1st watched 5/30/2000 - (Dir-Otto Preminger): Well-done whodunit which revolves around a series of letters written supposedly to defame a local doctor in a Canadian town, but ends up becoming more fatal.It keeps you guessing until the end which is pretty much the measuring stick for this kind of movie.
19 Reviews
Starts out interesting
mls418224 June 2021
Lazy, scene-for-scene remake of an essential film noir
MikeF-612 August 2019
I used to think of the Hollywood proclivity toward remaking foreign films in English to be a modern phenomenon until I encountered the 1951 remake of Fritz Lang's German classic "M" from 1939. Well, that comment segues nicely into the American remake of "Le Corbeau." "The 13th Letter" doesn't mention the French film as a source nor the historical incident from the 1920s it is based on but refers back only to the novel. It does pay some homage to its French origins. An opening title tells us that the new movie was filmed in its entirety at a "small French-Canadian community in the Province of Quebec." When I reviewed the Hollywood remake of Fritz Lang's "M" (released the same year as "The 13th Letter" but from different studios), I said that if you could, as much as possible, take the new film on its own merits then it had quite a bit to offer. I can't quite say the same for the Preminger effort. The director doesn't seem to be working too hard for a film that falls between "Where The Sidewalk Ends" and "Angel Face" in his filmography. The new film is not quite a shot-for-shot remake but is pretty much a scene-for-scene redo. The only substantial change is right at the end where a fairly long dialog passage goes to explaining the crimes in a lot more detail than Clouzot provided - but I liked the Clouzot approach better. The new young doctor is played by Michael Rennie who can't come close to showing the inner turmoil that Pierre Fresnay brought to his tormented physician. Linda Darnell is good enough as the landlord's flirty daughter if she isn't nearly as seductive and overtly sexual as the French would have it. The only real notable performance is by Charles Boyer who is quite brilliant as the elderly doctor with the young wife who the anonymous letters continually link to Rennie's character. Howard Koch wrote the screenplay. The cinematographer was Joseph LaShelle (Laura, The Apartment, Marty), so there was talent behind the camera. I can neither recommend or not recommend this picture. See it if curiosity leads you that way. It's not really a bad movie but not a very good one either.
Rennie shines in this well made mystery.
youroldpaljim2 January 2002
Michael Rennie plays a doctor at a Canadian hospital who receives a series of poison pen letters. Soon these letters are sent to others which leads to tension amongst the inhabitants of the small Canadian town.
THE 13TH LETTER is a decent well made mystery which keeps the viewer guessing to the very end who is sending the poison pen letters and why. The cast is quite good, with Rennie giving a stand out performance as noble doctor who is the main target of the nasty letters. It a shame that this film from Otto Preminger is so rarely shown.
THE 13TH LETTER is a decent well made mystery which keeps the viewer guessing to the very end who is sending the poison pen letters and why. The cast is quite good, with Rennie giving a stand out performance as noble doctor who is the main target of the nasty letters. It a shame that this film from Otto Preminger is so rarely shown.
remake of Le Corbeau
blanche-226 August 2017
Otto Preminger directs "The 13th Letter" from 1951, a remake of the Cluzot film, "Le Corbeau."
This dark and heavily atmospheric film takes place in a small town in Quebec. Doctor Pearson (Michael Rennie) has left a big practice after his wife left him and subsequently committed suicide. Tall and handsome, he is attracting a lot of attention, some from a woman (Linda Darnell) he considers to be a hypochondriac vying for his attention. He has been receiving anonymous poison pen letters, as have others in the town.
The wife (Constance Smith) of Dr. Laurent (Charles Boyer) has received a letter accusing her of having an affair with Pearson. A letter sent to a hospitalized war hero states he has cancer and is just not being told. This causes the man to commit suicide.
Dr. Laurent takes charge of looking for the culprit - and there are many suspects.
Good, solid film with Rennie giving a wonderful performance as a good man trying to move on after a tragedy. Boyer is energetic as Dr. Laurent, an older man married to a beautiful younger woman who doesn't want to lose her. Linda Darnell is beautiful and sultry, on her way to a second career as a femme fatale and a long way from her innocence in "The Mark of Zorro".
Constance Smith won a Hedy Lamarr look-alike contest but her career in films ended in ashes due to her bad attitude and inability to get along with studio heads. At one point, she was imprisoned for stabbing her then-boyfriend, Paul Rotha, whom she later married and stabbed again as well as making several suicide attempts. She turned to drugs and alcohol and died after being in and out of hospitals and occasionally working as a cleaner.
Good film which takes you into the story and keeps you there, wondering about the identity of the villain.
This dark and heavily atmospheric film takes place in a small town in Quebec. Doctor Pearson (Michael Rennie) has left a big practice after his wife left him and subsequently committed suicide. Tall and handsome, he is attracting a lot of attention, some from a woman (Linda Darnell) he considers to be a hypochondriac vying for his attention. He has been receiving anonymous poison pen letters, as have others in the town.
