Thursday Movie Picks-Letters

There are, actually, many films involving letters and I was even thinking some very new films but my heart belongs to the older movies. I have a feeling the wonderful film, “Can You Ever Forgive Me”, starring Melissa McCarthy, will be popular today and it is a worthy film to see. Let’s see which films will be chosen over at Wandering Through The Shelves, here are my 3...

1. THE LETTER-1940

This film, starring the great Betty Davis, is about a young woman living in Malaya on a plantation with her husband. We see, at the beginning of the film, Leslie( Bette Davis) shooting a man multiple times and is, then, arrested. We find out, during her trial, that there is an incriminating letter she wrote and she wants it back. Bette Davis was in top form as one of the best actors during this time and it shows in this film. I have to say that I loved Gale Sondergaard in this film as the Eurasian widow who plays her role to the hilt.

2. CASABLANCA-1943

I know I have chosen this film before but I don’t care because it is simply brilliant. I love this film and it deserves all the accolades. You have some great stars from Humphrey Bogart to Ingrid Bergman and the huge cast of character actors that make this film great not to mention the brilliant writing. It all takes place at Rick’s ...his posh nightclub where so many under-handed dealings are going on it’s hard to keep up. One of them concerns Letters of Transit stolen by a petty criminal, Ugarte, played, memorably, by Peter Lorre(his character name is Ugarte not Umgara which is what Tarzan often says to the animals), who asks Rick to hide them. Now, just about everyone is after those letters. We even get a backstory with Rick in Paris who receives a letter from the love of his life saying she can’t go with him and, as the letter disappears amidst the rain, he crumples it as he boards the train. We actually have 2 letters in this fabulous film.

3.  A LETTER TO THREE WIVES-1949

This is a gem of a film starring one of my favourite gals, Jeanne Crain, who is not really known any more but she was quite famous in her heyday and I wish she was better known now. 3 women, all friends, have received letters from the unseen nasty bitch, named Addie Ross, who has told them she has gone away with one of their husbands but has not told them which one. As we watch the 3 women we see their lives with their husbands and how each husband can’t tell what a bitch this ....bitch is. Kirk Douglas is one of the spouses who seems to love his special record, from said bitch, he receives for his birthday than anything else. I will add that Linda Darnell plays another wife, (Ann Sothern is the third), and she is great in her role as a jaded woman from the wrong side of the tracks. It is a great study on characters and marriage and the heartache one person can create.

Which 3 would you choose?