"THE LETTER" (1940)
Posted: April 29th, 2009, 12:51 pm
Hello there. I initially posted this over at TCM City. I had a lot of positive responses from it and was suggested that I post this here at the Oasis. So here it is...a post I did back in November 2007 on the classic Bette Davis film: "THE LETTER." Little did I know a year and a half ago that I would be so lucky to be able to present my thoughts on this great film to Robert Osborne. Had I known that...I might've written this a little better. The question marks were put in by the computer. I just didn't want to go back and change everything to quotation marks or apostrophes. Hope it all makes sense to you.
Thank you for reading. Enjoy!!
William Wyler's: "THE LETTER"
Posted: Nov 9, 2007 5:23 AM
"THE LETTER" Now some of you may want to go on to another thread while I wax poetic about this movie. It does not replace "Vertigo" in my heart. In fact, "Vertigo" is heart-felt movie for me...my heart gets broken and I am spent after each viewing; but 'The Letter' is a different kettle of fish. It keeps me bone-straight in my seat. It's the slow peeling of a woman's cry of self-defense..to...cold-blooded murder...to...the release of confession. Bette Davis as Leslie Crosbie is layered and peeled like an onion, but don't cry for her.
I've had many viewings of this classic film since I was a teenager. I don't know if it's becuz I already know the outcome, but I must say this is the first time that I have seen this movie where I am whole-heartedly watching the movie from Gale Sondergaard's perspective, as the recently widowed Mrs. Hammond. I am utterly and absolutely sympathetic to her, and look at Bette Davis (Leslie) with a jaundiced eye. This movie is about watching a murderer. There'll be no need for a spoiler alert, because everyone, but EVERYONE has seen (or SHOULD have seen) this great movie.
First off, everyone fawns and gushes over Leslie and her plight of being arrested for the murder of a man who tried to rape her. The cop questioning her is enamored, her husband (naturally) fawns over her; the jailer who opens the gate tells Leslie she can stay in the visiting room as long as she wants...even the jail matron says: It's a different place since Mrs. Crosbie's been here...its a shame she has to stay here atoll.' Western Caucasian privilege''' I daresay yes. During Leslie's statement of the events, she (Bette Davis) does sound veddy veddy stiff-upper-lip and actressy (guess that's why I luv her); pregnant pauses for effect. The only one NOT falling all over himself over her is her lawyer. He: Howard Joyce (played by James Stephenson) has a rather cold, hard look. Looks like a leading man worthy of acting opposite the Warner Queen. He stands toe to toe with her. He asks questions that cast just a slight doubt as to the veracity of her story. He talks to the cop and asks him if attacking a woman sounds like Hammond's m.o. since he seemed to be a ladies' man. He even says to Leslie: 'When I was looking at Hammond's body...it seemed to me that some of the shots were fired after he was lying on the ground.' There's just enough questioning to give us pause. (If only Johnny Cochran had questioned HIS famous client, but I digress). There's no doubt that the privilege of race & class gets you perks.
A car's headlights and Max Steiner's music introduces us to Gale Sondergaard as Hammond's Eurasian wife now widow. She's dressed in black...somber, stately, handsome, elegant. You get a whiff of what the plantation crowd thought of the inter-racial marriage between one of their own Hammond and Sondergaard's character when you hear the lawyer Stephenson say to Herbert Marshall who plays the husband: 'Strange that Hammond was able to keep his life so hidden; that gambling house he owned and especially the Eurasian woman. I think it was finding out about her that turned opinion so completely against him. Davis' description of Gale Sondergaard's character is none too flattering: 'Horrible! She was all covered with gold chains and bracelets and spangles. Her face like a mask.' But William Wyler gives Sondergaard the close-up camera shot of her career, (IMHO). Wyler places his camera below, looking up at her as she closes her dark eyes that are filled with tears at seeing her husband's dead body lying on the floor. And Max Steiner's music for her is great...heart-aching, quite sympathe-tic. Yep...it's the 1940's and the music helps us along telling us how we're to feel, I guess. And I LOVE IT. Sondergaard's been given two scenes in this movie that define her career (for me).
