In 1975 Norwegian theater and film director Anja Breien offered an (unsolicited) sequel to John Cassavetes' Husbands. Wives is the decidedly incautionary tale of three housewives in their late twenties, old school chums who meet after many years at a school reunion. A night of drinking revives nostalgia for the young women they might have been, but never really were. An escape plan is hatched. Pooling their money, they embark on a three-day lark, picking up men, playing with each other, flirting with danger and with freedom. It is all captured with wonderfully deadpan intimacy by Breien, who developed the script through improvisation with her three stars. A wry, knowing humor informs the smallest moments, and if the husbands and other lovers are all straw dogs, it is because this is the film about wives. At the prospect of returning to home and hearth, one of the trio exclaims, "we can't stop now"; but, a title announces, "the film stops here."