The Letter (1940 film)

The Letter is a 1940 American film noir directed by William Wyler, and starring Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall and James Stephenson. The screenplay by Howard E. Koch is based on the 1927 play of the same name by W. Somerset Maugham. The play was originally filmed in 1929, by director Jean de Limur The Letter.

Leslie is placed under arrest and put in jail in Singapore to await trial for murder that she killed a man makes such a trial inevitable, but her eventual acquittal seems a foregone conclusion, as the white community accepts her story and believes she acted heroically. Only her attorney, Howard Joyce James Stephenson, is rather suspicious. Howards suspicions seem justified when his clerk, Ong Chi Seng Sen Yung, shows him a copy of a letter Leslie wrote to Hammond the day she killed him, telling him that her husband would be away that evening, and pleading with him to comeimplicitly threatening him if he did not come. Ong Chi Seng tells Howard that the original letter is in the possession of Hammonds widow Gale Sondergaard, a Eurasian woman who lives in the Chinese quarter of town. The letter is for sale, and Ong himself, whom Howard had believed to be impeccable, stands to receive a substantial cut of the price. Howard then confronts Leslie with the damning evidence and she breaks down and confesses to having written it, though she stands by her claim of having killed Hammond in selfdefence. Yet Leslie cleverly manipulates the attorney into agreeing to buy back the letter, even though in doing so he will risk his own freedom and career.Because the couples bank account is in Roberts name, Howard obtains Roberts consent to buy the letter, but he does so deceitfully, lying about and trivializing its content, leaving out the true circumstances, and giving the man no idea that the price is equivalent to almost all the money he has in the bank. Robert, depicted as a decent man thoroughly in love with Leslie and somewhat gullible, is readily persuaded. Hammonds widow demands that Leslie come personally to hand over the 10,000 for the letter she has been released into her attorneys custody and requires Leslie to debase herself by picking up the letter at the widows feet. With the letter suppressed, Leslie is easily acquitted. ........

Source: Wikipedia