The wife (Constance Smith) of Dr. Laurent (Charles Boyer) has received a letter accusing her of having an affair with Pearson. A letter sent to a hospitalized war hero states he has cancer and is just not being told. This causes the man to commit suicide.
Dr. Laurent takes charge of looking for the culprit - and there are many suspects.
Good, solid film with Rennie giving a wonderful performance as a good man trying to move on after a tragedy. Boyer is energetic as Dr. Laurent, an older man married to a beautiful younger woman who doesn't want to lose her. Linda Darnell is beautiful and sultry, on her way to a second career as a femme fatale and a long way from her innocence in "The Mark of Zorro".
Constance Smith won a Hedy Lamarr look-alike contest but her career in films ended in ashes due to her bad attitude and inability to get along with studio heads. At one point, she was imprisoned for stabbing her then-boyfriend, Paul Rotha, whom she later married and stabbed again as well as making several suicide attempts. She turned to drugs and alcohol and died after being in and out of hospitals and occasionally working as a cleaner.
Good film which takes you into the story and keeps you there, wondering about the identity of the villain.
The Poisoned Pen
boblipton23 June 2021
In a small town in Quebec, newly arrived doctor Michael Rennie seems to be doing all right for a stranger. The other doctor in town is Charles Boyer, and he's getting on in years, not to mention the distraction of a young wife, Linda Darnell, who seems to be a hypochondriac. She calls on Rennie to tend to her, which Rennie construes as flirting. He's ot interested. He buried a wife too recently. Then letters start appearing, accusing people of carrying on affairs, and even worse.
Cinephiles will recognize this movie as a remake of Clouzot's LE CORBEAU. That movie was far more concerned with the vicious and hysterical gossip-mongering of small towns. There's some of that here, but Preminger, as he often was,is more interested in process than denunciation. Rennie undergoes a considerable hazing, but its effects are muted by the strong local government. Instead, it tackles the underlying mystery of who is writing these letters, and why. Is it for some gain, or is it mental illness? And if the latter, is it treatable in that post-war Hollywood way that all identifiable problems are easily solvable in 90 minutes of screen time?
Within those constraints, it's a good movie, with some handsome location shooting in St. Hilaire in Quebec. Unfortunately, I am an old movie fan. The shadow of Clouzot's raven hangs over this film, its statements about people in general and small-town attitudes making Otto Preminger's film, despite a fine cast and crew, seem trivial. That is putting it too harshly. Until the inevitable and quickly told happy ending, it's very atmospheric. I suppose that's all one can expect.
Cinephiles will recognize this movie as a remake of Clouzot's LE CORBEAU. That movie was far more concerned with the vicious and hysterical gossip-mongering of small towns. There's some of that here, but Preminger, as he often was,is more interested in process than denunciation. Rennie undergoes a considerable hazing, but its effects are muted by the strong local government. Instead, it tackles the underlying mystery of who is writing these letters, and why. Is it for some gain, or is it mental illness? And if the latter, is it treatable in that post-war Hollywood way that all identifiable problems are easily solvable in 90 minutes of screen time?
Within those constraints, it's a good movie, with some handsome location shooting in St. Hilaire in Quebec. Unfortunately, I am an old movie fan. The shadow of Clouzot's raven hangs over this film, its statements about people in general and small-town attitudes making Otto Preminger's film, despite a fine cast and crew, seem trivial. That is putting it too harshly. Until the inevitable and quickly told happy ending, it's very atmospheric. I suppose that's all one can expect.
Preminger's Québecois noir, yet another unsung work by an underrated director
bmacv1 September 2002
Nestled in the noir cycle is a trio of movies set in the Canadian province of Québec. Ozep's Whispering City and Hitchcock's I Confess make up the first two, followed by Otto Preminger's The 13th Letter. His strategy in setting it there was probably to preserve the Gallic ambience of the original, Clouzot's Le Corbeau (though that version is accounted more mordant and misanthropic).
Michael Rennie left a prosperous medical practice in London to set up residence in Canada after his unfaithful wife left him and later killed herself. He catches many an eye, as there are few marriageable men in the rural village, though Rennie keeps to himself and dotes on his collection of antique timepieces. But suddenly poison pen letters begin to circulate. At first they hint that Rennie is involved with the wife (Constance Smith) of a prominent doctor at the same hospital (Charles Boyer). Soon the letters take a more malicious turn, causing a young war hero to slit his throat by lying about Rennie's withholding a diagnosis of hopeless cancer. The police investigate, and the campaign of libel becomes a political cause celebre.
Rennie, meanwhile, slowly succumbs to the charms of Linda Darnell, who feigns ailments to coax him up to her rooms; beautiful but lonely, she's acutely sensitive when Rennie discovers the club foot she takes pains to conceal. She, too, falls under suspicion, along with many others as the letters continue to come....
