The Letter (1929)

Directed by

Jean de Limur

Genre

silent film, romance film, crime film, trial film

Country

United States

Runtime

1h

Rated

NR

Rating

5.6 of 10 from 24 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A woman on a rubber plantation in Singapore kills a man she loves. She claims self-defense but a secret letter threatens her story in court.

tensemelancholicdramaticperiodseriousemotionalsomber

What happens

The Letter is a 1929 American pre-Code drama film directed by Jean de Limur and released by Paramount Pictures. It was the first full-sound feature shot at Astoria Studios in Queens, New York City. A silent version of the film was also released. The film stars stage actress Jeanne Eagels in her penultimate role and O.P. Heggie. The film was adapted by Garrett Fort from the 1927 play The Letter by W. Somerset Maugham. The film marks the acting debut of Reginald Owen, who played Robert Crosbie in the film, and the sound film debut of Herbert Marshall, who had appeared in only one previous motion picture, the British film Mumsie in 1927. The plot of the film follows Leslie Crosbie, a young woman living on a rubber plantation in the East Indies of Singapore, who falls in love with a man named Geoffrey Hammond, as she no longer finds any affection for her current husband, Robert Crosbie. However, Geoffrey falls in love with a Chinese woman named Li-Ti, and Leslie shoots him dead. Placed on trial for her life, Leslie perjures herself on the stand and claims that she killed Geoffrey in defense of her honor. However, a letter written by Leslie prior to the shooting that's currently owned by Li-Ti has enough evidence for the court to find her guilty of murder, therefore Leslie must try to buy the letter off Li-Ti and get rid of it to avoid it being released to the jury. The Letter was long out of circulation. In June 2011, a restored edition of the film was released on home video by Warner Bros. as part of its Warner Archive Collection as a made-on-demand DVD. The film's lobby cards and its other forms of advertising entered the public domain on January 1, 2025, as they were works published in 1929. However, the film itself was already in the public domain, since its copyright was never renewed. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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