How are Asians treated in this film' Aaaah...if only it were 2007 and NOT nearly seventy years ago. The Asian clark (actor Sen-Yung who, if I'm not mistaken played Hop Sing on tv's 'Bonanza') plays his role in a bit of a subservient manner (ever-smiling, small quick mincing steps to keep up with the big Lawyer Man) even though he KNOWS he is holding ALL the cards by having the letter in his possession. He is soft spoken while sticking in the dagger oh so gently and deferentially into his boss' guts. It made me wonder what the role would've looked like had it been played by Keye Luke, who I thought was a much more hepcat re: his role in the Charlie Chan series. I wondered what the role would look like if they allowed an Asian actor to just play the role like a 'Normal' person. The proprietor in the store where the letter is exchanged is quite a hoot. (Willie Fung') He has a laugh that could rival Dracula's Renfield. He looks like he's laughing at those crazy Westerners. (I like him). They have to go slumming to get the letter that will save Leslie's pretty privileged little neck.
But who am I kidding...it's Bette Davis who owns this film. It's Bette Davis whose performance is riveting and makes me watch this over and over and over again. She first comes off veddy arch, veddy proper and wounded; veddy mannered and actress-y. But slowly she reveals her true self and the truth of the events. Then she becomes the Legend we know her. She acts a bit coquettish during her visit with her lawyer. Being in jail has been a bit of a vacation for her, she says. (HUH'') She fiddles with a flower for her blouse as she speaks to her attorney. She has a self- assured answer for everything until her lawyer brings up this letter. It's all in those Bette Davis eyes. She needs time to remember (to lie, she means). She unflinchingly, unwaveringly says: 'Howard I swear to you, I did not write this letter.' And she makes total eye contact, defiantly; she needs him to believe her. She squeezes her handkerchief for subtle emphasis. If anything, this movie teaches you you can lie to your husband, you can lie to your Priest (or Rabbi or Minister). But you'd BETTER NOT lie to your lawyer. So she admits she wrote the letter. And then we hear the lawyer reads some of the letter's content (to us). It really changes our opinion of her (and there's Max Steiner's music underscoring the words she has written: 'Robert will be away for the night. I absolutely MUST see you. I'm desperate and if you don't come I won't answer for the consequences. Don't drive up.' When he starts hammering at her about how the trial can go against her favor, she falls into a dead faint. Maybe not the way Marie Osmond hit the deck during 'Dancing with the Stars,' but in a movie star way Davis, falls out to avoid dealing with the truth. (And stalls for time).
Look at her tactic: she mentions how all of this will affect her husband. It's like a guy trying to get his wife to stay 'for the sake of the children.' After her faint, she's laying on the prison hospital table; we don't see her face at all. The camera's behind her. But her hand leans against the wall...and it's her hand that does the acting. Funny how I never noticed that the first twenty years I've seen this film.
Leslie: 'I'm afraid I've made rather a mess of things.'
Howard: 'I'm sorry.'
Leslie: 'For Robert, not for me. You've distrusted me from the beginning.'
Howard: 'It's neither here nor there, Leslie.'
Leslie: 'Who's got the letter'' THE MUSIC STOPS
Howard: 'Hammond's wife.'
Leslie: 'Oh.' MUSIC BEGINS AGAIN 'Are you going to let them hang me''
Howard: 'What do you mean by that Leslie''
Leslie: 'You could get the letter.'
I tell you, watch her hands...listen to the music...how soft & seductive. Listen how the music stops and starts. She starts to spin the web to ensnare her lawyer. Since she can't out & out seduce him, she plays on his sense of loyalty; uses the husband card: 'Poor Robert, he doesn't deserve it. He's never hurt anyone in his life. He's so good and simple and kind and he trusts me so. I mean everything, everything in the world to him. This will ruin his life.' The lawyer decides to betray himself because he DOES have feeling for her. Oh that's subtly shown and unspoken. But Davis needs to stick the knife into his ethics just that much more: 'You won't have to show Bob the letter, will you'..and after the trial'...but if he loses his trust in me, he loses everything.' She ups the ante. And I think he knows he's being had but good. She's leaning against the wall, looking so vulnerable. She's baited the hook with his friendship for Bob (Herbert Marshall) and landed a whale of a fish.
