No need to recap the oft-repeated plot.
Too bad Gale Sondergaard's evil dragonlady doesn't speak English and Davis does. I kept hoping for a verbal face-off between these two queens of acid tongue. There is the one scene, of course, where the dragonlady humiliates Davis's proper lady (well, not too proper) by dropping the incriminating letter on the floor so Leslie (Davis) has to stoop before her. But what does cool cucumber Leslie care now that she's got her get-out-of-jail-free letter.
These high-class British pictures always fascinate me with their refined ways and "oh so proper" conduct. It's fun to watch the characters shed their well-bred propriety for the animal instincts that finally bond us all. Too bad the suffocating Production Code wouldn't allow a peek into the hot and heavy affair Leslie was having. Seeing the uptight lady with her hair down would have been a revealing treat.
Still, it's that suffocating atmosphere of thwarted desires and broken dreams that lifts this 90-minutes above the ordinary. The lush studio jungle alone is enough to suck the air out of a dozen dirigibles. And what about the cloudy moon that finally registers Leslie's dark fate.
For once, the director's (Wyler) slow, deliberate pacing works because of the richly developed characters. I especially like James Stephenson's struggling attorney. He's so restrained on the surface while he watches his self-respect go steadily down the drain. Then there's Sen Yung's oily little functionary, all groveling politeness and calculating brain. What a fine, well-selected cast.
I like the movie's ending better than what I take to be the novel's. Poor lying Leslie can't stand herself anymore, so in a moment of rare honesty blurts out her true feelings and accepts her punishment. Note how quickly director Wyler skips over the colonial cop's presence in the final sequence. I expect he was as annoyed by Code requirements as anyone else.
Anyhow, this is old Hollywood hitting on all eight and in consummate b&w in ways you just don't see any more.
Too bad Gale Sondergaard's evil dragonlady doesn't speak English and Davis does. I kept hoping for a verbal face-off between these two queens of acid tongue. There is the one scene, of course, where the dragonlady humiliates Davis's proper lady (well, not too proper) by dropping the incriminating letter on the floor so Leslie (Davis) has to stoop before her. But what does cool cucumber Leslie care now that she's got her get-out-of-jail-free letter.
These high-class British pictures always fascinate me with their refined ways and "oh so proper" conduct. It's fun to watch the characters shed their well-bred propriety for the animal instincts that finally bond us all. Too bad the suffocating Production Code wouldn't allow a peek into the hot and heavy affair Leslie was having. Seeing the uptight lady with her hair down would have been a revealing treat.
Still, it's that suffocating atmosphere of thwarted desires and broken dreams that lifts this 90-minutes above the ordinary. The lush studio jungle alone is enough to suck the air out of a dozen dirigibles. And what about the cloudy moon that finally registers Leslie's dark fate.
For once, the director's (Wyler) slow, deliberate pacing works because of the richly developed characters. I especially like James Stephenson's struggling attorney. He's so restrained on the surface while he watches his self-respect go steadily down the drain. Then there's Sen Yung's oily little functionary, all groveling politeness and calculating brain. What a fine, well-selected cast.
I like the movie's ending better than what I take to be the novel's. Poor lying Leslie can't stand herself anymore, so in a moment of rare honesty blurts out her true feelings and accepts her punishment. Note how quickly director Wyler skips over the colonial cop's presence in the final sequence. I expect he was as annoyed by Code requirements as anyone else.
Anyhow, this is old Hollywood hitting on all eight and in consummate b&w in ways you just don't see any more.