One of the things I found implicit in William Wyler's film of The Letter is the racism of the British colonists in Malaya. Essentially in this melodrama we're talking about Bette Davis's boyfriend throwing her over for a Eurasian woman and Bette not liking it a bit.
The film begins with a homicide. Bette Davis empties a revolver into her lover's body. She's been having an affair with him for some time, but he hasn't come a callin' recently. Her story to the authorities is that the man tried to attack her and she resisted. Of course she's not quite telling the truth.
For propriety's sake there seems to be no great desire by the British authorities to investigate what happened. Davis's attorney and family friend James Stephenson learns only what he needs to know to get her acquitted. Her husband Herbert Marshall is unwilling to face the truth until it smacks him in the face towards the end.
It's the natives who have their vengeance in the end. Maybe the best two performances in The Letter are those of the deceased Eurasian wife Gale Sondergaard and her crafty accomplice Victor Sen Yung. They exact what the Anglo-Saxon legal system dare not deal with.
The Letter is a high class melodrama brought to life by Director William Wyler and star Bette Davis. Davis was probably at the height of her career at this time. The Letter is one of her best screen roles.
The film begins with a homicide. Bette Davis empties a revolver into her lover's body. She's been having an affair with him for some time, but he hasn't come a callin' recently. Her story to the authorities is that the man tried to attack her and she resisted. Of course she's not quite telling the truth.
For propriety's sake there seems to be no great desire by the British authorities to investigate what happened. Davis's attorney and family friend James Stephenson learns only what he needs to know to get her acquitted. Her husband Herbert Marshall is unwilling to face the truth until it smacks him in the face towards the end.
It's the natives who have their vengeance in the end. Maybe the best two performances in The Letter are those of the deceased Eurasian wife Gale Sondergaard and her crafty accomplice Victor Sen Yung. They exact what the Anglo-Saxon legal system dare not deal with.
The Letter is a high class melodrama brought to life by Director William Wyler and star Bette Davis. Davis was probably at the height of her career at this time. The Letter is one of her best screen roles.