Preminger handles the story with slow, modulated suspense, never resorting to shock tactics; his cast uniformly delivers restrained, effective performances (Rennie has never been so good). Distant thunder crackles constantly under the lowering skies, well shot by Joseph LaShelle, adding to the claustrophobic feel of provincial insularity. Yet this superior suspense film languishes in obscurity despite being one of the often dismissed Preminger's better works in the cycle, along with Fallen Angel, Where The Sidewalk Ends, Angel Face and of course Laura.
Michael Rennie left a prosperous medical practice in London to set up residence in Canada after his unfaithful wife left him and later killed herself. He catches many an eye, as there are few marriageable men in the rural village, though Rennie keeps to himself and dotes on his collection of antique timepieces. But suddenly poison pen letters begin to circulate. At first they hint that Rennie is involved with the wife (Constance Smith) of a prominent doctor at the same hospital (Charles Boyer). Soon the letters take a more malicious turn, causing a young war hero to slit his throat by lying about Rennie's withholding a diagnosis of hopeless cancer. The police investigate, and the campaign of libel becomes a political cause celebre.
Rennie, meanwhile, slowly succumbs to the charms of Linda Darnell, who feigns ailments to coax him up to her rooms; beautiful but lonely, she's acutely sensitive when Rennie discovers the club foot she takes pains to conceal. She, too, falls under suspicion, along with many others as the letters continue to come....
Preminger handles the story with slow, modulated suspense, never resorting to shock tactics; his cast uniformly delivers restrained, effective performances (Rennie has never been so good). Distant thunder crackles constantly under the lowering skies, well shot by Joseph LaShelle, adding to the claustrophobic feel of provincial insularity. Yet this superior suspense film languishes in obscurity despite being one of the often dismissed Preminger's better works in the cycle, along with Fallen Angel, Where The Sidewalk Ends, Angel Face and of course Laura.
Intriguing mystery, uninspired presentation
gridoon202416 September 2018
The script is intriguing, especially in the way it points the finger of suspicion at several different characters as to who is the writer of a series of poison pen letters in a small Canadian town, but it's also talky, and Otto Preminger's direction is strangely lacking in style, for the man who helmed the highly celebrated "Laura". This looks more like a TV movie before TV movies where in vogue. Linda Darnell and especially Constance Smith are gorgeous, Charles Boyer is very good, but Michael Rennie is miscast in the central role. ** out of 4.
The 13th Letter (1951)
MartinTeller3 January 2012
A small Quebec town is rattled by a series of anonymous poison pen letters. Preminger takes a stab at Clouzot's LE CORBEAU (Clouzot himself being one of the finest purveyors of European noir, including LES DIABOLIQUES, THE WAGES OF FEAR and QUAI DES ORFEVRES). I don't recall the original very well, but I do know it had a more biting, cynical edge to it (as well as overt references to abortion, which of course was verboten under the Hays code) as opposed to the moodier tones found here. The subject matter is ripe for common noir themes like the fragility of civilized society and the darkness lurking beneath pleasant facades. Every performance is quite good, especially Michael Rennie and the sultry-as-ever Linda Darnell. The film keeps you guessing and keeps you interested, never playing a hand too soon. Although my copy was rather blurry, I could still appreciate the artful framing and use of light. The score is the weakest aspect, often laying on the strings too thick. Otherwise, quite a fine film.
See the Original "Le Corbeau" Instead
claudio_carvalho22 May 2018
The notorious "Le Corbeau" (1943) is an intriguing film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, with the storyline about a mysterious character entitled The Raven that writes poison pen letters and the power of rumors and the effect in the population of a small town in France. The film was banned in France since it was produced by the German company Continental Films during World War II in the occupied France.
"The 13th Letter" (1951) is a poor remake of "Le Corbeau" written by Howard Koch that introduces melodrama, romance and unnecessary explanations in the tight screenplay by Louis Chavance and Henri-Georges Clouzot. It is amazing how silly the plot becomes with these awful modifications. Despite the great international cast of this 1951 version, prefer to see the original "Le Corbeau" instead. My vote is five.
Title (Brazil): "Cartas Venenosas" ("Poison Pen Letters")
"The 13th Letter" (1951) is a poor remake of "Le Corbeau" written by Howard Koch that introduces melodrama, romance and unnecessary explanations in the tight screenplay by Louis Chavance and Henri-Georges Clouzot. It is amazing how silly the plot becomes with these awful modifications. Despite the great international cast of this 1951 version, prefer to see the original "Le Corbeau" instead. My vote is five.
Title (Brazil): "Cartas Venenosas" ("Poison Pen Letters")
Offbeat Premise
dougdoepke10 December 2011
A series of poison pen letters roils a small Canadian town.
