The Letter

William Wyler’s The Letter, based on a play by W. Somerset Maugham, features Bette Davis as Leslie Crosbie, wife of British rubber plantation owner Robert Crosbie (Herbert Marshall), who shoots a man dead in self-defense in the first few minutes of the film. Husband Robert and the family attorney (James Stephenson) prepare to defend her until a letter is discovered which implies that the murder was premeditated; Leslie faints when she learns her sexual assault charge may be up for debate. The highlight of The Letter is Gale Sondergaard as Mrs. Hammond, the victim’s widow, who possesses the original letter and is clearly interested in selling it. Wyler presents Mrs. Hammond as exotic and threatening, entering from behind a curtain of beads and commanding the world’s attention. The film was re-made by Vincent Sherman in 1947 as The Unfaithful starring Ann Sheridan.