styles of the '40s. The three actresses do well in their central roles, particularly Patricia Neal. There is a lush score by Max Steiner. The material now seems fairly contrived and coincidental - but it stands well enough by later versions of this kind of material in the disaster films of the '70s.

1. The appeal of melodrama, soap opera? 'Women's material' and its perennial appeal? Emotional and tearful response?

2. Audience response in the '40s? (The equivalent of modern series and serials on television?) Black and white photography, obvious studio sets, the emotional musical score, the dialogue with its conventional and sometimes trite material, obvious devices and contrivances? The predictable aspects of the screenplay? How well does the melodrama come across despite the conventions?

3. The social background of the film - unmarried mothers, adoption, the law,. the privacy for adoption agencies? Careers, prison? The emotional response to social questions? Audiences identifying with each of the three women?

4. The initial build-up to the disaster,, the survival of the boy, its effect on the three women, giving them hope, courage to face their own lives and remember?

5. The flashback technique of the film and its building its drama on this? Audience interest in each of the three women, emotional response to their stories, judging them able to be a mother. guessing which was the real mother? The cumulative dramatic effect?

6. The presentation of the disaster material - the situation, the crash. the photos and their accuracy, the survival of the boy, the sheriff and his rounding up the party, the climbers, the radio interviews, the accident on the mountain, the people looking through binoculars, the signals and the flares?

7. The media and their prying into people's lives, the interviews, the tough interview methods, the personalities of the climbers coming through, the information given about methods for rescue? The documentary overtones?
8. The portrait of Susan: her marriage to Bill, the influence of her mother, successful marriage? The effect of the news and the memories? The wartime romance with Paul, his leaving and explaining that it was only a passing affair, her grief at the fence? Her attempted suicide, the pregnancy, the going away with her mother to have the baby, the melodramatics as regards the adoption and her signing the papers? The introduction of the other two women?

9. The contrast with Phyllis? Tough, her work as a reporter, her relationship with Duffy and their clash on her return how, her absences, his not being able to stand it? Their night together and her pregnancy? The separation, Duffy's remarriage? The decision for Phyllis to leave Duffy and go on the war mission? Duffy’s overhearing it and her going? Her success in her career? Her reputation for tough-mindedness and hard-heartedness? Her presence at the mountain, her treatment of the other two women, her resourcefulness? The final bargain as regards suppressing the news?

10. Ann and her vulnerability, the situation with the gangsters, the money, her being bought off, her grief and the killing of her lover? The manslaughter change? The birth of the baby and its adoption?

11. The drama of the three women meeting and interacting? Susan and her longing, her telegram to Bill, her fear and the reconciliation? Phyllis and her getting the information, her control of the other women? Her sentiment in suppressing the news? Ann and her grief, the interaction with the other two women and its effect on her, her knowledge that it was her baby, giving it to Susan without the information? Her seeing beauty in the mountains?

12. A satisfactory solution for each of the women? Satisfying for the audience? The boy with a home and a future?

13. The value of the emotional response to this kind of film, to the characters, their situations? An awareness of social issues and a sympathetic response?