Boyer and Darnell get top billing, but Rennie gets the screen time and uses it to memorable effect. His aloof Dr. Pearson is a fascinating portrait in guarded emotions. There's one scene where his steely reserve is topped. Catch the old lady, mother of the dead lad, as she brandishes a nasty looking razor while Pearson looks on, hoping it's not meant for him. It's deliciously played.
The movie's a good noirish mystery, benefiting from the Quebec locations, especially during the impressive funeral scene. This was during TCF's neo-realist period when actual locations were widely used. Then too, the French setting lends a kind of exotic air that boosts the unusual poison pen premise.
At first Darnell's role looks like one of her sexually aggressive type-casts, but then the screenplay does an effective job at winning our sympathy. At the same time, I'm impressed with the strikingly pretty Constance Smith holding up so well during director Preminger's extended hospital scene. There's not much info about her or her brief career. Too bad, she certainly had the chops—literally and figuratively—for a starring career. Took me awhile to identify Boyer as the aging doctor and a long way from his usual dashing leading man (sans toupee). After reading his bio, I expect he enjoyed this departure.
Anyway, the solution is rather complex and something of a stretch, for me at least. Nonetheless, the cast and the production carry it off, making for a very watchable 90- minutes.
Boyer and Darnell get top billing, but Rennie gets the screen time and uses it to memorable effect. His aloof Dr. Pearson is a fascinating portrait in guarded emotions. There's one scene where his steely reserve is topped. Catch the old lady, mother of the dead lad, as she brandishes a nasty looking razor while Pearson looks on, hoping it's not meant for him. It's deliciously played.
The movie's a good noirish mystery, benefiting from the Quebec locations, especially during the impressive funeral scene. This was during TCF's neo-realist period when actual locations were widely used. Then too, the French setting lends a kind of exotic air that boosts the unusual poison pen premise.
At first Darnell's role looks like one of her sexually aggressive type-casts, but then the screenplay does an effective job at winning our sympathy. At the same time, I'm impressed with the strikingly pretty Constance Smith holding up so well during director Preminger's extended hospital scene. There's not much info about her or her brief career. Too bad, she certainly had the chops—literally and figuratively—for a starring career. Took me awhile to identify Boyer as the aging doctor and a long way from his usual dashing leading man (sans toupee). After reading his bio, I expect he enjoyed this departure.
Anyway, the solution is rather complex and something of a stretch, for me at least. Nonetheless, the cast and the production carry it off, making for a very watchable 90- minutes.
Riveting!
JohnHowardReid7 May 2018
Warning: Spoilers
Copyright 15 February 1951 by Twentieth Century-Fox Film Corp. U.S. release: 19 January 1951. New York opening at the Rivoli: 21 February 1951. U.K. release: 26 March 1951. Australian release: 22 June 1951. Exterior locations: Quebec, Canada. 85 minutes. 7,699 feet.
A remake of the 1943 French film Le Corbeau directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot from a screenplay by Clouzot and Louis Chavance.
SYNOPSIS: A mystery melodrama revolving around a poison-pen letter received by the inhabitants of a French Canadian village in Quebec. The first letter hints at a relationship between the young doctor (Michael Rennie) at the hospital with the wife (Constance Smith) of the senior surgeon (Charles Boyer).
NOTES: Otto Preminger claims that The 13th Letter was filmed entirely on location. Indeed he says in his autobiography that "it was the first time a Hollywood picture was shot in its entirety on location" - a point that could well be disputed. It was his second-last film for Fox under his revised contract, River Of No Return being the last. (Angel Face was made on loan-out to RKO, while Carmen Jones was actually an independent production financed and released by Fox.)
Constance Smith who had been signed to a Fox contract after her success in The Mudlark made her Hollywood debut in The 13th Letter. Michael Rennie was here making his second film for Fox, his first being The Black Rose.
Screenwriter Howard Koch had distinguished himself at Warner Brothers in the 'forties with such scripts as The Sea Hawk, The Letter, Sergeant York and Casablanca. After writing The 13th Letter he was black-listed in Hollywood. As with most remakes, reviews were luke-warm at best. Boxoffice results were little more than double the film's modest negative cost (around $600,000). Preminger himself modeled for the film's advertising art depicting "the eyes of a killer"!
The roles played by Darnell, Boyer, Rennie and Smith were originally played in the Clouzot film by Ginette Leclerc, Pierre Larquey, Pierre Fresnay and Micheline Francey respectively.
COMMENT: A riveting script by Howard Koch enacted, with a couple of exceptions, by a fine cast. Charles Boyer is particularly impressive, while Constance Smith makes an auspicious Hollywood debut making the most of a well-written part and stealing the limelight from more experienced players. Linda Darnell comes off rather poorly. Her role is a secondary one and she is not as attractively photographed as Miss Smith - but even allowing for these considerations her performance is limp and unconvincing.