'I don't want you to tell me anything but what's needed to save your neck,' he says.
The Lawyer sells the Hubby on the idea of paying for this incriminating letter. He's cool, calm and collected very, mater-of-fact. Very Walter Pidgeon like. He's sold his friend and his ethics down the river and wipes his brow (a silent: WHEW!!). Love the little by-play between him and the bartender talking at cross-purposes. Howard needs another drink after selling this swill to Husband Bob when the bartender says: 'Too bad rubber won't grow in a civilized climate,' then FADE OUT. We know why Howard's sweating. He's got a secret from his husband, and from his wife (the always lovely and sophisticated Frieda Inescort. Too bad the trajectory of her career led her to appear in 'Alligator People' with Beverly Garland). Howard is somber jeopardizing his career for Leslie. The guilt is torturing him. He looks snazzy in that white dinner jacket, his gaze at her is cold & hard in their 'moments' that are forever interrupted. I hope I'm not boring you. I told you I'm going to wax poetic about this movie. Leslie spins her web around people with as intricate a pattern as her lace needlepoint work. I'm an indie filmmaker and screenwriter and this motion picture helps me with learning how to use less words between actors. Learn from the best...Wyler.
And now THE BIG SCENE where Wife and Mistress meet. DAVIS in lace, looks positively virginal as she goes before the altar of the Wife. The good guy/bad guy colors are reversed here. The chimes start... Davis, Stephenson and Sen-Yung wait with baited breath as though waiting for a monster to burst through the door.(Remember 'The Thing: From Another Planet' 1951 when he bursts through the door' I am NOT likening the great Sondeergaard to The Thing. Save your cards and letters). The proprietor is smoking his hash (or is that opium). The Lawyer takes a deep breath. Davis looks innocent. Sondergaard walks up to the beaded curtain. The camera dollies towards the curtains that Sondergaard stands behind. She hesitates and then parts the beaded curtain and walks through. The camera again is in the position of looking up at her.(Great camera movement). She towers over the camera and looks down. I'm telling you Sondergaard does-not-blink! William Wyler has set up Sondergaard in a very powerful position. The music echoes the chimes. The store proprietor giggles. Sondergaard doesn't even take the money, becuz it's not about the money for her. She makes Bette walk over to GET the letter. Sondergaard pulls out the Letter, Bette steps forward into her key light. Sondergaard drops the Letter to the floor. She's the only person who's ever made Bette Davis drop to her knees. (Aw c'mon, you're not counting her dropping at Fonda's feet in 'Jezebel' with THIS scene are ya') When Bette bends down and picks up the letter, the camera drops down with Davis...we drop down with Davis and humble ourselves before Sondergaard. She has probably suffered racist slings and arrows from the rubber plantation owners and their wives. When Bette bends down to retrieve the letter, Sondergaard takes a deliberate step back. So much is said with that one step; probably that Bette is not worth Sondergaard wiping her shoes on her. It is my favorite scene of all the movies I've ever watched. The music is a combina-tion of both ladies' themes (all the while Steiner's musical chimes under- score everything). Bette does not back down either. She too is unblinking. And she will do WHATEVER it takes to get back this incriminating piece of evidence. She is a survivor. She faces the wife of the man she had been having a torrid affair AND have killed. Could YOU do it' I couldn't. And Only Bette Davis can take her medicine like a man! (Okay, Stanwyck could too).
At the trial, Howard's summation galls him. His words about truth and justice stick in his craw like a dagger. He pushes through, but has lost a bit of his soul in defense of his client. But any good lawyer worth his salt defends his client...even when he KNOW she is guilty; even if he's falling in love with her. The verdict: not guilty, of course. Hammond was a cad...a swine, right' The plot ups its ante a bit. Robert, the Husband, wants to buy a plantation elsewhere and use his $10,000 to help towards the purchase.
