Customer Reviews

The Letter

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Once you've seen the opening moments of William Wyler's superb "The Letter" you aren't apt to forget what great Hollywood film making is all about for a very, VERY long time. Bette Davis stars in this potent, diabolically delicious melodrama as Leslie Crosbie; the unscrupulous wife of a Malaysian rubber plantation owner. After packing six slugs into a man exiting her boudoir...not her husband...Leslie embarks on a deeply disturbing odyssey to vindicate her murder. Hmmm....vengeful Eurasian, Mrs. Hammond (Gale Sondergaard)will have something to say about that. To this morbid end of tragic curiosity, Leslie is ably aided by the naiveté of her husband, Robert(Herbert Marshall). But then there's the letter; a bit of forgotten business that threatens to unravel all of Leslie's well laid plans and lay bare her genuine passion for the man that she's killed.

The play by Somerset Maugham on which the film is based must have seemed like old hat to Davis. For there can be no other reason why she's so cleverly fiendish and stylishly sinister as Leslie. But then all is not to be realized in sweet escapism when a letter surfaces that could blow the whole truth wide open and send Leslie to prison for life. Superbly crafted with the fine animal instincts of a jungle cat at every turn, "The Letter" was nominated for seven Oscars, including best picture but won not a single statuette. Wyler's impeccable direction, and Davis's mesmerizing and unsympathetic performance are what transform this standard melodrama into movie art!

Unfortunately all is not well with the transfer from Warner Brothers. Yes, most of the picture was designed to have a very dark image, but contrast and tonality in the gray scale here are what seem to be lacking throughout this black and white presentation.Long shots tend to be a bit blurry. There's also some edge enhancement on the horizontal slats of the bamboo blinds that figure into the mood of the piece throughout the film - making certain scenes seem unnecessarily harsh. Age related artifacts crop up now and then. Film grain becomes obtrusive in spots. The audio is mono and overall nicely balanced. Occasionally dialogue is somewhat muffled. Extras include a fascinating alternative ending only recently discovered as well as 2 audio bonuses and the film's original theatrical trailer. "The Letter" comes highly recommended as a melodrama par excellence from a studio, director and a star who definitely understood the subtly of the art.

Once you've seen the opening moments of William Wyler's superb "The Letter" you aren't apt to forget what great Hollywood film making is all about for a very, VERY long time. Bette Davis stars in this potent, diabolically delicious melodrama as Leslie Crosbie; the unscrupulous wife of a Malaysian rubber plantation owner. After packing six slugs into a man exiting her boudoir...not her husband...Leslie embarks on a deeply disturbing odyssey to vindicate her murder. To this end, Leslie is ably aided by the naiveté of her husband, Robert (Herbert Marshall) and by her popular following of fair weather friends, helmed by Mrs. Hammond (Gale Sondergaard).

The play by Somerset Maugham on which the film is based must have seemed like old hat to Davis. For there can be no other reason why she's so cleverly fiendish and stylishly sinister as Leslie. But then all is not to be realized in sweet escapism when a letter surfaces that could blow the whole truth wide open and send Leslie to prison for life. Superbly crafted with the fine animal instincts of a jungle cat at every turn, "The Letter" was nominated for seven Oscars, including best picture but won not a single statuette. Wyler's impeccable direction, and Davis's mesmerizing and unsympathetic performance are what transform this standard melodrama into movie art!

Unfortunately all is not well with the transfer from Warner Brothers. Seemingly contrasting a bit on the overly dark side, fine details are generally lost in the deep and foreboding blackness. Yes, most of the picture was designed to have a very dark image, but contrast and tonality in the gray scale here are what seem to be lacking over all throughout this black and white image. Also, the image is not very stable. Long shots tend to be a bit blurry and out of focus. There's also an annoying amount of edge enhancement on the horizontal slats of the bamboo blinds that figure into the mood of the piece throughout the film - making certain scenes seem unnecessarily harshly contrasted. Age related artifacts crop up now and then. Film grain becomes obtrusive and dense at moments, and practically non-existent at other moments. The audio is mono and overall nicely balanced. Occasionally dialogue is muffled. Extras include a fascinating alternative ending only recently discovered as well as 2 audio bonuses and the film's original theatrical trailer. "The Letter" comes highly recommended as a melodrama par excellence from a studio, director and a star who definitely understood the subtly of the art. As a DVD you may find the presentation somewhat disappointing.

It is a real crime story. Only at the end of this story you experience what happened in this special night. It is hard to feel how this nice beautiful woman can be a murderer.I was surprised that a lawyer does such a great deal (with that letter) to save the life of his client who is guilty. At the end you are in doubt if it is a fair end or not. The book is interesting to read.

"The Letter" is easy to read, interesting, but not very creative. You can see such a story in every detectiv movie! But I think it was really colourful and amusing and all the less the end is surprising, but also quite trashy. This book was another exemple of how unpredictable people are.

The letter

I have read the book, and I think it's very good. The story is great. "The Letter" I must say, is one book of English, that I like to read. I have read a lot of English books, but this is my favourite. The book is very easy to read. And i like it.

