"The Letter" (1940)

The Letter has a noir hard outer shell and a soft melodrama center. Tony Gaudio’s cinematography is languidly moody, dripping with the play of shadows that defined the noir. But the dialogue, the story and the performances are stylized in a manner more befitting the high emotions and ludicrous plots of the melodrama. Bette Davis’ Leslie Crosbie, the wife of a wealthy plantation owner in Malaya, is first seen killing a man. The look on her face demonstrates little remorse, and she fires off every single round in the revolver even as the man clearly lies dead on the ground. Leslie tells her husband, her lawyer, and the investigator a story about how a family friend attempted to rape her and how she killed him in self-defense. Director William Wyler makes it obvious from the get-go, however, that something is fishy here. This becomes corroborated when the lawyer’s assistant informs him that he’s come across a letter written by Leslie on the day of the murder inviting the deceased man over. Leslie is scheming at every turn but she never appears to fully think through her actions, scurrying to cover up one consequence after another. The Letter has some seriously outdated racial depictions regarding its Asian characters. The deceased man’s Asian wife is treated as a sinister figure almost entirely for her race and her nerve to be in an interracial marriage. Wyler’s direction suggests she’s a more deadly and less sympathetic figure than Leslie who is a manipulative, murderous adulterous. The Letter is elevated above its shortcomings through its performances and its atmosphere, and it still has the ability to strike a chord with the lubricious desire in all of us. 

Grade: B