X
- 1940
- Approved
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 35 m
- 1940
- Approved
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 35 m
Summary The wife of a rubber plantation administrator shoots a man to death and claims it was self-defense, but a letter in her own hand may prove her undoing.
Directed By: William Wyler
Written By: W. Somerset Maugham, Howard Koch
- 1940
- Approved
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 35 m
- 1940
- Approved
- Warner Bros.
- 1 h 35 m
The Letter
84
User Score
Available after 4 ratings
tbd
Summary The wife of a rubber plantation administrator shoots a man to death and claims it was self-defense, but a letter in her own hand may prove her undoing.
Directed By: William Wyler
Written By: W. Somerset Maugham, Howard Koch
Top Cast
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 10 Critic Reviews
84
100% Positive
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Universal Acclaim
Based on 10 Critic Reviews
84
100% Positive
10 Reviews
10 Reviews
0% Mixed
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Bette Davis gave one of her best and nastiest performances in Wyler's stylishly sordid 1940 romantic murder-mystery from W. Somerset Maugham's story. [02 May 2008, p.C5]
In William Wyler’s richly torrid melodrama The Letter, Davis unsurprisingly mesmerizes as a duplicitous murderess pleading self-defense. What is surprising is how, with the help of a good, sympathetic director, she doesn’t play the role in all-out pit viper mode. Instead, Davis reveals something vulnerable and pitiable.
This might be one of Bette Davis’ least sympathetic parts, which is saying something.
Never has [the W. Somerset Maugham play] been done with greater production values, a better all-around cast or finer direction. Its defect is its grimness. Director William Wyler, however, sets himself a tempo which is in rhythm with the Malay locale.
A superbly crafted melodrama, even if it never manages to top the moody montage with which it opens.
A better-than-average Bette Davis vehicle (1940), well constructed by that shrewd old hack, William Wyler, from a Somerset Maugham play.
Like Frankenstein’s monster in the Universal horror classics, The Letter keeps its prize creature too long in the shadows. But a Davis movie cannot withstand scrutiny without her, and even a bad Davis movie where she’s hamming and mugging and even humiliating herself is more fun than practically no Bette at all.
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Awards
Academy Awards, USA
• 7 Nominations
New York Film Critics Circle Awards
• 2 Nominations
National Board of Review, USA
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