Almost equally dispiriting is Michael Rennie whose playing throughout is extremely wooden. However, the rest of the cast is excellent. Even the most minor roles are judiciously cast and shrewdly played.
The film continues in Fox's semi-documentary tradition by being made on location. Its bleak, atmospheric, black-and-white photography by Joseph La Shelle lends the story a dramatic impact it would have missed on the studio back-lot. Authentic glimpses of the French-Canadian way of life makes for an absorbing background.
Preminger's talents as a director have rarely been seen to better advantage. The mood and the atmosphere and the tension of the story are sheeted home in Preminger's arrestingly dramatic compositions and in the way he uses fluid camera movement to draw the spectator into the action.
As with all Fox films, technical credits are highly proficient. Besides those already mentioned, there is one other that particularly stands out and that is the brilliant music score composed by Alex North. This was only North's second assignment and yet it is a score every bit as thrilling as Death of a Salesman and Viva Zapata! which immediately followed it and A Streetcar Named Desire, his first score. Everyone raves about these others - and I'm not knocking them either - but The 13th Letter has been unjustly ignored.
OTHER VIEWS: "We had an outstanding cast. I still remember how much I enjoyed working with Charles Boyer and Francoise Rosay."
A remake of the 1943 French film Le Corbeau directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot from a screenplay by Clouzot and Louis Chavance.
SYNOPSIS: A mystery melodrama revolving around a poison-pen letter received by the inhabitants of a French Canadian village in Quebec. The first letter hints at a relationship between the young doctor (Michael Rennie) at the hospital with the wife (Constance Smith) of the senior surgeon (Charles Boyer).
NOTES: Otto Preminger claims that The 13th Letter was filmed entirely on location. Indeed he says in his autobiography that "it was the first time a Hollywood picture was shot in its entirety on location" - a point that could well be disputed. It was his second-last film for Fox under his revised contract, River Of No Return being the last. (Angel Face was made on loan-out to RKO, while Carmen Jones was actually an independent production financed and released by Fox.)
Constance Smith who had been signed to a Fox contract after her success in The Mudlark made her Hollywood debut in The 13th Letter. Michael Rennie was here making his second film for Fox, his first being The Black Rose.
Screenwriter Howard Koch had distinguished himself at Warner Brothers in the 'forties with such scripts as The Sea Hawk, The Letter, Sergeant York and Casablanca. After writing The 13th Letter he was black-listed in Hollywood. As with most remakes, reviews were luke-warm at best. Boxoffice results were little more than double the film's modest negative cost (around $600,000). Preminger himself modeled for the film's advertising art depicting "the eyes of a killer"!
The roles played by Darnell, Boyer, Rennie and Smith were originally played in the Clouzot film by Ginette Leclerc, Pierre Larquey, Pierre Fresnay and Micheline Francey respectively.
COMMENT: A riveting script by Howard Koch enacted, with a couple of exceptions, by a fine cast. Charles Boyer is particularly impressive, while Constance Smith makes an auspicious Hollywood debut making the most of a well-written part and stealing the limelight from more experienced players. Linda Darnell comes off rather poorly. Her role is a secondary one and she is not as attractively photographed as Miss Smith - but even allowing for these considerations her performance is limp and unconvincing.
Almost equally dispiriting is Michael Rennie whose playing throughout is extremely wooden. However, the rest of the cast is excellent. Even the most minor roles are judiciously cast and shrewdly played.
The film continues in Fox's semi-documentary tradition by being made on location. Its bleak, atmospheric, black-and-white photography by Joseph La Shelle lends the story a dramatic impact it would have missed on the studio back-lot. Authentic glimpses of the French-Canadian way of life makes for an absorbing background.
Preminger's talents as a director have rarely been seen to better advantage. The mood and the atmosphere and the tension of the story are sheeted home in Preminger's arrestingly dramatic compositions and in the way he uses fluid camera movement to draw the spectator into the action.
As with all Fox films, technical credits are highly proficient. Besides those already mentioned, there is one other that particularly stands out and that is the brilliant music score composed by Alex North. This was only North's second assignment and yet it is a score every bit as thrilling as Death of a Salesman and Viva Zapata! which immediately followed it and A Streetcar Named Desire, his first score. Everyone raves about these others - and I'm not knocking them either - but The 13th Letter has been unjustly ignored.
OTHER VIEWS: "We had an outstanding cast. I still remember how much I enjoyed working with Charles Boyer and Francoise Rosay."
