Letters from Three Lovers

Letters from Three Lovers
Directed by John Erman
Produced by Aaron Spelling
Leonard Goldberg
Written by Ann Marcus
Jerome Kass
Starring Martin Sheen
June Allyson
Juliet Mills
Music by Pete Rugolo
Cinematography Tim Southcott
Edited by Roland Gross
Distributed by ABC
Release dates
 October 3, 1973
Running time
 75 minutes
Country USA
Language English

Letters from Three Lovers is a 1973 made-for-TV drama film directed by John Erman. An ABC Movie of the Week and a sequel to The Letters (1973), the film is co-produced by Aaron Spelling, written by Ann Marcus and stars Martin Sheen, Belinda Montgomery, Robert Sterling, June Allyson, Ken Berry and Juliet Mills, among others.[1]

Plot

A mailman (Henry Jones) speaks about three stories of lives that were completely changed by letters not having come through the mail on time. The first includes Vincent (Martin Sheen), a former member of the army in the Vietnam war, whose wife Angie (Belinda Montgomery) works at a bar for a strict boss, Al (James McCallion). Vincent reveals to Angie that he has recently been fired and can not give her a big marriage, nor can he invest in a garage with his friend Jesse. Even though Angie tells him that she loves him nonetheless, Vincent robs Al in a desperate rage. He quickly becomes imprisoned, and Angie attempts to support him, but Vincent - ashamed - orders her not to visit him again. In prison, he has difficulty forgetting about his fiance. In a letter, Angie informs Vincent that she still stands by his side, and that she was fired from the job, and has since moved away to live near her new job.

In the second story, set in a suburb 350 miles from Los Angeles, a wealthy older couple Joshua (Barry Sullivan) and Monica Brandon (June Allyson) do not seem invested in each other's lives anymore. The marriage suffered under the sudden death of their 10-year-old son years earlier. When one night, her husband does not show up in a restaurant in Los Angeles for dinner, Monica meets Bob Francis (Robert Sterling). They share a meal and have a great time, and end up in bed with each other. Monica and Bob promise each other to meet once a month in the same hotel, and send a letter to the place if one can not attend. The next month, Bob finds out that his business wild send him to New York, not Los Angeles, meaning that they can not meet up. He sends a letter to the hotel, explaining Monica the situation, but the letter is sent to late, leaving Monica feeling stood up in the hotel.

The final story involves middle class businessman Jack (Ken Berry), who was once a spontaneous guy, but is now criticized by colleague Sam (Lyle Waggoner) for having become a scrooge. He plans on marrying a rich girl, and checks into an expensive hotel in Palm Beach to achieve his goal. Meanwhile, somewhere else secretary Donna (Ellen Weston), is invited to accompany her boss Mr. Thompson (Dan Tobin) to Palm Beach. She is not able to come and instead sends her colleague Maggie (Juliet Mills). Work acquires Thompson to quickly leave, but he allows Maggie to take full usage of his hotel, allowing her to have a small vacation as soon as she is done filing papers. In her spare time, she meets Jack and enjoys his attention so much, that she pretends to come from money in order to not lose his interest. They go out on several dates over the next two days, and Jack proposes to her at the end of their vacation. She promises to give him an answer the next morning, but he turns out to be gone by then, leaving her to think that he has found out that she is not wealthy. Jack, meanwhile, admits to Sam that he left because he feels that he is not good enough for her. In a letter, he reveals about his fraud, but assures her that he loves her.

The mailman explains that all three letters arrived a year late due to an accident involving the plane that carried the letters. Vincent, who has since been released from prison, is desperately seeking for Angie, when he receives her belated letter, through which he finds out her new address. A criminal named Wilson (Logan Ramsey) has offered him money to serve as a driver in a heist, but Vincent wants to visit Angie and tries to reject him. Wilson, however, threatens to kill him if he does not help out. During the heist, Vincent calls Angie to tell her he loves her. Wilson sees him in a telephone booth and thinks that he is warning the police, and thus shoots and kills him. Meanwhile, Monica is considering to adopt a child with Joshua, when she suddenly receives Bob's letter. She immediately meets up with him, but realizes that the passion is gone. She gladly returns to Joshua, and tells him how much she loves him. Finally, Maggie receives Jack's letter and coincidentally runs into him at work the same day. Jack fears that she hates him because of the letter, but Maggie assures him that she loves him even more.

Cast

References

  1. ↑ Review summary The New York Times

External links