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OverviewAI-generated
The Letter is a 1940 American drama film noir directed by William Wyler. The screenplay was written by Howard Koch and William Somerset Maugham, based on the work of Maugham. Produced by Hal B. Wallis for Warner Bros. Entertainment, the film stars Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall, James Stephenson, and Gale Sondergaard. The narrative is set in Singapore and follows a woman who shoots a man to death, with a letter she wrote raising suspicions.
The production team included director of photography Tony Gaudio, composer Max Steiner, and editor George Amy. The film was shot in black-and-white, with production design by Carl Jules Weyl and costumes by Orry-Kelly. It was distributed by Warner Bros. Entertainment and Netflix. The Letter was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Actress, and Best Director. It received an IMDb rating of 7.5 and a Rotten Tomatoes score of 100%.
Synthesized by Vinony from 42 facts across 4 sources: Wikidata, TMDb, OMDb, IMDb. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Film · TMDB
7.3After a woman shoots a man to death, a damning letter she wrote raises suspicions.
Cast
- Bette Davis as Leslie Crosbie
- Herbert Marshall as Robert Crosbie
- James Stephenson as Howard Joyce
- Frieda Inescort as Dorothy Joyce
- Gale Sondergaard as Mrs. Hammond
- Bruce Lester as John Withers
Themes
- based on novel or book
- singapore
- plantation
- letter
- film noir
- murder
- malaya
- murder suspect
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Ratings
IMDb
7.5/10
14,903 votes
Rotten Tomatoes
100%
- Year
- 1940
- Runtime
- 95 min
- Genres
- Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
- Rated
- Approved
- Awards
- Nominated for 7 Oscars. 1 win & 9 nominations total
via OMDb · IMDb
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- film
- Genre
- crime film
- Country of origin
- United States
- Original language
- English language
- Based on
- The Letter
- Director
- William Wyler
- Screenwriter
- William Somerset Maugham
- Cast member
- Leonard Mudie
- Composer
- Max Steiner
- Producer
- Hal B. Wallis
- Cinematographer
- Tony Gaudio
- Narrative location
- Singapore
- Duration
- 95
- FilmAffinity ID
- 615353
- Distribution format
- video on demand
- Image
- Bette Davis in The Letter 3 cropped.jpg
Show 14 more facts
- Commons category
- The Letter (1940 film)
- publication date
- 1940-12-05
- nominated for
- Academy Award for Best Original Score
- film editor
- George Amy
- Commons gallery
- The Letter (1940 film)
- title
- The Letter
- production designer
- Carl Jules Weyl
- color
- black-and-white
- costume designer
- Orry-Kelly
- executive producer
- Hal B. Wallis
- distributed by
- Netflix
- assessment
- Bechdel test
- different from
- List
- review score
- 100%
Sources (11)
via Wikidata · CC0