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Post by Fading Fast on Sept 24, 2023 20:30:40 GMT
Okay, so did Smith write some and Boyer the others? Or was it all Boyer? I lost the thread right at the end. She wrote all of them. He dictated the original letters. He was using her to do the dirty work (perhaps under hypnosis). Then, due to her confusion, she started writing some of them on her own. The ones where she wanted the town to know she and Rennie were lovers, which was a fantasy in her mind.
She said the only one she didn't write was the one that caused Jean Louis to commit suicide.
That was Boyer's way of causing Rennie to lose a patient and be forced out of a job and kicked out of town. Okay, that makes sense. So the wife was also the one that dropped the letter from the church balcony. I think it all fits. But it is still kinda far fetched. Why do any of it?
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Post by topbilled on Sept 24, 2023 20:31:17 GMT
Constance Smith is doing a great job here at the end.
Yes, I really liked her. I don't think I've seen her in anything else. If we hadn't just seen Linda Darnell in two movies I would have been mixing the two women up. Constance Smith has a completely different role in Fox's remake of THE LODGER, called MAN IN THE ATTIC (1953). In that one, she's a kittenish show girl who is stalked by Jack the Ripper, played by Jack Palance.
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Post by Fading Fast on Sept 24, 2023 20:32:31 GMT
Constance Smith is doing a great job here at the end.
Yes, I really liked her. I don't think I've seen her in anything else. If we hadn't just seen Linda Darnell in two movies I would have been mixing the two women up. Agreed, it was a wonderful scene by Smith. Based on my limited knowledge of 1950s nose jobs, I think Smith had one as that was a very tiny and perfect shaped nose she had for her face - kinda the way they were doing noses back then.
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Post by Fading Fast on Sept 24, 2023 20:34:16 GMT
Andrea, really good choice. I enjoyed it very much. The entire month was very good. Thank you.
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Post by topbilled on Sept 24, 2023 20:39:10 GMT
She wrote all of them. He dictated the original letters. He was using her to do the dirty work (perhaps under hypnosis). Then, due to her confusion, she started writing some of them on her own. The ones where she wanted the town to know she and Rennie were lovers, which was a fantasy in her mind.
She said the only one she didn't write was the one that caused Jean Louis to commit suicide.
That was Boyer's way of causing Rennie to lose a patient and be forced out of a job and kicked out of town. Okay, that makes sense. So the wife was also the one that dropped the letter from the church balcony. I think it all fits. But it is still kinda far fetched. Why do any of it? It could be argued that Boyer, a psychiatrist, was the one in need of a psychiatrist. He was mad, and he was using the letters to deal with his own paranoia about his wife being attracted to Rennie and not to him. Also, he had learned most of the town's secrets. So when he started sending the letters, he was "cleansing" them at the same time he was psycho analyzing the culprit, himself.
Boyer seemed to have a God complex, and he wanted to punish the town for being hypocrites and to get rid of Rennie, of whom he was insanely jealous.
In addition, the film is making a point about the different ways doctors treat patients...Rennie's treatment of Darnell (who will eventually be his wife) is a total 180 from the way Boyer treats and abuses his wife, Constance Smith's character.
The original French film, which was made under Nazi control, suggests that anyone can be an informer. So in a way Boyer's character is a Nazi trying to purge the town of impurity.
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Post by topbilled on Sept 24, 2023 20:42:16 GMT
Andrea, really good choice. I enjoyed it very much. The entire month was very good. Thank you. Yes, this was a very good theme Andrea, with some thought-provoking movies.
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Post by Fading Fast on Sept 24, 2023 20:54:06 GMT
I just looked up Ms. Smith on IMDB and, despite having made 31 movies from '47 - '59, I was surprised at how few of them I've seen.
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Post by topbilled on Sept 24, 2023 20:56:34 GMT
I should add that the 1943 French film had the doctor (Rennie's character) not just accused of an affair, but also had him accused of performing illegal abortions. That aspect of the story is completely "cleansed" from the Hollywood remake due to the production code.
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Post by Andrea Doria on Sept 24, 2023 21:41:02 GMT
I should add that the 1943 French film had the doctor (Rennie's character) not just accused of an affair, but also had him accused of performing illegal abortions. That aspect of the story is completely "cleansed" from the Hollywood remake due to the production code. Wow, yes that would have been way too much for the fifties audience, that issue was almost never spoken of at that time.I'm glad you two liked the letter movies, this last one was all Topbilled's idea, I could only think of three.
These days it would be a poisonous email making the rounds although they're hard to send anonymously. We can't make crank phone calls anymore either. Darn technology.
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Post by topbilled on Sept 24, 2023 21:52:19 GMT
I should add that the 1943 French film had the doctor (Rennie's character) not just accused of an affair, but also had him accused of performing illegal abortions. That aspect of the story is completely "cleansed" from the Hollywood remake due to the production code. Wow, yes that would have been way too much for the fifties audience, that issue was almost never spoken of at that time.I'm glad you two liked the letter movies, this last one was all Topbilled's idea, I could only think of three.
