4. A Letter To Three Wives (1949)
Back in 1949, sociocultural differences were perhaps a tad bit different than today. Imagine three women that are all stock characters that receive a letter from a woman called Addie Ross, in which she states that she has stolen one of their husbands. Of course this film is based on a book, which makes it even more hilarious that this film won the award for best screenplay beating out Sicas Bicycle Thief. This film is a constant shrine to the importance of Best Original Screenplay.: Despite all of these facts, one still has to ask how this melodramatic film was ever nominated. The plot itself is not so strange, but rather than execution of it. Call me a square, however I think there would be hell to pay if some woman would write three ladies and gloat how she has stolen one of their husbands; instead like many Hollywood films of that era the subject matter is treated frivolously. One wonders if 20th Century Fox would have made a film where a man sends three other males a letter stating that he had raped one of their wives and they all just muck it up in a melodramatic comedy. Chalk this nomination in the strange category.