The Letter (1929) YTS - Download Yify Movie

Reviewed by CinemaSerf 7 / 10

This is a superb character-driven performance from Jeanne

This is a superb character-driven performance from Jeanne Eagels as the bored wife who turns from her indifferent husband "Robert" (Reginald Owen) to the caddish "Geoffrey" (Herbert Marshall). When the latter shows her his true colours, he gets his comeuppance and a trial ensues. Provocation bordering on attempted rape is cited and she looks set for acquittal until it emerges that his Chinese mistress is in possession of a letter that might not quite support her version of the story - and she wants £10,000 for it! The production is quite heavily styled, very theatrical without very much visual intensity (the print I saw was really rather dark and gloomy) - but it's the performance from the star that sets this apart. She is enthralling, her stage background helping to provide us with an excellent tour de force that is really good to watch.

Reviewed by 1930s_Time_Machine 7 / 10

Jeanne Eagels - what a brilliant actress!

Jeanne Eagels demonstrates why she was considered one of the best stage actresses of the 1920s. Her performance is absolutely outstanding. She's mesmerising to watch. Despite this, even by the low standards of 1929, it's not a particularly good film.Like so many very early talkies, this is essentially a filmed stage play. It's a good stage play and is very close to Somerset Maugham's story but you inevitably compare it to William Wyler's 1940 version and you appreciate the difference between a play and a film. Although because of the restrictive censorship code introduced in the mid thirties, the story in the "new" version was massively altered to conform, that version is so much more immersive. When you watch miserable old Bette Davis you become the judge and jury when considering the plight of Mrs Crosbie. You enter into what you think is the mind of Mrs Crosbie - or you think you do - Wyler has fun playing with your emotions. In this version however you're just watching the narrative unfold, you're not involved.Although this is inferior in terms of what you'd expect from a motion picture, it's still worth watching just for Jeanne Eagels' magnificent portrayal of raw emotion especially in the last act. What's remarkable and indeed a testament to her acting is that although you're being told from the onset that her character, Mrs Crosbie is a bad person, you're on her side, you're supporting a murderer! Thus is the power of seduction which this actress strangely imposes on you ninety years after her death.The film itself is certainly watchable and better than most films from 1929 but it has no innovative or imaginative direction. To be fair, it was Jean de Limur's first film - it seems an odd choice of Paramount to use a novice to direct such a high profile picture but his lack of experience is almost compensated for by Miss Eagels' skill and also by Herbert Marshall who is also fantastic - incredibly it's his first movie as well.It's interesting to note that a decade later Herbert Marshall is alive again back in the remake - not as Mrs Crosbie's lover but as the wronged husband. Also in the "new" version her lover wasn't sharing a bed with a Chinese woman (a fact used in the trial to prove he was a disreputable and disgraceful human being!) but a respectable married man - married of course to a respectable white woman!

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The Letter

1929

Action / Drama

The Letter

1929

Action / Drama

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This is a superb character-driven performance from Jeanne

Jeanne Eagels - what a brilliant actress!

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