IMDbean "The Letter" immediately hooks its watcher's with the murder of Mr. Hammond at the hand of Leslie Crosbie(played remarkably well by Bette Davis). The movie is set in Singapore. Director and producer William Wyler did an astounding job overall. While some may be bothered by the lack of background leading up to the murder, it lets the middle of the movie stay exciting, and keeps the watchers engaged throughout the whole movie. The cinematography is exceptionally well done, especially for 1940. It's overall enjoyable to watch, and I had fun watching it. 9/10.

siqian-53477 The letter movie review In the "The letter" directed by William Wyler in 1940, Bette Davis successfully expressed Leslie's struggle feeling behind the murder case. The mystery takes place in early 20 century in Malaysia; the setting combines the western style with the eastern culture which can catch audience's' attention in the first sight. The story began with the wife of plantation shot a man to death, which she later claimed to be self-defense in the interrogation.Although her attitude was firm and clear, her statement wasn't flawless. Later on, after she got arrested, Robert(Herbert Marshall)'s lawyer(James Stephenson) discovered a letter that was written by her, and it was contradicted to Leslie's previous testimonies. When the lawyer discovered that the real relationship between Leslie and the victim, he had to face the choice between friendship and justice. Additionally, people start to get involved in the matters, such as the deadman' widow(Gale Sondergaard), the Malayan clerk (Victor Sen Yung), and the public community...In the first scene of the movie, the audience directly witnesses the aggressive murder, that attracts the audience's attention immediately, and leave a deep impression that will stand out over time. The pace of the story was fast, the events happened one after the other, which fits the taste of majority. The prominent actress Bette Davis was one of the greatest actresses in the Hollywood history. She was famous for playing the antagonists in many movies.In "The Letter," she performed her usual "overacting" akill greatly, and every physical mannerism and facial expressions of hers conveyed the emotions of the characters. For example, in the last scene where Leslie said" With all my heart, I still love the man I killed.", Bette gave a sudden turn and a raise of intonations, which revealed Leslie's real feelings toward the deadman in a manner of outburst. That leads to audience' deeper understanding of the pain and struggle behind Leslie's cold mask.Overall, the camera move was great and smooth, the actors were amazing, the music was stunning, and the story was catchy and interesting.8 stars great movie:)

kobisims Personally, I really enjoy this movie. The story line was good, and the graphics were really good for the 40's also the angles of the camera were good and the production of the the movie was really good. The only problem I had with the movie was that the acting was dramatic and when she killed him there wasn't a story leading up to his death.

MisterWhiplash Boy, do they make em like this anymore?It's interesting that film-noir as a genre or a mood or a "type" of film style and approach to storytelling is credited as beginning one year after The Letter (with the Maltese Falcon) as it seems like William Wyler's adaptation of the Maugham story could be called one of the entry points. Certainly one could think of Bette Davis being a sort of 'femme fatale' here, though probably leaning more to the melodramatic side while still having that deep-down cold and icy side of her. But it's there in the character and, at least in significant chunks, in Wyler's approach to cinematography and mis-en-scene. Hell, the shots through the blinds crafting shadows as (mostly) Davis stands by a window seems like the blueprint for directors to follow (if it wasn't done before, which I'm sure I'm wrong it was).And the opening kicks things off literally with a bang! I don't know of any other way to phrase that (sorry), but it is a moment in movie history that is difficult to forget: after a crane shot that tracks along a sleepy, moon-lit night in Singapore (we're seeing the locals asleep in their mosquito-netted huts) we hear gun-fire, and out from the front door of a home staggers a man who could be dead already but god knows Davis's Leslie Crosby isn't taking any chances. Bang-bang-bang-bang, and every shot shows her fierce and in that Bette Davis way out of control. But without a word she goes back inside, the natives crowding around, and it's only with her back turned to them all that she asks for someone to go fetch her husband to tell what happened (only that Mr. Hammond has been shot, of course).What's also fascinating in The Letter is that Leslie's downfall is all due to becoming too close to the truth, or I should say in telling it and seeing it firsthand. At first, one of the (dark) joys in this performance is that one knows Leslie is acting and that Davis is acting in a double way, as Leslie but also as Leslie's version of herself to the men around her, to her husband and lawyer friend Howard (Stephenson, who plays as well subtle as Davis does big and frightened and totally emotional). And even when this particular letter of the title is unearthed and brought to the attention of the lawyer as a sort of blackmail device (if they so choose of course, nothing stopping them from dooming Leslie and entering it in as evidence to the prosecution), Leslie is *still* lying and putting on an act. I liked that as well.But the most intriguing scene, the one where I felt Wyler's full skill as a director in crafting an eerie but intense mood, is in the middle of the picture when Howard and Leslie go to seek out the late Mrs. Hammond, a woman who seems Asian and talks it but has a face that is not strictly Chinese or other. It's one thing that there has to be a translator, but that's not what makes it eerie. What's gripping is that it's this scene where we see Leslie become much more vulnerable, and part of that is this woman sees her as what she has always been: a picture image of white privilege, on to the arm of her rubber-plantation tycoon husband who is a good-hearted sap for believing his wife is as loving as he is, and that while she can never has what Leslie has, she can most certainly destroy her or to come close to that power to do so at least. The contempt on her face may make some find her to be a villain, but I found her in a strange way oddly sympathetic - she'll always be the mistress with the gold chains around her, and looked on as a "horrible" person (as Leslie previously describes her to Howard). And yet, she is who she says she is.While a few of the Asian types could have been handled a little more delicately and hasn't aged so well, that's not the focus after all. What's so great about The Letter is that Davis and Wyler get us to if not root for Leslie than certainly see her as someone who is heavily, wildly flawed as a human being, a person not being true to her emotions for so long that when she comes to grips with what she's doing (also via her lawyer), she explodes in front of her husband. It's a story of a woman doing a man wrong, but she's also doing herself wrong, too, and that's part of the melodrama/tragedy of it. Where the "Noir" part of it comes with human nature becoming so twisted that it turns into something else - we're seeing into darker recesses of the soul, also cinematically speaking, but it's done fairly realistically (at least as far as these stories go, and the ending, while fitting, is there certainly to appeal to the Code). Davis brings it as an actor going along this carefully constructed arc and finds every right note to play as a woman driven by her passions, though she's not *as* cold and calculating as femme fatales were to come; this is almost like the warm-up act, but what a warm-up! And what an opening!