When it's revealed what his money was spent for, Davis hides no more. She's honest...she's exposed...she's naked. It's her one honest moment in the film. Steiner's music is a low bass somber drum beat. 'I was in love with Jeff Hammond. Been in love for years. We use to meet each other constantly once or twice a week. Not a soul had the smallest suspicion. Everytime I met him I hated myself and yet I lived for the moment when I'd see him again. It was horrible. Never an hour when I as at peace, when I wasn't reproa-ching myself. I was like a person who was sick with some loath-some disease and doesn't want to get well. Even my agony ws a kind of joy...Then I heard about that, that native woman. I couldn't believe it, I wouldn't belive it. At last I saw her. Saw her walking in the village with those hideous spangles, that chalky painted face, those eyes like a cobra's eyes. But I couldn't give him up...At last he turned on me. He told me he was sick and tired of me. That it was true about that other woman. That she was the only one that had ever meant anything to him. That he was glad that I knew because now I'd leave him alone. When he got up to go and I knew if he'd left I'd never see him again, so I seized the revolver and fired...there's no excuse for me. I don't deserve to live.'
Her confession serves as a release/relief for her and a salvo to his ego...his idea of her...his idea of his life WITH her. Where do you go from there' She's laid herself bare. Marshall is stripped of any illusions of her.
Her lawyer says: 'He's going to forgive you.' 'Yes,' she says. 'He's going to forgive me.'
Oh they'll try to make a go of. Friends come out to celebrate Davis' acquittal and perhaps even their own acquittal for indicting a bon vivante who gambled, had women but then had the audacity to marry an Other. But it won't work between Davis and Marshall. It's not that Marshall has stopped loving Davis. It's just that this poor sap's love will NEVER be enough. With the world in her hands...with her freedom and welcome back into the community, only Bette Davis could be honest enough...true to herself enough to throw it all away. Perhaps it was her one selfless act to help Marshall get over her, to send him off hating her. But with this one line her fate is sealed: 'With all my heart, I still love the man I killed.'
We know how this will end.
I wish I had some screen captures to illustrate my point, but hey, I'm no Frank Grimes. I love this film, love watching Gale Sondergaard- silent but deadly but most of all I love watching Bette Davis weave her way to her doom under the moonlit Malaysian nite.
Thank you for reading. Enjoy!!
William Wyler's: "THE LETTER"
Posted: Nov 9, 2007 5:23 AM
"THE LETTER" Now some of you may want to go on to another thread while I wax poetic about this movie. It does not replace "Vertigo" in my heart. In fact, "Vertigo" is heart-felt movie for me...my heart gets broken and I am spent after each viewing; but 'The Letter' is a different kettle of fish. It keeps me bone-straight in my seat. It's the slow peeling of a woman's cry of self-defense..to...cold-blooded murder...to...the release of confession. Bette Davis as Leslie Crosbie is layered and peeled like an onion, but don't cry for her.
I've had many viewings of this classic film since I was a teenager. I don't know if it's becuz I already know the outcome, but I must say this is the first time that I have seen this movie where I am whole-heartedly watching the movie from Gale Sondergaard's perspective, as the recently widowed Mrs. Hammond. I am utterly and absolutely sympathetic to her, and look at Bette Davis (Leslie) with a jaundiced eye. This movie is about watching a murderer. There'll be no need for a spoiler alert, because everyone, but EVERYONE has seen (or SHOULD have seen) this great movie.
