The Letter from 1929 is a rare opportunity to see the great Jeanne Eagels in action. Eagel's signature role on Broadway was Rain. This film was made in the last year of her life - she was 39 but looks much younger. The Letter also stars Herbert Marshall, Reginald Owen, Tamaki Yoshiwara, and Lady Tsen Mei. There was a tremendous amount of prejudice against the Chinese back then, as the film indicates, so the good roles played by Yoshiwara and Tsen Mei were unusual. Just think of The Good Earth and Dragon Seed as far as what was cast as Asians.
The story is based on a play that starred Katherine Cornell on Broadway, and was remade in the '40s with Bette Davis.
Eagels plays Leslie, the neglected wife of a rubber plantation owner in Singapore. Confronting her lover Hammond (Marshall) about his live- in Chinese mistress, he tells her that their affair is over. Angry and insulted, she shoots him. She claims it was self-defense and is arrested for murder. Because Hammond was living with a Chinese woman, there is automatic prejudice against him; added to that, it looks like her story is believed, and an acquittal is on the horizon.
However, it turns out that a letter she wrote to Hammond is in the possession of his mistress, for sale at a high price. And the mistress wants Leslie to come and get it herself.
The Letter was filmed at two Paramount Studios, one on Long Island and one in Queens, New York, which I have been in. Quite a feeling of history there. The sets in the movie look great and really set the dark, mysterious atmosphere.
The scene where Leslie is humiliated in front of some Chinese prostitutes is amazing and not in the Davis film.
Eagels throughout is fantastic - pretty, with flashing eyes, she is petulant, angry, demure, a wide-eyed innocent - whatever Leslie's situation calls for, and she turns in a powerful performance. What a shame she succumbed so young to drugs and alcohol.
The rest of the acting is good, but frankly I don't know what Leslie saw in her lover or husband.
The production understandably comes off as stagy and, not used the rhythm of the dialogue, a little stilted. There is no music at the very beginning, and then there are a few bars of music that repeat over and over and over, about 1000 times, with the only break being when the scene changes to the Chinese club! I finally managed to ignore it but I was ready to scream.
If you can see this, too - it holds up remarkably well for being an early talkie.
The story is based on a play that starred Katherine Cornell on Broadway, and was remade in the '40s with Bette Davis.
Eagels plays Leslie, the neglected wife of a rubber plantation owner in Singapore. Confronting her lover Hammond (Marshall) about his live- in Chinese mistress, he tells her that their affair is over. Angry and insulted, she shoots him. She claims it was self-defense and is arrested for murder. Because Hammond was living with a Chinese woman, there is automatic prejudice against him; added to that, it looks like her story is believed, and an acquittal is on the horizon.
However, it turns out that a letter she wrote to Hammond is in the possession of his mistress, for sale at a high price. And the mistress wants Leslie to come and get it herself.
The Letter was filmed at two Paramount Studios, one on Long Island and one in Queens, New York, which I have been in. Quite a feeling of history there. The sets in the movie look great and really set the dark, mysterious atmosphere.
The scene where Leslie is humiliated in front of some Chinese prostitutes is amazing and not in the Davis film.
Eagels throughout is fantastic - pretty, with flashing eyes, she is petulant, angry, demure, a wide-eyed innocent - whatever Leslie's situation calls for, and she turns in a powerful performance. What a shame she succumbed so young to drugs and alcohol.
The rest of the acting is good, but frankly I don't know what Leslie saw in her lover or husband.
The production understandably comes off as stagy and, not used the rhythm of the dialogue, a little stilted. There is no music at the very beginning, and then there are a few bars of music that repeat over and over and over, about 1000 times, with the only break being when the scene changes to the Chinese club! I finally managed to ignore it but I was ready to scream.
If you can see this, too - it holds up remarkably well for being an early talkie.