The Letter (1940)

Hey guys, do you know what's coming up on Tuesday? BETTE DAVIS'S BIRTHDAY!!! I shall probably be all jumping around in my room and being happy :-). So just to start the Bette Davis theme off, I'm reviewing one of my favourites, The Letter (1940). I'm going to try and write a few little posts that should be posted from now until Tuesday with the super amazing happy birthday one finishing the run on Tuesday afternoon. If you want to post a link to any Bette Davis reviews you've done, you can do so in comments to the posts.

The Letter (1940) Directed By William Wyler

A copy of this poster is stuck to my mirror :-)

Cast:

• Bette Davis as Leslie Crosbie
• Herbert Marshall as Robert Crosbie
• James Stephenson as Howard Joyce
• Gale Sondergaard as Mrs. Hammond

Plot:
Leslie Crosby and her husband Robert are the owners of a rubber plantation in Malaya. One dark night Leslie runs out of her house on the plantation following a man, shooting him in the chest over and over again. When asked why she did this, she explained that Geoff Hammond, a friend of her and her husband, had visited her and "tried to make love to her," so she shot him. Everyone believes her completely, but she has to be imprisoned in a jail in Singapore until the hearing is over. Everything goes fine with her plan until her lawyer and friend, Howard Joyce discovers a letter to Geoff Hammond from Leslie begging him to come and see her. When confronted with the news she confesses that she had been having an affair with him and when she found out that he had got married to a native woman she was furious.

Leslie Crosby and her lawyer

Howard tells her that the letter is in possession of Geoff's widow. And to get it back (which in itself would be a criminal offense) she has to pay $10,000 and collect the money herself, so Geoff's wife can see the woman who killed her husband. The hearing and trial goes well and she is cleared of all charges. But when she gets home, Robert has plans to move away using the money in his savings. Unknown to Robert, all of his savings had been used to buy the letter. This uncovers the truth about Leslie and Geoff. Still sure they can make everything work out, Robert goes on as planned. But when he comes to see her in her room, he tries to kiss her but she jerks away exclaiming, "With all my heart, I still love the man I killed!" During her celebration party she is kidnapped and murdered by Geoff's widow.

DUN, DUN, DUUUUNNN!!!!

The review:
William Wyler can do nothing wrong in my book. His genius work on films like Mrs. Miniver (1942), Jezebel (1938) and The Little Foxes (1941) tops almost everything I've seen. Bette Davis gives a cold, calculating and manipulative performance as Leslie Crosby. Herbert Marshall (who was also paired with Bette Davis on The Little Foxes) was amazing as well. He was an extremely talented British actor who doesn't get enough credit for his work. This film is surely one of my favourite film noirs. Although the plot is very different, this picture reminds me of Double Indemnity (1940) - and Barbara Stanwyck's  performance is similar to Bette Davis's. The way that William Wyler makes her lace-making such an important part of the story is very clever.

I adore this film, so if you are feeling in a particularly noirey mood it is perfect.

~Bette

"This apartment is rated PG, I keep forgetting."

I just wanted to tell all you readers out there, that it is such a comfort to come home and blog to you at the end of a long day. I say this because in my science lesson today, I had nothing short of a nervous breakdown over "grouping elements". I mumbled to myself "good times, good times" until my science teacher (who happens to have an evil glare) came up to me and said "what's wrong Bette?" I replied "Umm nothing, just errr, grouping my elements (cheesy smile)". As soon as he left I collapsed on the table and banged again and again ranting about how we all have clogged up brains, and why couldn't we accept the world for what it is without knowing everything. I then went on complaining about how my head is swimming with Bette Davis' affair with Mirriam Hopkin's husband, how Mirriam played Jezebel on Broadway, the hideous book that BD Davis wrote about Bette, and... French verbs! This is because I watched Bette Davis: An Intimate Portrait AND did a lot of French home-work just before sleeping last night (this was also not helped by the fact that I was really into Whatever Happened To Baby Jane? when I realized that youtube only had 45 minutes of it). My remarks were mostly like "oh why did Judy Garland have to die alone" and "now I am all confused. Is Mirriam put into the soft and silvery column, or the alkaline metal category?" Plus, the people on my table were not only NOT classic-film-knowers, but didn't care about my mild breakdown or my philosophical comments. Their comments were mainly:

FRIEND 1: "Oh come on you're jiggling the science cards!"

and

FRIEND 2: "Who is Mirrian Cotchkins?"

Lovin' the sunnies Barbara!

I digress. Have you noticed that lots of old films are rated way lower than what they should be? I mean, Double Indemnity (1940s) a PG? It is about a woman who... MURDERS HER HUSBAND!!! And another film with a similar plot is The Letter (also 1940s) which is a U. I think that just because they are in black and white, they are not rated properly and furthermore, I think it has something to do with gender inequality. (Bit of a rant coming up...) if a man did what Bette Davis did in The Letter, I am sure it would be rated for an older age group. And plus, they think that because there is more talk than actual violence people won't notice that Barbara asks her boyfriend to strangle her husband and dump his body on a train track!

So, there is my little rant! On a lighter note, look at this adorable pic of Doris Day and James Stewart on set for The Man Who Knew Too Much. She gives a spellbinding performance as the mother of a kidnapped boy which really is quite wonderful. She gives a similarly good performance in Love Me Or Leave Me. Don't let anyone tell you she is just all froth! The song Que Sera, Sera was written for the film, and it later became her trademark song.

Soo gorgeous ;-D

Quote from the title The Goodbye Girl (1977)

~Bette

The Ultimate Femme Fatale.

Here is the definition of femme fatale from wikipedia.

"A femme fatale is an alluring and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations. She is an archetypal character of literature and art."

Well, that just screams Phyllis Dietrichson from Double Indemnity. But I wonder if you have ever realized that one of the most unlikely femme fatales is Eve Harrington in All About Eve (if you haven't seen it, then you may want to read a plot summary here). So ok, maybe she doesn't lead Loyd or Bill into deadly situations, but she certainly does end up making a pretty big mess of things for everyone around her, and ends up trying to seduce almost every male actor in the cast (except George Sanders, but why would anyone want to seduce him anyway?). Just take a look at those creepy eyes of hers.

Yesterday I watched Gilda, in which Rita Hayworth plays the gorgeous wife of an evil genious. She seems to be a character spiralling completely out of control, while causing destruction to all the men surrounding her. Some people may call that a femme fatal by definition, but I find the more subtle ones more interesting to watch sometimes. As soon as Rita walks into view as the gamourous Gilda, it is completely obvious that she means trouble. But when Barbara Stanwyck apears on the balcony of her Hollywood mansion in Double Indemnity, you wonder, even if just for a minute, if she really does want extra insurance for her husband. 

Well I think it is time for another one of my crazy lists!

Top 5 Femme Fatales

1. Phyllis Dietrichson in Double Indemnity (man, that's a killer to spell ;-D)

2. Eve Harrington in All About Eve

3. Gilda in... Gilda!

4. Rebecca in Rebecca(even though we never see her in the film)

5. The Bette (Bette Davis) in The Letter, she is just so cold and calculating. Mwa hahahaha! 

Who is your top femme fatale?

~Bette