The Letter is an American pre-Code dramatic film directed by Jean de Limur and released by Paramount Pictures. It was the first full-sound feature shot at Astoria Studios, Queens, New York City. A silent version of the film was also released. The film stars stage actress Jeanne Eagels in her final role and O.P. Heggie. The film was adapted by Garrett Fort from the 1927 play The Letter by W. Somerset Maugham. It tells the story of a jealous married woman who kills her lover and is brought to trial.
Jeanne Bécu, Comtesse du Barry was the last maîtresse-en-titre of King Louis XV of France. She was executed by guillotine during the French Revolution due to accounts of treason—particularly being suspected of assisting émigrés flee from the Revolution.
Lord Emsworth and Others is a collection of nine short stories by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United Kingdom on 19 March 1937 by Herbert Jenkins, London; it was not published in the United States. The Crime Wave at Blandings, which was published on 25 June 1937 by Doubleday, Doran, New York, is a very different collection, sharing only three of its seven titles with the UK book. Penguin Books published a UK edition of The Crime Wave at Blandings in 1966. The stories in both books had all previously appeared in both British and American magazines.
Hermione Youlanda Ruby Clinton-Baddeley was an English actress of theatre, film and television. She typically played brash, vulgar characters, often referred to as "brassy" or "blowsy". She found her milieu in revue, in which she played from the 1930s to the 1950s, co-starring several times with the English actress Hermione Gingold.
"The Necklace" is a short story by French writer Guy de Maupassant. It is known for its twist ending, which was a hallmark of de Maupassant's style. The story was first published on 17 February 1884 in the French newspaper Le Gaulois.
Samuel Nathaniel Behrman was an American playwright, screenwriter, biographer, and longtime writer for The New Yorker. His son is the composer David Behrman.
Galahad at Blandings is a novel by P. G. Wodehouse, first published in the United States on 31 December 1964 by Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York under the title The Brinkmanship of Galahad Threepwood, and in the United Kingdom on 26 August 1965 by Herbert Jenkins, London.
Hoop-La is a 1933 American pre-Code drama film directed by Frank Lloyd, and starring Clara Bow, Preston Foster, Richard Cromwell and Minna Gombell also in the cast. The film is based on the play The Barker by Kenyon Nicholson, which was also filmed in 1928 under the same title as the play.
The Razor's Edge is a 1946 American drama film based on W. Somerset Maugham's 1944 novel of the same name. It stars Tyrone Power, Gene Tierney, John Payne, Anne Baxter, Clifton Webb, and Herbert Marshall, with a supporting cast including Lucile Watson, Frank Latimore, and Elsa Lanchester. Marshall plays Somerset Maugham. The film was directed by Edmund Goulding.
Encore is a 1951 anthology film composed of adaptations of three short stories by W. Somerset Maugham:
The Casuarina Tree is a collection of short stories by W. Somerset Maugham, set in the Federated Malay States during the 1920s. It was first published by the UK publishing house Heinemann on September 2, 1926. The first American edition was published on September 17, 1926 by George H. Doran. It was re-published by Collins in London under the title The Letter: Stories of Crime. The book was published in French translation as Le Sortilège Malais (1928) and in Spanish as Extremo Oriente (1945).
The Letter is an opera by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Terry Teachout. It was commissioned by the Santa Fe Opera and was premiered there on 25 July 2009.
Dennis and Gnasher is a British animated television series based on characters from The Beano comic, which was broadcast on BBC from 2 April 1996 until 7 May 1998. Reruns aired on CBBC until January 2009. The series was produced by Collingwood O'Hare Productions and D.C. Thomson & Co. in association with BBC Television, alongside Flextech and PolyGram Video for the first season only. It was distributed by HIT Entertainment worldwide and was directed and largely written by Tony Collingwood.
Our Betters is a 1933 American pre-Code satirical comedy film directed by George Cukor and starring Constance Bennett, Anita Louise and Gilbert Roland. The screenplay by Jane Murfin and Harry Wagstaff Gribble is based on the 1917 play of the same title by Somerset Maugham. Tommy Atkins worked as assistant director, while the sets were designed by the art director Van Nest Polglase.
The Shocking Miss Pilgrim is a 1947 American musical comedy film in Technicolor written and directed by George Seaton and starring Betty Grable and Dick Haymes.
The Only Way is a 1926 British drama film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring John Martin Harvey, Madge Stuart and Betty Faire. It was adapted from the play The Only Way which was itself based on the 1859 novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. John Martin Harvey had been playing Carton in the play since 1899 and it was his most popular work. It cost £24,000 to make and was shot at Twickenham Studios. The film was a commercial success and reportedly took over £53,000 in its first two years on release. It was a particularly notable achievement given the collapse in British film production between the Slump of 1924 and the passage of the Cinematograph Films Act 1927 designed to support British film making.
Another Dawn is a 1937 American film melodrama directed by William Dieterle and starring Errol Flynn and Kay Francis. It is based on Somerset Maugham's 1919 play Caesar's Wife. The film received dismissive reviews.
Creatures of Circumstance is a collection of 15 short stories by the British writer W. Somerset Maugham, first published by William Heinemann in 1947. It was the last collection of stories prepared by the writer.
The Mixture as Before is a collection of 10 short stories by the British writer W. Somerset Maugham, first published by William Heinemann in 1940.
The playwright, novelist and short-story writer W. Somerset Maugham, was a prolific author from the late 19th century until the 1960s. Most of his earliest successes were for the theatre, but he gave up writing plays after 1932. Many of his plays have been adapted for broadcasting and the cinema, as have several of his novels and short stories. The New York Times commented in 1964, "There are times when one thinks that British television and radio would have to shut up shop if there were not an apparently inexhaustible supply of stories by Maugham to turn into 30-minute plays. One recalls, too, the long list of movies that have been made from his novels − Of Human Bondage, The Moon and Sixpence, The Painted Veil, The Razor's Edge and the rest.