These days it would be a poisonous email making the rounds although they're hard to send anonymously. We can't make crank phone calls anymore either. Darn technology. People still send packages, through delivery services like UPS or Federal Express...so a modern remake could depict someone sending 'shocking presents' with a note. But yes, not sure if it would be "easy" to do that anonymously.
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Post by topbilled on Sept 25, 2023 2:28:33 GMT
Looking forward to Fading Fast's review of this film...
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Post by Fading Fast on Sept 25, 2023 2:43:00 GMT
Looking forward to Fading Fast's review of this film... It's with the editor (me) right now.
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Post by Fading Fast on Sept 25, 2023 3:08:34 GMT
The 13th Letter from 1951 with Michael Rennie, Charles Boyer, Linda Darnell and Constance Smith
Director Otto Preminger set and filmed his remake of the 1940 French film Le Corbeau in a province in Quebec Canada, which gives his film a realistic "small town" intimacy and a French "feel."
The 13th Letter, though, falls firmly in the classic noir mystery genre of movies that Hollywood was making in the early 1950s, especially with a cast that includes Charles Boyer, Linda Darnell and Michael Rennie, actors who were familiar to American audiences.
Rennie plays the handsome, young and a bit aloof new doctor in town. He is respected as a professional, but he seems hesitant to form any close bonds with the single and not-so-single women interested in him.
He has, however, befriended an older doctor, played by Boyer, who runs the local hospital, even though Boyer's young wife might be one of the women interested in Rennie. Rennie also has a rough-edged relationship with a pretty, petulant patient, played by Darnell.
Then the letters start coming: anonymous "poison pen" notes sent to Rennie and others in town implying Rennie has been having affairs with several women, including Boyer's wife, played by Constance Smith.
This throws the small community - in an era when one's reputation and personal probity meant much more than they do today - into a tizzy. The suspicions cause some patients to no longer avail themselves of Rennie's professional services.
It only gets worse as subsequent letters are sent to more people, with one even accusing Rennie of violating medical ethics. When that one leads to a horrific patient reaction, the police get involved.
The people in the town also take up sides. Even Rennie's friend Boyer can't help becoming suspicious of Rennie and his wife. This all forces Rennie to tell more about his somewhat checkered past that explains why he moved to this province in the first place.
He and Darnell evolve from being antagonists to dating, but their former friction and the new pressures of the letters stress their aborning romantic relationship. It's also not helpful that Smith, Boyer's wife, who the letters say is Rennie's lover, is young and pretty.
The letters, additionally, bring out buried animosities as we learn that Smith's sister, the less-pretty sister of the two, feels that Smith stole Boyer from her. This also makes the sister a possible suspect in the search for the letter writer.
It all adds up to good noir, which Preminger shot in black and white with plenty of sharp angles and ominous shadows. Like Hitchcock did often, Preminger slowly turns an innocent and pleasant looking community into a foreboding and claustrophobic one.
As more letters come, the town's increasingly ominous atmosphere helps us see the damage suspicion can do to a small religious community as even Rennie's lack of regular church attendance is disparagingly noted.
Rennie is very good as the handsome young doctor at the center of it all as he has an innately mysterious mien. Boyer, as always, is engaging and convincing. Darnell and Smith, both strikingly pretty women, amp up the sexual and noir tension. It's an impressive cast.
The climax, no spoilers coming, is a bit convoluted and not fully believable, which undermines the overall impact of the movie. Still, with its appealing setting, good story and talented actors, The 13th Letter is an enjoyable and suspenseful mid-century noir.
Note, at one point, the movie's working title must have been "The Scarlet Pen."
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Post by Andrea Doria on Sept 25, 2023 12:01:09 GMT
I love Fading Fast's reviews, they help organize my thoughts about the movie and put impression into words.
Just as I was thinking how much I love that still of Rennie and Darnell he perfectly described Michael Rennie's look for me: "Rennie is very good as the handsome young doctor at the center of it all as he has an innately mysterious mien. I can only describe Linda Darnell as a living Giovanni Boldini portrait. They're perfect together.
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Post by Fading Fast on Sept 25, 2023 12:30:58 GMT
I love Fading Fast's reviews, they help organize my thoughts about the movie and put impression into words.
Just as I was thinking how much I love that still of Rennie and Darnell he perfectly described Michael Rennie's look for me: "Rennie is very good as the handsome young doctor at the center of it all as he has an innately mysterious mien. I can only describe Linda Darnell as a living Giovanni Boldini portrait. They're perfect together. Thank you for the kind words. I felt I didn't really capture the essence of the movie this time, but couldn't think of what I needed to change/add/subtract to do so. The editor (me) wasn't fully please, but with press time looming, he made the go/no-go decision and released it.
That is a perceptive description of Darnell as she does have a "from an earlier era" appearance (maybe that's why her sister tried to treat her with a 19th century medical procedure ). Brenda Marshall always struck me as looking that way too. It's why I think both actresses looked so natural in historical-period movies.
Ms. Marshall
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