The Letter

United States, 1940

Film
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Bette Davis is at her celebrated best in this Somerset Maugham melodrama about a Malaysian planter’s wife (Bette Davis) accused of shooting a man who was a friend of both her and her husband (Herbert Marshall). She claims, and is believed, that it was self defence as he attacked and tried to rape her. Then a letter appears proving she had invited the man and that they were lovers. The attempt by her lawyer (James Stephenson) to suppress the letter leads to tragic consequences.

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Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

director

William Wyler

producer

Robert Lord

production company

Warner Bros Pictures

Duration

01:32:00:00

Production places
United States
Production dates
1940

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

302848

Language

English

Audience classification

PG

Subject categories

Adaptations

Feature films

Feature films → Feature films - United States

Literature → English literature - Film and video adaptations

Literature → Literature

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Black and White

Holdings

VHS; Access Print (Section 1)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/81731--the-letter/ |title=The Letter |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=10 June 2023 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}