The Letter
by William Wyler
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Bette Davis, Frieda Inescort, Gale Sondergaard, Herbert Marshall, James StephensonDirector: William Wyler
Brand: Warner Brothers
Cinematographer: Tony Gaudio
Producer: William Wyler
Editor: George Amy
Producer: Hal B. Wallis
Producer: Robert Lord
Writer: Howard Koch
Writer: W. Somerset Maugham
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Black & White, Closed-captioned, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-01-11
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Warner Home Video
Movie Reviews of The Letter
Movie Review: "Be flippant about your own crimes if you want to but don't be flippant about mine!"
Summary: 5 Stars
As the film begins the camera pans over a drowsy, oppressive, tropical night on a rubber plantation on the Malay Peninsula, past the building where the workers are billeted, coming to rest on a white cockatoo silhouetted against a brightly lit bungalow. BANG! A gun report breaks the stillness, the bird takes flight, the door of the house is flung open and a man staggers out onto the veranda, pursued by a woman in a long flowing robe holding a revolver, which she again shoots at him. The man grabs futilely at the banister; another bullet pierces his back and pitches him forward down the steps. He lies sprawled awkwardly facedown on the ground while the expressionless woman continues firing at his still body until the click tells her all the chambers are empty, then the gun drops out of her hand. And so begins the second and best film adaption of W. Somerset Maugham's melodrama "The Letter" brilliantly directed by William Wyler and starring Bette Davis as Leslie Crosbie in one of her most atypical and powerful portrayals.
As Leslie tells the story, she shot the man, Geoff Hammond (David Newell), a friend of her husband Robert (Herbert Marshall) and she because he tried to rape her and she was defending her honor. There is no reason to doubt her; up to now her character has been beyond reproach, she is the perfect Englishwoman and planter's wife, proper, well bred, intelligent and self-assured. The young magistrate John Withers (Bruce Lester) summoned to the crime scene is awed with admiration at Leslie's courage and her lucid, dispassionate recital of the facts of the murder. As initially is their friend, barrister Howard Joyce (James Stephenson), who has been summoned by Robert as legal counsel. However, Joyce seems to have a shred of doubt, after viewing the body, he tells Leslie that some of the shots had to have been made after Hammond was on the ground, but Leslie explains it away. Although she is confined to jail in Singapore prior to the trial, it is a mere legal formality and everyone treats her as a favored guest rather than a prisoner. Public opinion in the British colony is definitely on her side, particularly after it is revealed Hammond had a Eurasian wife and secretly owned a gambling house. Everyone including Joyce is certain she will be acquitted, until his unctuous law clerk Ong Chi Seng (Sen Yung) reveals the existence of a very incriminating letter written the night of the murder from Leslie to Hammond telling him she has to see him, her husband will be away for the night, and she won't answer for the consequences if Hammond doesn't come. Hammond's widow has it, and will sell it for $10,000. It's imperative that the letter is obtained if Leslie is to be declared innocent.
No other director mined the gold out of Bette Davis' performances the way William Wyler could. Leslie Crosbie stands as one of her finest achievements right up there with Judith Traherne in "Dark Victory" and Margo Channing in "All About Eve". The Davis' flamboyance is muted, her Leslie is coolly self-possessed, so that her few flare ups of passion come almost as a shock. Seemingly serene on the surface, Davis ably suggests there are hot springs of emotion seething underneath, she is hypnotically drawn to the full moon, it seems to cast a spell on her, she is literally moonstruck. She is a superb lace maker, but doesn't do it for the joy of the delicate beauty she creates, but rather as an outlet to sooth herself, something that will demand all her power of concentration. Leslie wears a mask and little by little Davis' deftly reveals the true character as the inconsistencies spill out. This is a subtle and beautifully drawn characterization, a woman neither black nor white in her character, but colored in shades of gray. For the third year in a row, Davis got a Best Actress Oscar nomination, but unjustly lost the prize to Ginger Rogers in the sappy "Kitty Foyle."
James Stephenson is equally fine as Howard Joyce, particularly in the final courtroom summation for the jury, when you can see how much his conscience is torturing him. He was deservedly tapped with a Best Supporting Actor nomination. As Robert Crosbie, Herbert Marshall brings a sad dignity to this bewildered husband who finds he truly didn't know his wife at all. A minor flaw in the film is Gale Sondergaard as Mrs. Hammond, a sinister, grotesque Dragon Lady, baleful, menacing and noticeably older than Leslie. It stretches the imagination to accept that Hammond would prefer her to the younger and more attractive Leslie, unless of course she excelled in the bedroom, but she doesn't seem like she would have or give much joy between the sheets! Still the scene is memorable where Leslie and Mrs. Hammond meet to exchange the letter, Leslie in a long white full skirted dinner dress cloaked in a elegant white lace shawl of her own creation that veils her head reminds me of a statue of a Spanish Madonna while Mrs. Hammond reptilian in a tight, shiny, armorial gown resembles a cobra ready to strike. In the television remake in 1982 with Lee Remick playing Leslie, Mrs. Hammond was younger and better looking, which made more sense of the story. In lesser roles Sen Young as Joyce's law clerk Ong Chi Sing is an insufferably obsequious Asian Uriah Heep, and Frieda Inescourt properly complacent as Joyce's sleek wife Dorothy.
This could have been a potboiler; instead under William Wyler's sure guidance and direction, a superior, engrossing melodrama emerges. He keeps a taut line on the proceedings; from the beginning there is an ominous, disquieting atmostphere as the credits roll with Max Steiner's moody, full-blown musical themes adding immeasurably to the suspense, as does the stark black and white photography of Tony Gaudio. There is a rising line of tension that doesn't give up straight to the end. An excellent example of this in a critical scene is the tinkling of glass wind chimes in the breeze, what ordinarily would be a pleasant, lightly musical sound here has a dissonant, ragged, foreboding note of impending danger. And I'd like to give a final bravo to Howard Koch who skillfully adapted and improved on the original Maugham play, with not a superfluous word or action.
About the extras, besides the trailer, there is an alternative ending; the only difference between it and the final film is that a key scene of Bette Davis and Herbert Marshall was unwisely eliminated. Thankfully it was restored, the film would not have been as strong without it. There are also two radio adaptations, both starring Bette Davis; the first version also has James Stephenson and Herbert Marshall. Frankly, I just listened to the first few minutes of that one, it sounded quite similar to the film, I saw no point in listening to the rest, when you can view the original which is of higher rank in every way.
Summary of The Letter
LETTER - DVD MovieIn the opening sequence of The Letter, director William Wyler delivers a primer on film directing: at a rubber plantation, in the tropical funk of a Malaysian night, the heavy stillness is suddenly broken by shots... and a woman with a gun, descending a staircase. She is the wife of the plantation owner, and the dead man is, ahem, not her husband. Holding the gun so securely is Bette Davis, in one of her greatest performances (her acting of a big revelation, late in the film, is still an astounding piece of emotional fluency). The story is taken from one of those sturdy Somerset Maugham tales that has proved itself in many versions, but this is the keeper; it was nominated for seven Oscars®, including best picture, director, and actress, winning none. Wyler's impeccable direction, and Davis's take-no-prisoners approach to an "unsympathetic" character, make for a completely satisfying picture. --Robert Horton
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