First off, everyone fawns and gushes over Leslie and her plight of being arrested for the murder of a man who tried to rape her. The cop questioning her is enamored, her husband (naturally) fawns over her; the jailer who opens the gate tells Leslie she can stay in the visiting room as long as she wants...even the jail matron says: It's a different place since Mrs. Crosbie's been here...its a shame she has to stay here atoll.' Western Caucasian privilege''' I daresay yes. During Leslie's statement of the events, she (Bette Davis) does sound veddy veddy stiff-upper-lip and actressy (guess that's why I luv her); pregnant pauses for effect. The only one NOT falling all over himself over her is her lawyer. He: Howard Joyce (played by James Stephenson) has a rather cold, hard look. Looks like a leading man worthy of acting opposite the Warner Queen. He stands toe to toe with her. He asks questions that cast just a slight doubt as to the veracity of her story. He talks to the cop and asks him if attacking a woman sounds like Hammond's m.o. since he seemed to be a ladies' man. He even says to Leslie: 'When I was looking at Hammond's body...it seemed to me that some of the shots were fired after he was lying on the ground.' There's just enough questioning to give us pause. (If only Johnny Cochran had questioned HIS famous client, but I digress). There's no doubt that the privilege of race & class gets you perks.
A car's headlights and Max Steiner's music introduces us to Gale Sondergaard as Hammond's Eurasian wife now widow. She's dressed in black...somber, stately, handsome, elegant. You get a whiff of what the plantation crowd thought of the inter-racial marriage between one of their own Hammond and Sondergaard's character when you hear the lawyer Stephenson say to Herbert Marshall who plays the husband: 'Strange that Hammond was able to keep his life so hidden; that gambling house he owned and especially the Eurasian woman. I think it was finding out about her that turned opinion so completely against him. Davis' description of Gale Sondergaard's character is none too flattering: 'Horrible! She was all covered with gold chains and bracelets and spangles. Her face like a mask.' But William Wyler gives Sondergaard the close-up camera shot of her career, (IMHO). Wyler places his camera below, looking up at her as she closes her dark eyes that are filled with tears at seeing her husband's dead body lying on the floor. And Max Steiner's music for her is great...heart-aching, quite sympathe-tic. Yep...it's the 1940's and the music helps us along telling us how we're to feel, I guess. And I LOVE IT. Sondergaard's been given two scenes in this movie that define her career (for me).
How are Asians treated in this film' Aaaah...if only it were 2007 and NOT nearly seventy years ago. The Asian clark (actor Sen-Yung who, if I'm not mistaken played Hop Sing on tv's 'Bonanza') plays his role in a bit of a subservient manner (ever-smiling, small quick mincing steps to keep up with the big Lawyer Man) even though he KNOWS he is holding ALL the cards by having the letter in his possession. He is soft spoken while sticking in the dagger oh so gently and deferentially into his boss' guts. It made me wonder what the role would've looked like had it been played by Keye Luke, who I thought was a much more hepcat re: his role in the Charlie Chan series. I wondered what the role would look like if they allowed an Asian actor to just play the role like a 'Normal' person. The proprietor in the store where the letter is exchanged is quite a hoot. (Willie Fung') He has a laugh that could rival Dracula's Renfield. He looks like he's laughing at those crazy Westerners. (I like him). They have to go slumming to get the letter that will save Leslie's pretty privileged little neck.
But who am I kidding...it's Bette Davis who owns this film. It's Bette Davis whose performance is riveting and makes me watch this over and over and over again. She first comes off veddy arch, veddy proper and wounded; veddy mannered and actress-y. But slowly she reveals her true self and the truth of the events. Then she becomes the Legend we know her. She acts a bit coquettish during her visit with her lawyer. Being in jail has been a bit of a vacation for her, she says. (HUH'') She fiddles with a flower for her blouse as she speaks to her attorney. She has a self- assured answer for everything until her lawyer brings up this letter. It's all in those Bette Davis eyes. She needs time to remember (to lie, she means). She unflinchingly, unwaveringly says: 'Howard I swear to you, I did not write this letter.' And she makes total eye contact, defiantly; she needs him to believe her. She squeezes her handkerchief for subtle emphasis. If anything, this movie teaches you you can lie to your husband, you can lie to your Priest (or Rabbi or Minister). But you'd BETTER NOT lie to your lawyer. So she admits she wrote the letter. And then we hear the lawyer reads some of the letter's content (to us). It really changes our opinion of her (and there's Max Steiner's music underscoring the words she has written: 'Robert will be away for the night. I absolutely MUST see you. I'm desperate and if you don't come I won't answer for the consequences. Don't drive up.' When he starts hammering at her about how the trial can go against her favor, she falls into a dead faint. Maybe not the way Marie Osmond hit the deck during 'Dancing with the Stars,' but in a movie star way Davis, falls out to avoid dealing with the truth. (And stalls for time).
