For the first time in years, I watched this 1940 classic last night.
I know Bette Davis and Gale Sondergard understandably were given accolades, but James Stephenson - as the lawyer- gave a great performance. Sadly, he is virtually unknown today.
Also Victor Sun Yeng gave a great underplayed performance. Yet today he is known as Number 2 son in Charlie Chan movies, or as the cook in Bonanza.
Ah, Gale Sondergaard is one of my favorites. I’ll give this one a look.
The ending is different from William Somerset Maughm’s great short story, it was tacked on to give it a ‘moral’ ending. A really good movie
(and Maughm also wrote dozens of other stories about the British in Malaysia at the turn of the century, mixing it up with the natives…)
Darn, I thought this was going to be about the pop hit by the Box Tops, featuring a teenaged Alex Chilton on vocals.
Get me a ticket to an aeroplane, ain’t got time to take a fast train…
A great movie. Easy to understand all the Academy Award nominations.
I’m a going home, my baby wrote me a letter…
Last time I was in Singapore I went to Raffles and the bar hasn’t (allegedly) changed since Maugham used to drink there. Certainly, the fan system (no air con) seemed a few centuries old. And the peanut shells on the floor.
Yeah, I opened the thread for the cool song too. Oh well.
Lonely Days are Gone. I’m a goin’ home
and so I say farewell. 
I love this movie, I watch it whenever it shows up on TCM. Bette Davis does chew the scenery a little bit, and poor Herbert Marshall (I’m giving him a mention since you didn’t) is a bit wooden*, but yes, I agree about Victor Sen Yung, he is so smooth and unctuous and unscrupulous.
And of course the ending had to be the way it was, not (just) because it was a Hollywood movie that had to adhere to the Code, but because if the wife were to get away with murder, someone other than Bette Davis would have to have played it. In that case, I’d go with Carole Lombard.
*OK, OK, I couldn’t resist the reference, but really he is such a sad sack in this movie and his acting is, in this one case that I can think of, not very convincing.
I love this movie. A writing partner and I made a play based on the book version. (original ending)
One thing I don’t like or understand about the film is why does the transaction take place after the trial? She can’t be tried again. (can she?) It seems to me the damning letter must be gotten a hold of before the trial. (that’s how we did it)
What is really difficult is that the Bette Davis character has two ‘confession’ scenes where she describes what happened that night. You need a first class actress to pull off one of those but to do it twice is really hard.