The Letter is a 1940 American crime film noir melodrama directed by William Wyler, and starring Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall and James Stephenson. The screenplay by Howard E. Koch is based on the 1927 play of the same name by W. Somerset Maugham derived from his own short story. The play was first filmed in 1929, by director Jean de Limur. The story was inspired by a real-life scandal involving the Eurasian wife of the headmaster of a school in Kuala Lumpur who was convicted in a murder trial after shooting dead a male friend in April 1911. She was pardoned by the local sultan after a public furor.
Frieda Inescort was a Scottish actress best known for creating the role of Sorel Bliss in Noël Coward's play Hay Fever on Broadway. She also played the shingled lady in John Galsworthy's 1927 Broadway production Escape and Caroline Bingley in the 1940 film of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice.
The Body in the Library is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in February 1942 and in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in May of the same year. The US edition retailed at $2.00 and the UK edition at seven shillings and sixpence. The novel features her fictional amateur detective Miss Marple.
John Beach Litel was an American film and television actor.
Unholy Partners is a 1941 American crime drama film directed by Mervyn LeRoy and starring Edward G. Robinson, Laraine Day, Edward Arnold and Marsha Hunt. It was produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
The Trial of Mary Dugan is a play written by Bayard Veiller.
Remember the Day is a 1941 American drama film directed by Henry King and starring Claudette Colbert, John Payne and John Shepperd. The film was produced and released by 20th Century Fox. It was based on a play of the same title by Philo Higley and Philip Dunning.
Sunny is a 1941 American musical film directed by Herbert Wilcox and starring Anna Neagle, Ray Bolger, John Carroll, Edward Everett Horton, Grace Hartman, Paul Hartman, Frieda Inescort, and Helen Westley. It was adapted by Sig Herzig from the Jerome Kern-Oscar Hammerstein II musical play Sunny. It is the second film version of the musical; the first was Sunny, made in 1930.
Kid Glove Killer is a 1942 American crime film, starring Van Heflin as a forensic scientist investigating the murder of a mayor. The B film, the feature-length directorial debut of Fred Zinnemann, was an expanded version of the 1938 Crime Does Not Pay short subject "They're Always Caught".
The Falcon Strikes Back is a 1943 American crime film directed by Edward Dmytryk and stars Tom Conway as the title character, the amateur sleuth, the Falcon. Supporting roles are filled by Harriet Hilliard, Jane Randolph, Edgar Kennedy, with Cliff Edwards filling in for Allen Jenkins as the Falcon's sidekick, "Goldie" Locke. It is the fifth film in the Falcon series and the second for Conway, reprising the role that his brother, George Sanders had initiated.
The Trial of Mary Dugan is a 1929 American pre-Code film produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Norma Shearer. The film is based on the 1927 Broadway stage play The Trial of Mary Dugan by Bayard Veiller, who also directed the film. On stage the play had starred Ann Harding, who would come to Hollywood a few years later at the beginning of talkies. This was Veiller's first and only sound film directorial effort as he had directed several silent films before 1922. The play was also published as a novel authored by William Almon Wolff, published in 1928. The 1941 film of the same name is an MGM remake.
The Great O'Malley is a 1937 American crime drama film directed by William Dieterle and starring Pat O'Brien, Sybil Jason, Humphrey Bogart, and Ann Sheridan. The 1925 silent version The Making of O'Malley starred Milton Sills, Dorothy Mackaill and Helen Rowland.
The People vs. Dr. Kildare is a 1941 American drama film directed by Harold S. Bucquet and starring Lew Ayres, Lionel Barrymore, Bonita Granville, and Laraine Day. It was part of the series of Doctor Kildare films produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Kildare performs an emergency operation on a crash victim.
Back in Circulation is a 1937 American comedy drama film directed by Ray Enright and starring Pat O'Brien and Joan Blondell. Based on the short story "Angle Shooter" by Adela Rogers St. Johns, Blondell plays a fast-moving newspaper reporter who senses a story when she spots a young recent widow partying in a night club.
Bride by Mistake is a 1944 American romantic comedy film directed by Richard Wallace, and starring Alan Marshal and Laraine Day.
Father's Son is a 1941 American drama film directed by D. Ross Lederman and written by Fred Niblo Jr. and Booth Tarkington. The film stars John Litel, Frieda Inescort, Billy Dawson and Christian Rub. It was released by Warner Bros. on February 12, 1941.
Henry Aldrich for President is a 1941 American comedy film directed by Hugh Bennett and written by Val Burton. The film stars Jimmy Lydon, June Preisser, Mary Anderson, Charles Smith, John Litel, Dorothy Peterson and Martha O'Driscoll. The film was released on October 24, 1941, by Paramount Pictures.
Sealed Lips is a 1942 American film noir crime film directed by George Waggner and starring William Gargan, June Clyde and John Litel.
The Richest Man in Town is a 1941 American comedy film directed by Charles Barton and starring Frank Craven, Edgar Buchanan and Roger Pryor. It was produced and distributed by Columbia Pictures.
A Woman Is the Judge is an American 1939 drama film directed by Nick Grinde and starring Frieda Inescort, Otto Kruger, Rochelle Hudson, Mayo Methot, Gordon Oliver, and Arthur Loft. The film tagline is Love bridges the gulf between a judge and an underworld girl. This is an early film exploring such themes as gender equality and female lawyers. The film is based on the play by Alexandre Bisson.
