THE LETTER
(Warner Bros.)
F this Somerset Maugham melodrama presents a true picture of, white society in pre-Japanese Singapore, I am
even less surprised than i was before at what happened. For the pukka sahibs and memsahibs of The Letter scarcely inspire confidencecertainly not Herbert Marshall, who emotes and agonises all over the place like a burlesque character out. of , the Old-time The-ayter. Admittedly, he has a good deal to bear besides the normal white man’s burden. Here he is with his hands frightfully full one night getting a shipment of rubber away in time, when his sweet wife goes and shoots a neighbouring planter who, she says, has made improper advances to her ("The swine!"’). A pity she had to empty the full chamber of the revolver into him, but he deserved all hé got (Why, he was even married to an Eurasian, the cad!), and, of course, it’s a mere formality that there has to be a charge of murder. Anyone less of a moon-calf than Herbert Marshall would be suspicious of a wife like Bette Davis (especially if he’d ever seen any of her other films), but he just goes on trusting her and yearning over her-even when it’s discovered that she wrote a letter inviting the fellow over to her bungalow on the Fatal Night, and that the fellow’s Eurasian wife has good grounds for blackmail. Everybody else* by this time either knows or suspects that Bette is up to her big, round innocent rolling eyes in murder, adultery, and deceit; but even when she Confesses All, Big-Hearted Herbert just hides his head and his heartbreak in his hands and Forgives Everything. But the Eurasian woman _ doesn’t. To give the film its due, there are one or two tense moments, and good performances by James Stephenson as Herbert’s lawyer friend, and by a Chinese actor whose name I didn’t notice. But Bette Davis isn’t happy in her role, Herbert Marshall is miserable in his, and William Wyler’s direction as tedious. With such handicaps, The Letter is an uninspiring .document.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19421204.2.37.1.2
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 180, 4 December 1942, Page 17
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343THE LETTER New Zealand Listener, Volume 7, Issue 180, 4 December 1942, Page 17
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Copyright in the work University Entrance by Janet Frame (credited as J.F., 22 March 1946, page 18), is owned by the Janet Frame Literary Trust. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this article and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the New Zealand Listener. You can search, browse, and print this article for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from the Janet Frame Literary Trust for any other use.
Copyright in the Denis Glover serial Hot Water Sailor published in 1959 is owned by Pia Glover. The National Library has been granted permission to digitise this serial and make it available online as part of this digitised version of the Listener. You can search, browse, and print this serial for research and personal study only. Permission must be obtained from Pia Glover for any other use.
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