The Letter (Warner Bros.) (1940)

Still L440; Mat 219—30c BETTE DAVIS IN ‘THE LETTER’ Gab tae eS BETTE DAVIS Reber Crome eS Herbert Marshall CIOWEIS SOVCG. ee era. ae nh aes James Stephenson Dorothy JeveG.. vec. cal ass: soraeien Ss oeerees Frieda Inescort Mrs. Hammond... ba rete cm. <a Gale Sondergaard John Withers... ssp ab veal Seca Rn eee Bruce Lester Adele Awiswerthiss.. isc. iiwaw..,.. Coe. Bel WR Elizabeth Earl Prodedht chigil. titer... ET VSR Cecil Kellaway One CM Seng: ai leth 80 Fe Ot OREN & Sen Yung ik ad acy ca gE tae gs Pa tr opt RE or eh aie a Doris Lloyd ie 1 | pu eli tel tact! ON oar Sie pe pict areal Willie Fung hic 1S RN TRIP har al Tate OE OTR ae REET OCT Tetsu Komai Pp Nn eh A WILLIAM WYLER Production Directed by William Wyler Play by W. Somerset Maugham; Screen Play by Howard Koch; Director of Photography, Tony Gaudio, A.S.C.; Art Director, Carl Jules Weyl; Film Editor, George Amy; Sound by Dolph Thomas; Gowns by Orry-Kelly; Makeup Artist, Pere Westmore; Technical Advisors, Louis Vincenot and John Villasin; Orchestral Arrangements by Hugo Friedhofer; Musical Director, Leo F. Forbstein; Music by Max Steiner. Story (Not for publication}—She was a strange woman. With her husband's gun, she pumped six bullets into the body of the man she loved. She defeated justice by buying back a letter which would have condemned her to death. And yet, you can't hate her for it. Leslie Crosbie (Bette Davis) slays Jeff Hammond during a visit he pays her while her husband Robert (Herbert Marshall) is away overnight in Singapore. Her story of self-defense is accepted by her attorney Howard Joyce (James Stephenson) until his Chinese clerk tells him that Hammond's Chinese widow has a letter written by Leslie on the day of the killing. Robert authorizes Joyce to buy the letter, not knowing its contents or that the price is much more than he can afford. Leslie is acquitted, but after the trial is forced to explain to her husband her true relations with Hammond. (Running Time—97 minutes). “With all my heart Y still fe, the man JY billed = hes z Bette Davis in “The Letter’ At Her All-Time Best Strand To Show Somerset Maugham’s Supreme Dramatic Masterpiece That fascinating, tantalizing and dangerous Bette Davis, is back on the screen, following up her recent dazzling success “All This, And Heaven Too,” with “The Letter,” W. Somerset Maugham’s greatest drama of a woman’s heart. “The Letter” will have its local premiere showing at the Strand Theatre, on Friday. It is becoming axiomatic that each of Bette Davis’ performances should top the one which preceded it. It happened with “Dark Victory,” °“ The. 12 Old Maid,” “All This and Heaven Too,” and according to all advance reports, she rides to even greater glory in her newest vehicle, “The Letter.” “The Letter” tells a strange story. It tells of a beloved and sheltered woman who murders a man, murders him in cold blood, pumping his body full of bullets until her husband’s gun is empty. Why did she do it? Well, she tells her husband and her lawyer that she did it to defend her honor. But it seems there was a letter. . a letter in her handwriting addressed to the murdered man, and now in the possession of his widow, an Eurasian woman. If that letter were to show up in court, there could be no other verdict than “guilty.” But down in the Chinese quarter of Singapore, there is a mysterious transaction under cover of night, and on the day of the trial, there is no sign of the letter. These are the ingredients of the drama. Bette Davis is the central figure about which it revolves. Herbert Marshall is the husband, James Stephenson the lawyer who sacrifices his deep personal integrity to save the life of his friend’s wife. Gale Sondergaard is the Eurasian woman. To tell more of the story would lessen its tremendous impact as it unfolds upon the sereen in all its dramatic intensity. Made under the direction of William Wyler, who directed Miss Davis in “Jezebel,” a performance which won her the Motion Picture Academy Award in 1938, “The Letter” has already been named by Red Book Magazine as the Best Picture of the Month. Max Steiner, whose musical score for “The Informer” won him the coveted Motion Picture Academy Award in 1935, has written the brilliant background music for “The Letter.” Howard Koch prepared the screen story from Maugham’s play, and Tony Gaudio, A.S.C., another Academy Award winner, is responsible for the photography. Besides the principals already mentioned, the cast includes Frieda Inescort, as the lawyer’s gracious wife, Sen Yung, as the smiling but sinister Chinese law clerk, Bruce Lester, Elizabeth Earl, Tetsu Komai, Doris Lloyd and Cecil Kellaway. Blane iz ublicity 7