MovieChat Forums > The Letter (1940) Discussion > Like the film, however....

Like the film, however....

posted 11 years ago by mmitsos-1
1 reply | jump to latest

I have three MAJOR complaints:

1. The ever- intrusion w Max Steiner score. It's all over the film and is EXTREMELY annoying and headache - inducing

2. Gale Sondergaard's performance as Mrs. Hammond. PLEASE. What were they thinking????? She looked RIDICULOUS. Her stares and stiff neck turns were RUDICULOUS. Just grade B TRASH acting. Awful....a GRAVE weak point in this film.

3. The portrayal of just about every Chinese character was so stereotypically stupid; in particular, the portrayal of the little pischer that told the lawyer about the letter was so annoying. He was a fiendish, manipulative, ugly little pischer. I wish he had died in the film.

[–] rtw416 10 years ago

Yeah-the lawyers receptionist was the typical Asian of the WW2 era.This was before the start of the war with Japan,but the tension was there and they were portrayed as shifty,back stabbers.
When the receptionist first tells of the letter,he had such a evil look on his face-I wanted to throw my shoe at the screen-of course when ever he exited a scene,Asian percussions played to add to his evil intention.