Watch The Letter For Free

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Load of rubbish!!

Let's be realistic.

I'll tell you why so serious

(Flash Review)First time I've watched a film with Betty Davis. Now I know why Kim Karnes sang about her eyes in 1981 as they do convey much emotion without words. This Noir opens up with Davis literally holding a smoking gun with a dead corps at her feet. This is going to be difficult for her to weasel out of. Claiming self-defense as the man advanced on her with lewd intent, she had to use force to halt him. Yet, later on a letter (hint, hint) surfaces that she wrote inviting that man to her abode. Uh oh. Will she be able to overcome the new potentially incriminated evidence? Why did she write it? What will her actual husband think once he learns the full story? This was a well-acted and well-told story. Good drama, good twists and informative cinematography. Case in point, you can tell a lot by the black and white shades of her outfits to figure out the state of her character during the film. Not to be overlooked is the nice music score that adds impact at the right moments.

The Letter was one of the few movies that had me on the edge of my seat within the first few seconds of it beginning. It begins with a murder which gave the whole rest of the movie to explain who and why. Bette Davis who plays Leslie Crosbie has a very strong role to fill since she is a murderer and she has to hide her secrets well if she doesn't want to be caught, and I think she did it very well. I enjoyed how dramatic she made her character, this kept me interested throughout the entire movie and it made me wonder what she was going to do or say next. One thing I would have wanted to see was the trial. In some ways I see why they skipped it, so they could have more time to tell the rest of the story, but I would have liked to see her reactions and to see how she would have handled the situation. I wanted to see if she would have stayed as calm as she did when she first told the lie of what happened or if she would have had a meltdown like she did a few times farther into the movie. When she had first told the story to her husband and the detectives I knew that even though she lied about the kind of relationship her and the victim had I knew that she had some kind of relationship that she was hiding from her husband and the people around her. I think it was an almost expected twist that most people would have seen coming. My favorite moment in the entire movie is when Bette Davis is sitting at her husbands feet and confesses that she still loves the man she killed. I think it adds an almost twisted and cold sense to her because her mindset was if I can't have him no one can. I rated this movie a seven because I enjoyed watching it, I think it was very well put together and I would watch it again but it was not the best murder movie I have ever seen.

William Wyler's version of the Somerset Maugham classic is very much of its time, full of colonial stereotypes of the true British gentleman and his spouse, stiff upper lips and scheming orientals headed by Victor Sen Yung as lawyer's clerk Ong Chi Seng.And yet the film remains probably the best of several versions available on different media. Although relentlessly studio-bound, Tony Gaudio's photography is particularly memorable, as the camera relentlessly pursues the protagonists, never letting them out of its sight. The use of symbolic close-ups on the eponymous letter, and the knives that Leslie Crosbie (Bette Davis) encounters on her visit to the Chinese junk-shop warn us of what will follow. Deep-focus establishing-shots of the opulent interiors of the British colonists' quarters remind us of their lives of privileged affluence, seldom punctuated by uncomfortable realities. This is why the murder of Geoff Hammond (David Newell) causes such a stir, and why lawyer Howard Joyce (James Stephenson) is willing to risk accusations of malpractice in order to guarantee Leslie's innocence.The story is a familiar one, that of Leslie confessing to a murder and then trying to deceive her well-meaning husband (Herbert Marshall) while preserving her reputation. We know what will happen in the end (the Production Code would not have permitted anything else), but director Wyler ensures that there are plenty of things to remember on the way. The action proceeds through a series of shot/ reverse shot sequences interspersed with lengthy takes, giving the film a faintly stagy look. Yet this doesn't matter, as it allows us to concentrate on Davis's unbelievable range of facial expressions, as well as her unique eye-work as she tries to maintain a respectable facade while knowing in her heart the futility of her task. Elegantly costumed (by Orry- Kelly), with scarcely a hair out of place in her coiffed look, she is the very epitome of the colonist's spouse.The supporting cast are equally good, but in different ways. Marshall carries off the role of the husband like a cut-price Ronald Colman, seldom losing his sang-froid until the moment when he discovers the truth about his wife. Stephenson is especially good as the lawyer, walking ramrod-straight through each frame with an air of authority, but guiltily acknowledging his secret in the courtroom scene (even though judge and jury do not notice it). In the non-speaking role of the deceased's wife, Gale Sondergaard - who would later distinguish herself as the baddie in several Universal horror films - smolders with suppressed rage as she tries to stare Leslie into confessing her sins.The film is only ninety-one minutes long, but the action unfolds with such intensity that viewers are rendered exhausted at the end.

We see a charming community of buyers, sellers, on-lookers and otherwise pleasant folks conversing idly. The chirps and chatter of the crowd is not a busy kind, but a calm one, like the low roar of a ceiling fan. A record scratch to the communal bliss comes in the form of Leslie Crosbie (Bette Davis) unloading a revolver into a man until he's down on the ground, and then she shoots a little bit more. After the echoes of the bullets drift away into the ether, she turns, as if being watched, and it blinded by the light of the moon.So begins William Wyler's "The Letter," a noirish yarn of murder, deceit and all things in-between. Naturally, Crosbie pleads innocent to the murder, claiming the man tried to rape her. However, the titular piece of paper is found, and then all bets are off. It's a simple enough premise, but where this movie shines is its mood and performances. There is one fantastic scene in particular, when Crosbie's lawyer (Howard Joyce) breaks the news to Crosbie's husband (Herbert Marshall) that a letter's been found that might be detrimental to her case. The way her husband hesitantly defends her--and doesn't even inquire as to the contents of said letter--and the way in which the laywer avoids eye contact, due to a combination of embarrassment and doubt, is a testament to the talent of both actors.One would be remiss to ignore Bette Davis, whose giant, made-for- the-movies eyes each seem to be telling a different story at all times. There's a lot of moving parts to her literary character--the torn allegiances, the all-seeing eye of the moon, the knitting, which grows more fervent as the film goes on--that a lesser actor might have folded and simply milked the melodrama inherent to the character.A problem with a lot of these plot-heavy films, reliant on reveals and gasp inducements, is that a lot of the flair is lost, due to the duty to hit certain plot points at certain times, and repeat them over and over again so the audience doesn't feel stupid. However, "The Letter" succeeds mostly at avoiding such things, and feels more like a star vehicle for everyone involved--like a star bus. While Wyler is more famous today for "Ben-Hur" the most epically epic of all film epics, his ability to hone in on a small, more personal story, and condense it to a point of pure potency, should not be forgotten. Also, the ending of the movie is a result of the Hays Code, but I think it still works.