The Letter

(William Wyler, US 1940, 95 min., 35mm)

William Wyler. William Wyler’s adaptation of a Somerset Maugham short story opens with a bang—six of them, to be exact, all from the gun Bette Davis has just used to kill the man she claims made an unwelcome advance. As the wife of a respectable plantation owner, she’ll mostly likely get off . . . except for that incriminating letter that proves her clear-cut case of self-defense was anything but. Supported by a classic Max Steiner score, Davis has never been better.