After watching two films in which Bette Davis plays sympathetic characters, the third film in our marathon sees her play the sort of role that she’s most associated with; that of the manipulative femme fatale.
In The Letter, Davis stars as Leslie Crosbie the wife of a rubber plantation manager who in the first scene shoots a man to death. As Davis’ husband Robert and their lawyer friend Howard come to her house they discover the body belongs to Geoff Hammond a well-regarded member of the community. Leslie tells them that Hammond forced himself on her and when he wouldn’t leave her alone she shot and killed him. Joyce’s campaign to get Leslie out of jail is going well his investigation of Hammond reveals a secret marriage to one of the local Malay women and Leslie is behaving herself in prison. Then a letter comes to light that shows that Leslie asked Hammond to meet him on the night of his murder and in order to obtain it Leslie and Howard use Robert’s money to buy it from his widow. From there the revelation of what really happened on that night comes to light and results in Leslie’s true feelings coming to light and the death of one of the characters in the closing moments of the films.
What I liked most about The Letter was the simplicity of the plot. It all revolved around the one incident and the letter that could change it all. Of course anyone who knows Bette Davis and the roles she normally inhabits knows that her original story wouldn’t be the true one however I felt that Davis wasn’t as fully manipulative as she often is and Leslie prefers to weave than to go out and use her female wiles to manipulate. William Wyler again directs Bette and again falls out with her, here over a scene towards the end of the film involving Leslie and Robert each had different ideas about how the scene should play out with the director getting his own way and Bette walking out before coming back again claiming her ending would’ve still been better. Wyler is able to set the mood of the Malay Jungle superbly with Max Steiner’s Oscar-nominated score adding to events and the lighting being one of the things that dominates the proceedings from the opening gunshot to the final death. Other than Davis the only cast member to be nominated for an Oscar was James Stephenson as Joyce the lawyer a definitive presence but he wasn’t anything special and my favourite performance came from Gale Sondergaard as Hammond’s local wife, she never says anything but her looks speak volumes and I think that is the mark of a great actress. As with all the Davis/Wyler collaborations this is fairly melodramatic but it is also very low key and simplistic and ultimately I enjoyed it very much.
everynominee 