The Letter (1940) | |
Background
The Letter (1940) is a classic melodramatic film noir of murder and deceit, effectively directed by William Wyler. This was not the first time the subject matter was performed. The screenplay by Howard Koch was based on W. Somerset Maugham's mid-1920s London stage play (that featured Gladys Cooper in the lead role). Then, it was a Broadway play that opened in 1927 (with Katharine Cornell), followed by Paramount Studios' talkie of the same name in 1929 with Academy-Award nominated Jeanne Eagels (in her sound film debut) as the female protagonist Leslie Crosbie. [Note: It was the first full-length feature made at Paramount's Long Island studio.] This great Bette Davis/Warner Bros picture about a decade later, positioned between the star's All This, and Heaven Too (1940) and The Great Lie (1941), was nominated for a total of seven nominations (with no wins): Best Picture, Best Actress (Bette Davis - her fourth nomination), Best Supporting Actor (James Stephenson), Best Director, Best B/W Cinematography (Gaetano Gaudio), Best Original Score (Max Steiner), and Best Film Editing. One of the trailers for the film provocatively asked: The Story The film's credits play above drawings of a tropical plantation company's compound on a sultry, moonlight night with banks of clouds in the sky. The setting of the film is a tropical Malayan rubber plantation (a sign reads L Rubber Co., Singapore, Plantation No. 1). The film's startling opening presents the film as a mystery - it is one of the most famous opening sequences ever produced. A tracking shot moves down a rubber tree where the precious substance drips into containers, across a compound's thatched hut where native coolie laborers listen to musicians, doze and play games after their day's work. As the camera moves further up and right, it moves past an exotic white cockatoo. In the background of the shot is the veranda of a colonial bungalow. One gunshot from inside the bungalow unexpectedly disturbs the silence and the cockatoo - the bird flutters and flies off. Through the front door of the steamy colonial bungalow, a well-dressed Caucasian man staggers onto the veranda. There, a woman holding a smoking pistol in her hand calculatedly follows her victim and shoots him a second time. Dogs are startled from their sleep. The Malayans stir in their hut. As she pumps another bullet into his body, he slumps down the five steps and falls on the ground. With a cold-blooded, unemotional, and expressionless look on her face, Leslie Crosbie (Bette Davis) pursues down the steps and fires three more times into his lifeless, still body until the gun clicks empty. By this time, dogs are heard barking and the workers' voices are chattering. She lowers and then drops the gun after a total of six shots. The camera tracks forward into a closeup of her face, but there are no clues or betraying emotions there. The question that remains for the rest of the film is: Why? Faces of the workers reveal astonishment. The head boy (Tetsu Komai) gazes up into the night sky as the moon disappears under a cloud and suddenly darkens the setting. Leslie looks up to watch the moon reappear and illuminate the murder. The nervous head boy runs to the corpse and recognizes the body of neighbor Geoffrey Hammond (David Newell): "That's Mr. Hammond." She orders her colonial servant inside and inquires about immediately summoning the district officer and getting word to her husband, who is out examining No. 4 Plantation:
She locks herself in her bedroom, crying while awaiting their arrival. When told that Mr. Hammond has been shot dead, rubber plantation owner/manager Robert Crosbie (Herbert Marshall) contacts good friend and lawyer Howard Joyce (Robert Stephenson) in Singapore, instructing: "Tell him to meet up with his car at Lower Crossway as soon as he can." Mr. Crosbie and Joyce drive up to the bungalow, finding Leslie locked in her room. She emerges hesitantly and cooly claims that the drunken Hammond, a long-time, mutual friend of both her and her husband, had called unexpectedly, made advances, and tried to forcibly take advantage of her. Supposedly, she killed him in self-defense with Robert's pistol to defend her proper British honor: "He tried to make love to me and I shot him." Although she feels "dreadfully faint," Leslie engages in pleasantries with Howard, asking about his wife Dorothy (Frieda Inescort) and his niece Adele Ainsworth (Elizabeth Earl), visiting from England. The respected solicitor is told by District Officer Withers (Bruce Lester) that Hammond's body is "riddled with bullets." All six chambers of the gun, used in the killing, are empty. While Leslie lies recumbent on the couch with her believing, trusting husband at her side, attorney Howard requests that she tell "exactly what happened." Local official Withers urges that they won't question what she tells them: "Take your time, Mrs. Crosbie, remember, we're all friends here." With all of them listening, the unimpeachable wife of the plantation owner skillfully recites what happened. While working on her lace after dinner, Hammond (whom she claims she had not seen for at least three months) had unexpectedly and quietly arrived. He had told her that he was lonely and then began complimenting her physical features ("I think you're the prettiest thing I've ever seen"):
Hammond persisted with more enumerations of compliments and further aggressive behavior, finally drunkenly declaring that he was in love with her:
As Leslie comes to the climax of her compelling, self-defense narrative, she rises theatrically and describes how she killed the "madman." She re-enacts the shooting - with her back to the camera and her audience - at one point, all four backs are composed within the frame. At the end of her account of the murder, the camera takes her subjective point-of-view. It tracks up the steps, then to the chest of drawers where the gun was found, and then to the front door, the veranda and the dirt where Hammond fell dead:
They believe her story of alien violation in a foreign land. Robert trusts his wife implicitly and hugs his "poor darling" wife, who clings to him for comfort - sitting on a striped chair. District Officer Withers feels the murder was justifiable self-defense: "May I say that I think you behaved magnificently. I'm terribly sorry that we had to put you through the ordeal of telling us all this...It's quite obvious the man only got what he deserved." Mr. Crosbie comforts her further: "My poor child...You did what every woman would have done in your place, only nine-tenths of them wouldn't have had the courage." Meanwhile, Withers and Howard have been led by the head boy into the shed where Hammond's body has been taken. Behind them, the head boy retreats and scurries off [to fetch Mrs. Hammond]. As if nothing happened, Leslie cooks and serves a "late supper or early breakfast" for everyone. She comments that it was "funny" that the head-boy ran off and was unavailable to serve as a domestic (a sudden, insignificant remark that has more significance than first thought):
Leslie asks about the consequences of her misdeed - with a pregnant pause: "Would I have to be - arrested?" Howard responds: "I think you're by way of being arrested now." She is informed that "as a matter of form," she must surrender herself up to the Attorney General in Singapore. She also inquires: "Shall I be imprisoned?" Howard indicates that she might not be released on bail by the Attorney General in a murder case:
A stillness falls over the table. Apprehensive that she must be incarcerated before her expected trial for murder, Leslie's prominent eyes bulge as she anxiously looks over at Howard. Robert realizes he must hire Howard to defend her. |