Look at her tactic: she mentions how all of this will affect her husband. It's like a guy trying to get his wife to stay 'for the sake of the children.' After her faint, she's laying on the prison hospital table; we don't see her face at all. The camera's behind her. But her hand leans against the wall...and it's her hand that does the acting. Funny how I never noticed that the first twenty years I've seen this film.
Leslie: 'I'm afraid I've made rather a mess of things.'
Howard: 'I'm sorry.'
Leslie: 'For Robert, not for me. You've distrusted me from the beginning.'
Howard: 'It's neither here nor there, Leslie.'
Leslie: 'Who's got the letter'' THE MUSIC STOPS
Howard: 'Hammond's wife.'
Leslie: 'Oh.' MUSIC BEGINS AGAIN 'Are you going to let them hang me''
Howard: 'What do you mean by that Leslie''
Leslie: 'You could get the letter.'
I tell you, watch her hands...listen to the music...how soft & seductive. Listen how the music stops and starts. She starts to spin the web to ensnare her lawyer. Since she can't out & out seduce him, she plays on his sense of loyalty; uses the husband card: 'Poor Robert, he doesn't deserve it. He's never hurt anyone in his life. He's so good and simple and kind and he trusts me so. I mean everything, everything in the world to him. This will ruin his life.' The lawyer decides to betray himself because he DOES have feeling for her. Oh that's subtly shown and unspoken. But Davis needs to stick the knife into his ethics just that much more: 'You won't have to show Bob the letter, will you'..and after the trial'...but if he loses his trust in me, he loses everything.' She ups the ante. And I think he knows he's being had but good. She's leaning against the wall, looking so vulnerable. She's baited the hook with his friendship for Bob (Herbert Marshall) and landed a whale of a fish.
'I don't want you to tell me anything but what's needed to save your neck,' he says.
The Lawyer sells the Hubby on the idea of paying for this incriminating letter. He's cool, calm and collected very, mater-of-fact. Very Walter Pidgeon like. He's sold his friend and his ethics down the river and wipes his brow (a silent: WHEW!!). Love the little by-play between him and the bartender talking at cross-purposes. Howard needs another drink after selling this swill to Husband Bob when the bartender says: 'Too bad rubber won't grow in a civilized climate,' then FADE OUT. We know why Howard's sweating. He's got a secret from his husband, and from his wife (the always lovely and sophisticated Frieda Inescort. Too bad the trajectory of her career led her to appear in 'Alligator People' with Beverly Garland). Howard is somber jeopardizing his career for Leslie. The guilt is torturing him. He looks snazzy in that white dinner jacket, his gaze at her is cold & hard in their 'moments' that are forever interrupted. I hope I'm not boring you. I told you I'm going to wax poetic about this movie. Leslie spins her web around people with as intricate a pattern as her lace needlepoint work. I'm an indie filmmaker and screenwriter and this motion picture helps me with learning how to use less words between actors. Learn from the best...Wyler.