More than just three wives to send letters to.
mark.waltz29 August 2018
Warning: Spoilers
While Michael Rennie is a fabulous underrated actor (best known for the sci-fi classic "The Day the Earth Stood Still"), as a romantic leading man, he's an odd choice, and in this film noir set in Quebec, he's wanted by a good majority of the young ladies in this town. Somebody in the town, though, has it out for the big city doctor who has re-settled there, and he begins to get a series of poison pen letters demanding he leave town before all of his scandals come out to destroy him. Who is responsible becomes the question, and fellow doctor Charles Boyer begins a search to discover through psychiatry who the culprit could be. There's hypochondriac socialite Linda Darnell, practically bedridden only so she can have him making house calls, Boyer's own wife (Constance Smith), a very neurotic woman, her coldly efficient nurse sister (Judith Evelyn), always lurking, and Darnell's pesky sister (June Hedin) whose over-intelligence makes her almost seem like she's gone prematurely mad because she's too smart for her own good. It's a nice set-up, but issues in the script get in the way of it becoming thoroughly believable or satisfying.
There are long stretches of nothing but chanting music in the film which sound like the nun's choral at the beginning of "The Sound of Music", strangely distracting. Every woman in the film is made out to have obvious emotional problems, so it appears that the threatening letters (which soon are being sent to various other townspeople, seemingly even the one responsible) are obviously female oriented. Boyer comes up with a clever plan to trap the culprit which seems to have stopped life in this Quebec town from business as usual, even interrupting Sunday services. A town picnic has the mayor speaking out against both the letter writer and the victim, making the issue political as well as social, and the minister at the interrupted service also focuses on this issue as well. The film does pick up the pace a little bit towards the end, becoming very tense in the last reel, but many viewers will see what's coming and be put off by that. Otto Preminger gives his usual dark theme in his direction of this, but a mediocre script with moments of convoluted detail prevents this from becoming a total success.
There are long stretches of nothing but chanting music in the film which sound like the nun's choral at the beginning of "The Sound of Music", strangely distracting. Every woman in the film is made out to have obvious emotional problems, so it appears that the threatening letters (which soon are being sent to various other townspeople, seemingly even the one responsible) are obviously female oriented. Boyer comes up with a clever plan to trap the culprit which seems to have stopped life in this Quebec town from business as usual, even interrupting Sunday services. A town picnic has the mayor speaking out against both the letter writer and the victim, making the issue political as well as social, and the minister at the interrupted service also focuses on this issue as well. The film does pick up the pace a little bit towards the end, becoming very tense in the last reel, but many viewers will see what's coming and be put off by that. Otto Preminger gives his usual dark theme in his direction of this, but a mediocre script with moments of convoluted detail prevents this from becoming a total success.
A good doctor handling the problem of false accusations involving a whole town
clanciai11 February 2023
Otto Preminger had a penchant for original far-fetched themes and stories that offered the challenge of being difficult to handle, and he made a sport of making them come out well after being handled thoroughly. This is a typical example. It is a psychological thriller of a most unusual kind, someone holding a small town with all its leading characters hostage by poisoned anonymous letters, pointing out the leading doctor at the hospital (Michael Rennie) as having improper affairs with his patients, one of them being Linda Darnell, who in this film is not as beautiful and captivating as the other doctor's young wife, Charles Boyer as far too old a husband for his adorable wife (Constance Smith in her first role). The mystery of these anonymous letters amount to a public scandal as one of them leads to a suicide. There will be more.
Otto Preminger handles the story with its intriguing settings at Quebec with subtle psychological expertise, the delicacy of the problem keeps steadily increasing to an unavoidable breaking point, which would take everyone by surprise. The acting is superb all the way. Charles Boyer is always perfect, but here Michael Rennie actually transcends him as a most gentlemanly London doctor having left his successful career as a gynaecologist after his wife's suicide after having betrayed him, while he is facing new and other challenges in Quebec, which he handles as well as Otto Preminger does. This is the kind of film that has to end up in the limbo of misunderstood undervaluation for its very intricate and difficult psychological finesse.
Otto Preminger handles the story with its intriguing settings at Quebec with subtle psychological expertise, the delicacy of the problem keeps steadily increasing to an unavoidable breaking point, which would take everyone by surprise. The acting is superb all the way. Charles Boyer is always perfect, but here Michael Rennie actually transcends him as a most gentlemanly London doctor having left his successful career as a gynaecologist after his wife's suicide after having betrayed him, while he is facing new and other challenges in Quebec, which he handles as well as Otto Preminger does. This is the kind of film that has to end up in the limbo of misunderstood undervaluation for its very intricate and difficult psychological finesse.
Mystery Falls Short - The 13th Letter
arthur_tafero23 November 2021
This film stars Charles Boyer, who, in my opinion, is a B actor, and Michael Rennie, an A actor, who always delivers a solid performance. Linda Darnell is featured as the most beautiful girl in town; it must be a town with a lot of average-looking women. She does a decent job as the unfaithful wife of Boyer (understandable). There is a a red herring in the middle of the film, and the movie loses steam after that false step. A decent try, but no cigar.
