Good concept, poorly executed.

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

(Flash Review)First time I've watched a film with Betty Davis. Now I know why Kim Karnes sang about her eyes in 1981 as they do convey much emotion without words. This Noir opens up with Davis literally holding a smoking gun with a dead corps at her feet. This is going to be difficult for her to weasel out of. Claiming self-defense as the man advanced on her with lewd intent, she had to use force to halt him. Yet, later on a letter (hint, hint) surfaces that she wrote inviting that man to her abode. Uh oh. Will she be able to overcome the new potentially incriminated evidence? Why did she write it? What will her actual husband think once he learns the full story? This was a well-acted and well-told story. Good drama, good twists and informative cinematography. Case in point, you can tell a lot by the black and white shades of her outfits to figure out the state of her character during the film. Not to be overlooked is the nice music score that adds impact at the right moments.

The letter directed by William Wyler starred Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall and James Stephenson. the setting was in Singapore. the letter is a crime drama.the film starts with Leslie Crosbie(Bette Davis) emptying a clip on a man who she claimed assaulted her. The authorities take Leslie to jail until the trial. Howard Joyce(James Stephenson) Leslie's lawyer gets a hold of a letter that says she called for Mr. Hammond to her house saying that her husband was away and that she wanted him to come over. When Leslie is told of this she said that she never wrote that and that it was a fraud. She later admits to writing the letter. The filming in this movie has lots of movement unlike other films with set stages. The Letter begins with this aspect from the very beginning. in this specific shot in which the camera is moving left to right and moving up and down giving a broad visual for the set. this continues through out the movie. for example when they enter Chinatown the camera is moving with the car and changing perspective so you can see what the characters see.the acting was very well done. Herbert Marshall and James Stephenson were amazing. The extras and side characters did just as good. Bette Davis over did it. Her acting was fine she was just over dramatic. My overall reaction to the film was an 8/10. i gave it an 8/10 because like i said earlier how Bette Davis was over dramatic. if it wasn't for that i would've given it an 10/10.

Geoffrey Hammond learns the hard way that you end a relationship with Bette Davis at your peril in this mesmerising classic Hollywood melodrama. Although Bette Davis & Herbert Marshall get top billing, the film is really held together by the late James Stephenson in an Oscar-nominated performance, while Gale Sondergaard is unforgettable as the vengeful "Mrs.Hammond" (who with her arched eyebrows and in her skin-tight qipao bears an eerie resemblance to the Martian Girl in 'Mars Attacks!').William Wyler not surprisingly had wanted Gregg Toland, but veteran cameraman Tony Gaudio provides a more gothic look (aided by the immaculate production design of Jules Carl Weyl), and produces some vivid moonlit scenes, while Wyler occasionally creates an interesting effect akin to Toland's depth of field emphasising the depth of the images by occasionally putting Stephensen in some of his scenes with Davis exaggeratedly out of focus either in the foreground or background. It all goes a bit over the top towards the end in order to appease the Hays Office, and Max Steiner's score is a bit - well - Steinerish at times, but his eerie main theme is yet another aspect of the film that will stay with you long afterwards.

. . . by an inscrutable Asian upon an unarmed American woman--Bette Davis--in BOTH versions of its climax, it's clear that Warner Bros.' live-action feature THE LETTER is much MORE than merely an adaptation of novelist W. Somerset Maugham's best-seller. Just as Japan broke ALL the rules of warfare with its perfidious destruction of America's Sunday Morning-Worshipping Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor within months of this Warner Bros. Warning (following up THAT outrage with a non-stop Parade of War Crimes including the Bataan Death March), THE LETTER is carefully crafted to shine a spotlight revealing the True Nature of that outlaw island war criminal hangout's Threat to Civilization. Using Singapore as a stand-in for Japan (Warner could hardly film in Tokyo while that Failed Rogue State was Raping Nanking), Bette's garishly Be-Bangled She-Devil Rival for Asia's Scarce Natural Resources first bankrupt's Bette's household through a nasty Blackmail Plot before Back-Stabbing her to death. This sorry conclusion aptly forecasts how a Resource-Envious Japan had its two-faced ambassador "talking peace" in Washington, DC, at the very moment that the Japanese Death Bombs began raining down upon the placid worship services in Hawaii.