The Letter
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Movie Reviews of The Letter
Movie Review: Wicked and Fabulous
Summary: 4 Stars
Bette at her finest as Leslie Crosbie in this Somerset Maugham story. She is drop-dead stylish in an Orry-Kelly gown as she guns down the overseer of the rubber plantation that her husband owns. The plot is chock full of twists and turns and is riveting -- especially when the stereotypical Chinese Dragon Lady, played by the begowned and bejeweled Gale Sondergaard, is onscreen. The highly underrated Miss Sondergaard, originally cast as the Wicked Witch in *The Wizard of Oz*, would lose her Hollywood career with the McCarthy witch trials of the 50s, and has little to do in this movie except look inscrutable and flare her nostrils. But Bette has *plenty* to do. Ulitmately, due to Crosbie's machinations, Dragon Lady gets her revenge, but not before Crosbie does. All's ill that ends ill.Movie Review: One of Davis' best
Summary: 4 Stars
Herbert Marshall is his usual stiff and stoic self, but it is Bette Davis's uncharacteristically unmannered and understated performance that makes this melo-mystery completely compelling for its entire 95 minutes. From the dynamic opening scene, we are drawn into this cunning story with above average direction from William Wyler and a superior supporting cast. There is also an excellent and unsual economy of plot and dialogue absent from many films of its day/genre. There is an Alternate Ending, theatrical and two great radio broadcasts among the Special Features. As a Somerset Maugham fan, I especially appreciate this great movie adaptation of his work.Movie Review: moonlight,lace...and murder
Summary: 4 Stars
The last five minutes of this film alone is worth the price of a DVD.Unlike other reviewers, I don't like to give away endings but it all involves moonlight, lace and murder. Our brilliant Bette gives a fascinating performance as a woman whose murderous actions are seemingly dictated by her own frustrated passions and a forbidding full moon.The actors, direction, and creepy atmosphere really sets this movie apart. The DVD contains an alternate ending that wisely was changed.The quality of the DVD transfer is good but I wish they would remaster all films transferred to DVD because the result is basically a VHS on DVD otherwise.Movie Review: Very Good Film, worst of the Davis Box set releases
Summary: 3 Stars
I won't comment on the film itself, since at this point you've probably read some of the reviews or you could go to imdb to read about the film itself.
As for the DVD itself, I must say it is rather disappointing, since it came in the Bette Davis box set with 4 others that didn't have the annoying things that are on this disc. I will second the complaint(s) about the trailer. Upon inserting the dvd, I got a widescreen (letterboxed) trailer in color for a recent release which was significantly louder than the soundtrack for the film. I was able to stop it and go to the menu, but it does seem that someone did not take as much care in putting together this release as they did for the others. There was also a big hair in the top portion of the screen for a good 3 minutes or so (which seems more oversight than film damage), though otherwise the print looked excellent. Another annoyance was that during the opening & closing credits the film is presented in letter boxed format, even though it's full frame. Then when the action begins the frame fills to the top of the screen. This is really distracting & quite annoyed me at first since I had thought they letterboxed a full frame film. The sound quality is also a mixed bag. Midway through the film, particularly in the scene where Bette & the lawyer visit the "pawn shop" the dialogue is inaudible. I had to turn my receiver to almost 10 to hear it. The inclusion of the alternate ending is nice, but there is no context in which to place it. Was there 2 theatrical releases? did someone change their mind? There's no commentary, liner notes or documentary bits on the making of the film or its release to give you any idea what the story is on the alternate ending.
Movie Review: For Fans Of Classic Movies
Summary: 3 Stars
How one views this movie depends, I would think, on how one generally views classic-era films. For those who enjoy them, this is one to see since it stars one of the great actresses of all time, Bette Davis. For those who prefer faster-paced, modern movies, this would not be recommended.
Myself, I enjoyed Henry Stephenson and his character, "Howard Joyce" in here the most. He got better and better as the film went on, and for me, was the star of the film. Sadly, Stephenson died about a year after this movie came out.
Most people will enjoy yet another sterling performance from Davis, who plays a shady character, "Leslie Crosbie, " a woman trying to get away with murder. Davis is good at playing despicable, scheming liars and she does that well here in this film.
William Wyler's direction and Tony Gaudio's photography give us good atmosphere, which I why I wanted to see this on DVD after seeing a so-so VHS tape.