Good Whodunit
GManfred18 July 2011
I thought "The 13th Letter" was a pleasant surprise, a good mystery that keeps you guessing until the end of the picture. In hindsight, it seems a good idea to place the film in Quebec - it seemed a little quirky when the film began but you gradually get used to it. Acting was good all around, especially the two old pros, Michael Rennie and Charles Boyer. Director Preminger uses all cast members as suspects and sprinkles suspicion around liberally - so much so that you can't pinpoint the culprit until late in the movie.
As noted in the site's summary, someone is writing poison pen letters to the new doctor in town (Rennie), and copying in various and sundry townspeople. The letters accuse the doctor of an affair with the wife of the head of the local hospital (Boyer). This is a well done mystery which I can't recall as being on TV. I think it would be well-received if it were dusted off by FMC - it was produced by 20th Century Fox and must be in their vaults somewhere.
As noted in the site's summary, someone is writing poison pen letters to the new doctor in town (Rennie), and copying in various and sundry townspeople. The letters accuse the doctor of an affair with the wife of the head of the local hospital (Boyer). This is a well done mystery which I can't recall as being on TV. I think it would be well-received if it were dusted off by FMC - it was produced by 20th Century Fox and must be in their vaults somewhere.
Why?
daviuquintultimate27 June 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Why? Why is it all happening? Cora, wife of doctor Laurent, is much younger and prettier than her husband. They both know that.
A series of anonimous (poison-pen's-) letters are flooding onto the well-to-do people in the little city in Quebec, accusing Cora to have a love affair with newcomer and young doctor Pearson (who, in his side, has an affair with a totally different person - who has no whatsoever to do with the plot), and threatening, at large, the whole community of the town (including some doctors in the local hospital which we are not allowed to see again in the movie).
To make it short, it appears that the first letters have been written by Cora, under guidance of her husband, and the last ones have been doctor Laurent's own businness. In both cases, we don't know why both series of letters have been written, and nothing of the motivations.
We know quite well - well, not quite well - the plot, just we don't know why.
A series of anonimous (poison-pen's-) letters are flooding onto the well-to-do people in the little city in Quebec, accusing Cora to have a love affair with newcomer and young doctor Pearson (who, in his side, has an affair with a totally different person - who has no whatsoever to do with the plot), and threatening, at large, the whole community of the town (including some doctors in the local hospital which we are not allowed to see again in the movie).
To make it short, it appears that the first letters have been written by Cora, under guidance of her husband, and the last ones have been doctor Laurent's own businness. In both cases, we don't know why both series of letters have been written, and nothing of the motivations.
We know quite well - well, not quite well - the plot, just we don't know why.
It's a write scandal!
kalbimassey8 August 2021
If Fallen Angel was a step down for director Otto Preminger, in the wake of the almost flawless Laura, then The 13th Letter is nothing short of a painful plunge down the cellar stairs following the impressive Where the Sidewalk Ends.
A small, respectable community in French speaking Canada is shaken to its foundations by a series of poison pen letters. Dashing doctor Michael Rennie, a relative newcomer to the area, is initially targeted for his questionable moral conduct, but soon others find themselves under the microscope, with all manner of skeletons in the closet coming to life. At one point a theory circulates that the letters might be the work of two writers.
A premise of real promise, but for a variety of reasons the movie fails to ignite. Sets, which no doubt are intended to be haunting and atmospheric, simply look drab and dreary. The characters, Linda Darnell aside, are uniformly one dimensional. It's a community bereft of eccentrics, extroverts, comics, alcoholics (nobody's likely to drink Canada dry).....and it's definitely a village missing an idiot!
Finally, the performances fall into the perfunctory, 'pays the rent' category. Considering the gravity of the situation, there is very little emotion. No outpouring of rage, shock or horror - more, bemusement steadily descending into sombre, melancholy detachment. Rennie even makes the heartrending account of his tragic marriage sound like he's reading the assembly instructions to a flat pack from Ikea. I was never a huge fan of Joseph Cotten, originally selected for the part, but I am convinced that he would have brought a greater warmth and empathy to the role.
One can only assume that the original, the highly regarded Le Corbeau (1943), offered more punch, muscle and personality than this largely languid affair.
A small, respectable community in French speaking Canada is shaken to its foundations by a series of poison pen letters. Dashing doctor Michael Rennie, a relative newcomer to the area, is initially targeted for his questionable moral conduct, but soon others find themselves under the microscope, with all manner of skeletons in the closet coming to life. At one point a theory circulates that the letters might be the work of two writers.
A premise of real promise, but for a variety of reasons the movie fails to ignite. Sets, which no doubt are intended to be haunting and atmospheric, simply look drab and dreary. The characters, Linda Darnell aside, are uniformly one dimensional. It's a community bereft of eccentrics, extroverts, comics, alcoholics (nobody's likely to drink Canada dry).....and it's definitely a village missing an idiot!
