The Letter

Left alone on her husband's rubber plantation, four miles from Singapore, neglected Jeanne Eagels (as Leslie Crosbie) sends a letter to handsome Herbert Marshall (as Geoffrey Hammond), hoping for a romantic evening. Desperate for attention, Ms. Eagels is instead told, "All good things must come to an end," as Mr. Marshall tells her their affair is over. Eagels is told she disgusts Marshall, who has replaced his blonde English mistress with a Chinese woman. Eagels thinks the native woman is "common" and "vulgar." Declaring she still loves Marshall, Eagels decides to take matters into her own hands. This gets her in trouble with the law. Covering herself, Eagels convincingly hides her secret – but her Asian rival "Lady" Tsen Mei holds "The Letter"...

For her first "talking" motion picture, Eagels wisely agreed to star in W. Somerset Maugham's "The Letter" for producer Monta Bell and debuting director Jean de Limur. Eagels' greatest Broadway success had been in Maugham's steaming "Rain" (1922-26), which was filmed with Gloria Swanson as the hit silent "Sadie Thompson" (1928). Considering her success with this film, Eagels would have likely been considered for the sound version of "Rain" (the part went to Joan Crawford) and further acclaim. However, she had addictions and overdosed after one more film (the presently unavailable "Jealousy"). Notably, Marshall appeared in both the 1929 and 1940 versions, but as different characters...

As many have noted, Eagels shows the effects of drug use in her final films, but it works for the character she plays in "The Letter" – she is desperate and wasting away in a remote location. While employing some stage overplaying at times, Eagels still delivers an electrifying performance. She certainly earned her "Academy Award" consideration, and had the skills to continue into the sound era. This film was famously re-made in 1940 with William Wyler directing and Bette Davis starring. That version is much more polished, and Ms. Davis is likewise stunning. This 1929 version is incomplete and rough in spots, but still enjoyable. The racism is much less confusing, herein; there are scenes and situations which seem to be white-washed for the 1940 version.

******* The Letter (3/17/29) Jean de Limur ~ Jeanne Eagels, O.P. Heggie, Reginald Owen, Herbert Marshall

This film has recently been restored to a 35mm print. I was fortunate enough to see it. A great deal is already said here about Jeanne Eagels' performance. The only thing I can add is that Bette Davis seems to not have so much modeled her performance in the remake, as to have modeled her own physical persona in general on Eagels, who has a subtle body twitch that Davis took to (delightful) extremes later on. Certainly Davis would have seen this original movie version, and may have even seen Eagels on stage in other properties.

The sound is very primitive in this early version. At first it seemed like the sound wasn't even working. But the problem is that there is no sound until the film gets to a scene that has dialogue. It would have been interesting to hear more ambient sound added so you would be less likely to notice the old-fashioned audio, but then purists might complain.

Nevertheless, the film is fascinating and so is Eagels. I saw the film with an Asian friend who liked the fact that the film doesn't shirk from racism. The sequence where the heroine delivers the letter to the dragon lady was fun to compare to the later version. The early version is a lot racier! Also, I must point out that Herbert Marshall, who appears in the later version as the heroine's husband, is very young and handsome as her murdered lover in this 1929 production.

Jeanne Eagels is brilliant in this short version of THE LETTER. My copy is lousy but I stuck with it because Eagels gives an amazing, Oscar nominated performance that keeps you riveted to the screen. I can only image the power this woman had on stage.

The story is the same as the Bette Davis version, but the narrative structure is all different. Eagels has two fabulous scenes: the trial and the finale. Her English accent slips a couple times but for a 1929 movie (and her talkie debut) it's a terrific performance as the amoral Leslie Crosbie.

Herbert Marshall, O.P. Heggie, and Reginald Owen co-star. But the film belongs to Miss Eagels. If only her follow-up and final film JEALOUSY could be found!

Jeanne Engles is almost a physical ghost here. Everyone seems to be in love her as an actress. Based on this, I'm not that hooked but she definitely does get your attention.

In this movie, the racism out in the open and cuts both ways which is closer to the real world. The movie does well to bring that forward. Unfortunately, here, as usual, Hollywood fell into bizarre caricatures and images when portraying the Chinese.

With Anna May Wong in Europe at the time, Tsen Mei is cast as Li-Ti and only manages to extract a very average presence. It is difficult to imagine her as a love interest. (Tsen Mei went on to run theatres in New Jersey) With Anna May Wong in that role (and advising the directors), the movie would have been elevated considerably and the confrontation-over-the-letter scene likely would have become an all time classic.

Technically, this movie is crude, especially the sound but a restored version might be a different story.

I was fortunate to see a rare screening of this (early) 1929 film. The lure for me was Jeanne Eagels, and her performance did not disappoint. Her screen presence is amazing - there is scarcely a performance from this early talkie period to compare it with. If Eagels was alive at the time (she died in October 1929), if Paramount had more clout with the MGM-dominated AMPAS at the time, she surely would have won the Academy Award for Best Actress (it went to Mary Pickford in one of the WORST performances of the period, in the nearly-unwatchable "Coquette"). Her final confrontation with her husband, one of the most dynamic pieces of film acting from ANY period, is alone worth the price of admission.

This film exists only as a work print, without final dubbed-in music and sound effects, which may be disconcerting to some viewers, but thank God Eagels' performance survives intact. The storyline is similar to the 1940 remake but without several plot variations imposed by the Hays Office, and in many ways this earlier film seems more modern, complete with a few profanities and obvious depictions of a brothel (that scene, with Eagels' character humiliated in front of a bevy of Asian prostitutes, is amazing). The casual racism of colonialists on display throughout the film may be off-putting when viewed today, but is historically and dramatically appropriate.

Rights to this film apparently belong to Universal, so the chance of its being distributed on DVD - along with the many wonderful Paramount pre-1934-code films, the brilliantly restored Technicolor "Follow Thru" and "Paramount On Parade", etc. - is slender-to-none. No studio cares less about its pre-1948 catalog, especially the Paramount titles, and we can only pray that whoever heads their video division will be replaced by someone who knows and loves this eminently under-exploited catalog. In the meantime, Run, don't walk if this is screened in your area, and experience this beautiful and vibrant star who influenced a generation of actresses (not the least of which, Bette Davis, who took much from Eagels).