The letter

At the beginning, it was a bit difficult to understand, but at the end, I could understand the whole story. It was a very funny, and it was very good for us students. It is not a long novel.
So far this has been my favourite. It is very exciting, at the beginning you don't know why the woman kills the man and so you will like to read it.
I think that "The Letter" is a very good title for this book with different cultures, (London and Singapore) and also various characters. If you want to read a book about a "criminal-love- plot, without a happy-ending, you will have to read this book

In some ways, "The Letter" has dated in the sixty plus years since it was released. The idea of the benefiting third world or non-Western countries by colonizing them has been replaced by the idea of globalizing them. Women are no longer viewed as being ultimately dependent on men. The old movie code that required all criminals to pay for their crimes is long gone. But while natural changes in social attitudes may make "The Letter" look somewhat quaint, it remains a classic. Much of the dramatic power remains intact, and it's extremely well directed, edited, photographed and directed. [Bette Davis made 3 films with director William Wyler and 11 with cinematographer Tony Guadio. All three were nominated for Oscars for this film.]

Unlike most movie thrillers of its day, "The Letter" does not start quietly, then build to some shocking event. A few moments are spent establishing the fact that we are on a rubber plantation in Singapore. It is night. We see the full moon. The camera pans to native workers asleep in their hammocks. It moves on to the exterior of a house. Suddenly, a shot rings out. A man stumbles out onto the veranda and tumbles to the ground. He is followed by an obviously enraged woman, Leslie Crosbie [Davis], who pumps five more shots into him. The rest of the movie tells the story of how the killing came to be, how justice can be manipulated, and how people are often not what they appear to be.

Here, Bette Davis gives one of her best performances. She was such a great actress that I suspect some of the reasons many people came to dislike her were that they could not separate the performer from some of the characters she played. She gives Leslie Crosbie a depth and range of emotions that does not exist in the screenplay. Herbert Marshall was the perfect choice to play her husband, a fumbling but sincere romantic who can only see the things he loves about his wife. As the Chinese wife of the man Leslie kills, Gale Sondergaard plays her as someone both Leslie and the audience should rightfully fear. She does this splendidly with virtually no dialog [none in English].

Highly recommended.

The Letter represents one of the great collaborations on screen between William Wyler and Bette Davis. This film carefully traces all of the emotions of Davis as she covers her tracks with surreal gestures and facial movements that deceive everyone, until the letter unmasks her, but only for a while. We never see who she loved, but we can guess at someone worth six bullets, and much much more. The camera enunciates her path toward destruction with tragic intensity, as the film balances between film noir and symbolic drama, between crime and love, as noone has filmed it or acted it before.

The opening and the conclusion are remarkable for effects in lighting that Akira Kurasawa watched in this film, and others too, Lang and John Huston. Wyler was always considred a Hollywood giant, but not singular enough to be called a genius. Here he shows he is one and Bette Davis is the reason..with her all things are possible, and Wyler knew it when he worked with other actors; they always disappointd.It is hard to imagine that Wyler was the director of Ben-Hur, but look at what he does with it, making people like Charlton Heston.

See this film and learn about screen acting, and about the evil that can be created by unrequited love, and how that evil can seem like a weird good at the close.

DVD has not found this film yet; it must.

This is a terrific film in which the opening scene focuses on a Malayan plantation on a hot, sultry night. The workers appear to be sleeping peacefully in hammocks drifting in the breeze. Suddenly, the absolute stillness of the night is rendered by gunfire. A man runs out of the main house, and hot on his heels is Leslie Crosbie, mistress of the plantation, emptying her gun into this unfortunate fellow.

Leslie Crosbie, cooly played by Bette Davis, has the hired help send for her husband, played by the wonderful Herbert Marshall, who is working. He arrives home, as does the family attorney, marvelously played by the underrated James Stephenson. She tells them what happened. It is essentially a story of self defense in which she fired the gun at the now dead man, who turned out to be a friend of her husband, in order to ward off his unwanted and unexpected sexual advances.

She is arrested, though it is taken for granted that she will be acquitted at trial. All is going smoothly, until a letter in Leslie's hand to the deceased surfaces. Its contents call into serious question Leslie's account of what happend that fateful evening. Unfortunately, the letter is in hands of the mysterious Eurasian widow of the dead man. She will, however, sell the letter to Leslie. The attorney initially balks at buying the letter, as it is an act that could result in his disbarment. He ultimately caves out of friendship for Leslie's husband and acquiesces to the unusual arrangement demanded by the widow for its return, in addition to the monetary sum demanded, a sum that will leave Leslie's husband flat broke.

The letter is ultimately turned over to Leslie. It is never presented at trial, and Leslie's account of that fateful evening is uncontroverted. Leslie is, of course, acquitted. She returns home with her husband, who, despite having realized that his wife had been unfaithful to him and had loved another, is willing to make a go of their relationship, because he still loves her. Leslie, however, is still enamored of the lover she killed.

Gail Sondegaard is unnerving as the Eurasian widow. She appears throughout the film and never utters one word. Yet, her seemingly sinister presence bespeaks volumes. The ending of the film is very Hollywood, but brings the film full circle. This is a marvelous film with great, award calibre performances by the entire cast. It is no wonder that the film received numerous Academy Award nominations. It is a must see film for all Bette Davis fans and classic movie lovers.

or a lady by her appearance. Bette Davis appears to be a proper English matron who had to shoot a man dead in self-defense against his unwanted advances. But as things develop in this drama set in a colonial outpost, we begin to see things a little differently through the eyes of Bette's lawyer as he begins to doubt a woman he's known for years, because of an incriminating letter which surfaces. "The Letter" is an excellent study of losing confidence in what we have trusted most. Gale Sondergaard saunters around in the background as the Eurasian wife of the murderered man, Herbert Marshall is the husband who is always the last to know. Open "The Letter" and draw your own conclusions.