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| Rating: |
   
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| Run Time: |
61 min |
| MPAA Rating: |
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| Released: |
1929 |
| Directors: |
Jean de Limur
|
| Genre/Type: |
Drama
Courtroom Drama
Crime Drama
|
| Producers: |
Monta Bell
|
Plot Synopsis by Hal Erickson
The Letter was the first film version of the Somerset Maugham play of the same name. Broadway star
Jeanne Eagels plays the wife of
Reginald Owen, the owner of a Malayan rubber plantation. The film opens with Eagels shooting a man (
Herbert Marshall) to death; she explains that the man had tried to assault her. It is assumed that the subsequent trial will go well for Eagels, who has the advantage of wealth and social position. But Eagels' lawyer (
O.P. Heggie) learns of the existence of a letter sent to the dead man in which Eagels declares her undying love--thereby proving that the killing was not justified. At great personal expense, the lawyer buys back the letter from the dead man's wife, a grim native woman. Only after Eagels is found not guilty does she reveal her indiscretion to her husband. She tries to convince him that she will be a faithful wife in the future, but suddenly pulls back and violently declares "With all my heart--I still love the man I killed!"
The Letter was remade in 1940 (with considerable censorial alterations) starring
Bette Davis as the murderess and
Herbert Marshall--the victim in the 1929 version--as her cuckolded husband.
| Actors |
Character |
Born |
| Jeanne Eagels |
Leslie Crosbie |
Jun 26, 1890 in Boston, MA |
| O.P. Heggie |
Joyce |
Sep 17, 1879 in Angaston, South Australia |
| Reginald Owen |
Robert Crosbie |
Aug 5, 1887 in Wheathampstead, England, UK |
| Herbert Marshall |
Geoffrey Hammond |
May 23, 1890 in London, England, UK |
| Irene Browne |
Mrs. Joyce |
Jun 29, 1896 in London, UK |
| Ken Thomson |
|
Jan 7, 1899 in Pittsburgh, PA |