Damn, I wish I'd thought of that

I'm taking some time off from work (which, at this point in my life, I do on a periodic basis only,) and I've been watching lots of movies on classic TV networks. I recently caught a showing of one of my favorites, A Letter To Three Wives.

It had been quite some time since the last time I'd seen this little gem from 1949 (often overlooked in favor of what many regard as writer/director Joseph L. Mankiewicz' masterpiece, All About Eve, which was released one year later, in 1950.) I personally believe Letter is the superior film. But this time I realized something else. This film has an awful lot in common with one of my favorite TV shows, specifically Desperate Housewives.

The action in both the movie and the TV show takes place in an affluent burg, although all the Housewives live on the same street. A Letter To Three Wives is narrated by a fourth wife, Addie Ross, who has left town. Desperate Housewives is narrated by another wife, Mary Alice Young, who is dead. A Letter To Three Wives features one wife who is portrayed as somewhat of a klutz (Deborah Bishop, played by Jeanne Crain.) Desperate Housewives features a wife who seems to always be either putting her foot in her mouth or acting on an impulse, usually with disastrous results (Susan Mayer, played by Teri Hatcher.) A Letter To Three Wives has a wife who is firecely ambitious (Rita Phipps, played by Ann Sothern in the best role she ever got,) who out-earned her husband, an unusual concept for 1949. Desperate Housewives also has a fiercely ambitious wife with huge earnings potential (Lynette Scavo, played by Felicity Huffman.) A Letter To Three Wives has a wife who is a gold digger (Lora May Hollingsway, played by Linda Darnell.) In Desperate Housewives, the character of Gabrielle Solis (Eva Longoria) loves the comfortable lifestyle her successful husband provides.

There are enough completely different features in the TV show, like the character of Bree Van Der Kamp (Marcia Cross,) where no one can claim series creator Marc Cherry copied the movie script, but it seems to me that he was clearly inspired by it. He says his mother gave him the idea as she recalled feeling sometimes feeling desperate when she raised her children with an often out-of-town husband, but I'm inclined to believe that he might have left out the part about seeing this old movie to get the whole idea for Wisteria Lane. And there's not a thing wrong with that.

Like I said, I wish I'd thought of it.