And now THE BIG SCENE where Wife and Mistress meet. DAVIS in lace, looks positively virginal as she goes before the altar of the Wife. The good guy/bad guy colors are reversed here. The chimes start... Davis, Stephenson and Sen-Yung wait with baited breath as though waiting for a monster to burst through the door.(Remember 'The Thing: From Another Planet' 1951 when he bursts through the door' I am NOT likening the great Sondeergaard to The Thing. Save your cards and letters). The proprietor is smoking his hash (or is that opium). The Lawyer takes a deep breath. Davis looks innocent. Sondergaard walks up to the beaded curtain. The camera dollies towards the curtains that Sondergaard stands behind. She hesitates and then parts the beaded curtain and walks through. The camera again is in the position of looking up at her.(Great camera movement). She towers over the camera and looks down. I'm telling you Sondergaard does-not-blink! William Wyler has set up Sondergaard in a very powerful position. The music echoes the chimes. The store proprietor giggles. Sondergaard doesn't even take the money, becuz it's not about the money for her. She makes Bette walk over to GET the letter. Sondergaard pulls out the Letter, Bette steps forward into her key light. Sondergaard drops the Letter to the floor. She's the only person who's ever made Bette Davis drop to her knees. (Aw c'mon, you're not counting her dropping at Fonda's feet in 'Jezebel' with THIS scene are ya') When Bette bends down and picks up the letter, the camera drops down with Davis...we drop down with Davis and humble ourselves before Sondergaard. She has probably suffered racist slings and arrows from the rubber plantation owners and their wives. When Bette bends down to retrieve the letter, Sondergaard takes a deliberate step back. So much is said with that one step; probably that Bette is not worth Sondergaard wiping her shoes on her. It is my favorite scene of all the movies I've ever watched. The music is a combina-tion of both ladies' themes (all the while Steiner's musical chimes under- score everything). Bette does not back down either. She too is unblinking. And she will do WHATEVER it takes to get back this incriminating piece of evidence. She is a survivor. She faces the wife of the man she had been having a torrid affair AND have killed. Could YOU do it' I couldn't. And Only Bette Davis can take her medicine like a man! (Okay, Stanwyck could too).
At the trial, Howard's summation galls him. His words about truth and justice stick in his craw like a dagger. He pushes through, but has lost a bit of his soul in defense of his client. But any good lawyer worth his salt defends his client...even when he KNOW she is guilty; even if he's falling in love with her. The verdict: not guilty, of course. Hammond was a cad...a swine, right' The plot ups its ante a bit. Robert, the Husband, wants to buy a plantation elsewhere and use his $10,000 to help towards the purchase.
When it's revealed what his money was spent for, Davis hides no more. She's honest...she's exposed...she's naked. It's her one honest moment in the film. Steiner's music is a low bass somber drum beat. 'I was in love with Jeff Hammond. Been in love for years. We use to meet each other constantly once or twice a week. Not a soul had the smallest suspicion. Everytime I met him I hated myself and yet I lived for the moment when I'd see him again. It was horrible. Never an hour when I as at peace, when I wasn't reproa-ching myself. I was like a person who was sick with some loath-some disease and doesn't want to get well. Even my agony ws a kind of joy...Then I heard about that, that native woman. I couldn't believe it, I wouldn't belive it. At last I saw her. Saw her walking in the village with those hideous spangles, that chalky painted face, those eyes like a cobra's eyes. But I couldn't give him up...At last he turned on me. He told me he was sick and tired of me. That it was true about that other woman. That she was the only one that had ever meant anything to him. That he was glad that I knew because now I'd leave him alone. When he got up to go and I knew if he'd left I'd never see him again, so I seized the revolver and fired...there's no excuse for me. I don't deserve to live.'
Her confession serves as a release/relief for her and a salvo to his ego...his idea of her...his idea of his life WITH her. Where do you go from there' She's laid herself bare. Marshall is stripped of any illusions of her.
Her lawyer says: 'He's going to forgive you.' 'Yes,' she says. 'He's going to forgive me.'
Oh they'll try to make a go of. Friends come out to celebrate Davis' acquittal and perhaps even their own acquittal for indicting a bon vivante who gambled, had women but then had the audacity to marry an Other. But it won't work between Davis and Marshall. It's not that Marshall has stopped loving Davis. It's just that this poor sap's love will NEVER be enough. With the world in her hands...with her freedom and welcome back into the community, only Bette Davis could be honest enough...true to herself enough to throw it all away. Perhaps it was her one selfless act to help Marshall get over her, to send him off hating her. But with this one line her fate is sealed: 'With all my heart, I still love the man I killed.'
We know how this will end.
I wish I had some screen captures to illustrate my point, but hey, I'm no Frank Grimes. I love this film, love watching Gale Sondergaard- silent but deadly but most of all I love watching Bette Davis weave her way to her doom under the moonlit Malaysian nite.