Finally, the performances fall into the perfunctory, 'pays the rent' category. Considering the gravity of the situation, there is very little emotion. No outpouring of rage, shock or horror - more, bemusement steadily descending into sombre, melancholy detachment. Rennie even makes the heartrending account of his tragic marriage sound like he's reading the assembly instructions to a flat pack from Ikea. I was never a huge fan of Joseph Cotten, originally selected for the part, but I am convinced that he would have brought a greater warmth and empathy to the role.
One can only assume that the original, the highly regarded Le Corbeau (1943), offered more punch, muscle and personality than this largely languid affair.
Casting is somewhat intriguing if not problematic
jarrodmcdonald-125 February 2014
Warning: Spoilers
THE 13TH LETTER is a very moody, atmospheric remake shot on location in Quebec, though one gets the feeling a lot was lost in translation from the original French picture. Reviews of the earlier film say it offers a biting social commentary, but this film seems to shy away from that. Instead, Zanuck and Preminger have focused on the more entertaining elements of a man's life unraveling because of adultery, and it has hardly anything to do with society at large, unless the suggestion is that all society's upstanding citizens are perverse in some illogical way.
The casting of THE 13TH LETTER is somewhat intriguing if not problematic. Charles Boyer is perfectly suited to the role of Dr. Laurent, but as much as one enjoys Michael Rennie, he's a little too British to be believed as an immigrant who has lived in Quebec for any length of time in this picture. Undoubtedly, there are British immigrants in Canada; but an American actor like Gregory Peck could just as easily have filled the role, since there are Americans in Canada, too.
Even more out of place is Irish-born Constance Smith chosen as Boyer's wife. Was it that Zanuck wanted to cast the picture with the very best actors under contract, and most of those performers happen to hail from Europe? Why not cast the roles more authentically with Canadian actors, or at least hire gorgeous Micheline Presle as Cora Laurent, or perhaps Danielle Darrieux, and with such casting allow Boyer to speak more French with his on screen wife.
The one role, after Boyer's, that is cast well belongs to Francoise Rosay as Mrs. Gauthier. In the hands of a lesser talent, the part of the vengeful townswoman would have been wasted. Rosay's character, more than any other, drives the narrative forward. For it is her quest, along with ours, that determines to get to the bottom of the poisonous letter writing campaign that has exposed passions and stirred up a hornet's nest of trouble in the local village.
Finally, there is Linda Darnell as Denise Turner, a bedridden woman who may or may not be a true invalid. Darnell is once more playing a devious-minded female, this time trying to get her hooks into the doctor played by Rennie. Though the film is technically a noir, Darnell is not exactly playing a femme fatale, because on some level the character's disabilities will engender some sympathy from the viewer.
Darnell and Rennie certainly generate sparks, but Preminger does not always photograph Darnell like he should. In this film, she sinks into a rather large bed and only when the director chooses to give her the obligatory close-up do we see some life radiating from under the covers. Because of Darnell's apparent unimportance to Preminger's cinematic world, she becomes a specialized but muted ensemble player. One would never know that she has received top billing from the studio for this picture coming in on the proceedings after the opening credits.
The casting of THE 13TH LETTER is somewhat intriguing if not problematic. Charles Boyer is perfectly suited to the role of Dr. Laurent, but as much as one enjoys Michael Rennie, he's a little too British to be believed as an immigrant who has lived in Quebec for any length of time in this picture. Undoubtedly, there are British immigrants in Canada; but an American actor like Gregory Peck could just as easily have filled the role, since there are Americans in Canada, too.
Even more out of place is Irish-born Constance Smith chosen as Boyer's wife. Was it that Zanuck wanted to cast the picture with the very best actors under contract, and most of those performers happen to hail from Europe? Why not cast the roles more authentically with Canadian actors, or at least hire gorgeous Micheline Presle as Cora Laurent, or perhaps Danielle Darrieux, and with such casting allow Boyer to speak more French with his on screen wife.
The one role, after Boyer's, that is cast well belongs to Francoise Rosay as Mrs. Gauthier. In the hands of a lesser talent, the part of the vengeful townswoman would have been wasted. Rosay's character, more than any other, drives the narrative forward. For it is her quest, along with ours, that determines to get to the bottom of the poisonous letter writing campaign that has exposed passions and stirred up a hornet's nest of trouble in the local village.
Finally, there is Linda Darnell as Denise Turner, a bedridden woman who may or may not be a true invalid. Darnell is once more playing a devious-minded female, this time trying to get her hooks into the doctor played by Rennie. Though the film is technically a noir, Darnell is not exactly playing a femme fatale, because on some level the character's disabilities will engender some sympathy from the viewer.
Darnell and Rennie certainly generate sparks, but Preminger does not always photograph Darnell like he should. In this film, she sinks into a rather large bed and only when the director chooses to give her the obligatory close-up do we see some life radiating from under the covers. Because of Darnell's apparent unimportance to Preminger's cinematic world, she becomes a specialized but muted ensemble player. One would never know that she has received top billing from the studio for this picture coming in on the proceedings after the opening credits.
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