Movie:"The Letter" (1944)

"The Letter" (1944) could easily be mistaken for Josef Von Sterberg movie since it has that particular magic touch on camera and it has more beauty and substance in visual than in script,which is basically very simple adaptation of theatre play - characters are talking to each others around the table and the only thing director William Wyler can do is to move them around a bit in and out of the house,but you still feel this was originally done on theatre stage.

The beginning of the movie is brilliant - hot Singapore night on rubber plantation with people sleeping around and the gun shot scarring cockatoo,we witness the murder but are not in clear what exactly happened until halfway through the movie where details are explained. Thinking about the movie in retrospect I find it fascinating that the main star (for me) is not Bette Davis - who looks much better than I remember her,slim,elegant and fashionably clothed - and who is not only in almost every scene of the movie,but also won a Academy Award for this,but supporting actress Gale Sondergaard.

Sondergaard is a widow of the man Davis had shot and has only three (mute!) scenes - she hardly utters a sentence - and by God she walks away with the movie,her character more human and easier to understand than selfish and cruel Davis who manipulates husband and attorney. When these two finally meet,Sondergaard is supposed to be "different" and freaky because of her asian background but she stands there like a Goddess of revenge,proud and dignified without a word while Davis is her western counterpart,privileged in upbringing and head covered with a laced shawl,picking up a letter Sondergaard throws at the floor.

By the way Sondergaard was originally supposed to play Wicked Witch of West but she declined. I guess Margaret Hamilton was forever grateful for that.

Another actor worth mention is excellent James Stephenson as attorney torn inside between his friendship to Davis husband and guilt about lying in the court - the way he talks in the courtroom is memorable because viewer can feel his torment inside and at one point you actually expect him to tell the truth,instead protecting friend's wife. Everybody flutters around elegant and nice Davis (who couldn't possibly be a murderess because she is such a "nice lady") while widow Sondergaard stands ignored,because she is asian and therefore not worth mentioning. I could just kill Davis with my own hands.

"The Letter" was a huge success in its time and won Academy Awards galore, in my opinion it starts with a bang and goes lukewarm towards the end (director claimed the ending was forced upon him by Production Code) but still it has some excellent acting,solid script and very good music by Max Steiner.

I can actually imagine this being very effective on a theatre stage and wouldn't mind seeing it live.

Interesting curiosity: the actor who plays Bette Davis husband (Herbert Marshall) played also in original 1929. version but there he was different character.

Again,I will remember it mostly for excellent Gale Sondergaard who steals the movie with her three mute scenes. Davis might have won Academy Award but to me Sondergaard was the real winner.