Bette Davis by David Thomson

Author:David Thomson [Thomson, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141931456
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2009-07-14T14:00:00+00:00

The Letter

The Jeanne Eagels version had been banned in the British Empire in part because of the treatment of British colonials in Malaya, because the murdered man had a Chinese mistress, and because the killer is exonerated at her trial. Producer Robert Lord and writer Howard Koch made crucial changes: the Chinese mistress became a Eurasian wife (played in haughty silence by Gale Sondergaard), and the killer was quite definitely punished – even if the law was an ass. Wyler asked for ten days’ private work with Koch and then a week of cast rehearsal. Even then, he worked at his own pace, one that Warners reckoned unduly slow. But you had only to look at the footage to see the advantages of Wyler. The Letter ended up at 95 minutes and it is brilliant.

One of its great lessons for film is that if you can concentrate on examining character, you can almost let plot unfold at its own pace. And The Letter works on this principle: we must pay attention to every hint or sign in Leslie Crosbie – she is that selfish and dangerous. Suppose Geoff Hammond had surprised Leslie with his boorish advances. She shoots him once. He falls. He seems seriously wounded. He is hardly a continuing danger. Yet she puts five more bullets in him. No, she is not hysterical or shaking; her eyes are not all over the place. She seems certain, implacable, resolved. Or in a trance.

The authorities are called in to investigate. We meet the husband, Bob (Herbert Marshall), and he is effectively sketched in in a couple of minutes – concerned, tender, but stupid and unobservant. And just as Bob hardly notices things, so the handsome wolf, the lawyer, Howard Joyce (James Stephenson), sees everything and keeps asking awkward questions. He is suspicious, or uncommitted – there is a hint that he does not like Leslie too much.

Then it is revealed. Joyce’s assistant, Ong (Victor Sen Yung), has a letter, sent that night, from Leslie to Geoff, saying come and see me, saying that she is desperate. Howard now can pin Leslie as a liar and an adulteress, even a killer. He might be more vengeful or dismissive – but now we see that he may be half in love with her himself. As character deepens, the plot finds its abyss. The letter has got be purchased, and kept out of the trial. But that financial strain ruins Bob’s retirement plans. He is hurt. Leslie tries to be contrite. But then her inner being – her unhappiness – breaks out and she has to admit her debt to passion or sex – she loves the dead man, the man she killed because he didn’t want her any longer. Mrs Hammond tidies up the plot and Leslie goes to her end rather in the way Julie Marsden proceeded towards the cockpit of plague in Jezebel. She is not forgiven. She may not be redeemed. But she has stopped lying. And if she is to be destroyed, she will manage it herself.

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