August 24 movie: The Letter. Bette Davis in a noir-ish melodrama based on a Somerset Maugham story. The first few moments of the film have Davis coldly shooting a man as he tries to flee her house on a rubber plantation in Malaya. The rest of the movie unravels the story of why, focusing on a letter (thus the title). As you might guess from the source material, it's pretty depressing and decadent and everyone comes to a bad end. Actually, the lawyer's inscrutably obsequious Asian assistant makes out all right -- he gets a cut of some blackmail money and he doesn't get killed, arrested, ruined or consumed with guilt. But he's about the only one.
Good movie though. Very dramatic and subtle. I liked how long they waited after the letter's appearance to even let us know its contents. Most movies would feel obligated to have lengthy scenes of the characters standing around explaining to each other what the letter meant.
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