This being Thursday, it's time for another edition of Thursday Movie Picks, the blogathon run by Wandering Through the Shelves. This week the theme is letters, which I'm assuming is intended in the sense of mail and not letters of the alphabet. With that in mind, I didn't have too much difficulty coming up with three old movies:
The Letter (1929). Bette Davis made this story famous with her 1940 version, but I'm going to pick the 1929 version, starring Jeanne Eagels as a woman living in Malaya with her husband who takes up a lover (Herbert Marshall), only to shoot him dead in self-defense. Or so she claims; there's a letter from her to him that's fallen into the wrong hands that might throw some shade on her self-defense claim, and she has to get it back. Eagels would die not long after the movie was released due to complications from her heroin addiction, and the "heroin chic" really shows. Eagels, however, is spectacular in this one.
Cause for Alarm! (1951). Barry Sullivan plays a slightly paranoid man with some health issues married to Loretta Young. When he realizes that the doctor treating him is an old boyfriend of hers, he writes a letter to a prosecutor friend saying he's worried that the wife and doctor are trying to kill him. Just as the letter is getting sent, Sullivan actually drops dead, so Loretta realizes that dammit, she absolutely has to get that letter back. Of course, you're not supposed to interfere with the post office....
Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948). Louis Jourdan plays a concert pianist in 1900 Vienna who has been challenged to a duel the next morning, a challenge he has no intention of accepting. But then he gets a letter from someone in his past. That woman (Joan Fontaine) knew him when she was an adolescent and he was a struggling pianist and military cadet, and they met on several occasions, with she having a much greater love for him than the other way around. The relationship led to a tragic life for Fontaine, causing Jourdan to ponder his own situation.
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4 comments:
The Davis version is definitive but this Jeanne Eagels one has a certain fascination because of her though it does feel rushed.
Letter from an Unknown Woman was the first one I thought of but I'd used it before. It's beautifully wrought and is probably Fontaine's best performance.
I am most definitely not a Loretta Young fan, particularly after her pre-code period but I did see Cause for Alarm! one rainy afternoon and have to admit it was okay.
There were many choices this week so picking three was a snap.
A Letter to Three Wives (1949)-Three well to do suburban wives (Linda Darnell, Ann Sothern and Jeanne Crain) are preparing to chaperone a children’s outing to an island picnic when they receive a letter from their mutual fremeny Addie Ross that she won’t be joining them because she’s left town and in so doing has taken one of their husbands with her. Cut off from the world for the day each wife reviews her marriage wondering if she’s the one now husbandless. Incisive look at personal relationships was nominated for many Oscars (and should have garnered a few more) and won best screenplay and director for Joseph Mankiewicz.
This was one of my selections for Dell’s Girl Week a few years back.
https://dellonmovies.blogspot.com/2016/11/girl-week-2016-letter-to-three-wives.html
The Letter (1940)-The film opens on a pan of a sleepy night on a Malaysian plantation when the peace is shattered by a gunshot. A man stumbles out of the house and down the stairs followed by a woman (Bette Davis) emptying her revolver into him. She tells her husband and the law that the man, a family friend, was attacking her and maintains her innocence throughout a trial but suddenly the dead man’s Eurasian wife sends word through an emissary that she possesses a letter that holds secrets. Top notch drama contains one of Davis’s best, most contained performances guided by William Wyler.
The Kremlin Letter (1970)-An unauthorized letter is sent to Moscow alleging the U.S. government's willingness to help Russia attack China. Former naval officer Charles Rone (Patrick O'Neal) and his team are sent to retrieve the missive. Going undercover they successfully reach out to Erika Kosnov (Bibi Andersson), the wife of a former agent, now married to the head of Russia's secret police (Max von Sydow). Their plans are interrupted, however, when their Moscow hideout is raided by a cunning politician (Orson Welles). Decent cold war thriller directed by John Huston loaded with familiar faces including George Sanders and Max von Sydow.
Jeanne Eagels was so talented but so screwed up. I haven’t seen this film but I chose the Davis film. I haven’t seen the Loretta Young film but maybe I will one day...I just can’t stand her. Letter From an Unknown Woman is on my to see list and one I must see
I haven't seen any of these but Cause for Alarm sounds interesting to me.
I actually thought about using A Letter to Three Wives, but I figured somebody would pick it.
I tend to prefer the Eagels version of The Letter because the ending didn't have to jump through hoops to satisfy the Production Code. As such, it's a much better ending.
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