# 13th Letter, The (1951)

### reviewed by
Dennis Schwartz

13TH LETTER, THE (director: Otto Preminger; screenwriter: Howard Koch; cinematographer: Joseph LaShelle; cast: Charles Boyer (Dr. Laurent), Linda Darnell (Denise), Judith Evelyn (Marie), J. Léo Gagnon (Dr. Helier), Paul Guèvremont (Postman), June Hedin (Rochelle), Michael Rennie (Dr. Pearson), Françoise Rosay (Mrs. Sims), Constance Smith (Cora Laurent), Guy Sorel (Robert Helier), Ovila Legare (Mayor), 1951)

    Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

This is a remake of Clouzot's very memorable Le Corbeau. Though not a complete failure, Preminger's American version still managed to take most of the starch out of this bitter French chiller and make it seem dull and predictable. Even I guessed who was writing the poison letters, and I'm not especially good at that sort of movie detective work. The film changes scenery from its original version in France and now takes place in a small-town near Quebec, Canada. The story is about the townspeople receiving poisoned pen letters telling about a handsome young doctor, Pearson (Rennie), who arrived recently from London and who is accused of having an affair with the very attractive younger wife, Cora Laurent (Constance), of a much older physician, Dr. Laurent (Boyer).

The film opens by painting onscreen Hollywood's idea of what a small-town looks and feels like, as the sun is shining, the mailman is cheerful and nosy, and everything about the town looks picture-perfect. Dr. Laurent has returned from a medical convention in Montreal and rushes back to his house to see his gorgeous wife. But his wife is at the hospital talking to her older, angry sister, Marie (Evelyn), who is a nurse there. She is berating her younger sister for flirting with all the younger doctors on the staff, telling her you married a good man, one who is respected in the community, you should be loyal to him. Cora responds, slyly telling her that she is jealous that Dr. Laurent broke off his engagement with her.

Next we hear that Pearson, Cora, and Laurent all received letters that tell of the affair and the letter writer says that Pearson better get out of town. At first confrontation, all the parties concerned take a civilized approach to the letters. Pearson says it's nonsense. But Laurent takes a more cautionary approach saying, "You can't dismiss these letters completely, they are written by a psychopath, and they have been known to act against their own interest."

The film then goes about showing more poisoned letters appearing and how everyone in town becomes a suspect, including the parties the letter is addressed to. There is a war hero in the hospital recovering from wounds, who is a difficult patient for Marie to handle because he is a bit paranoid. He also has a meddlesome mother, who constantly complains about the hospital care given to her hero son. On the night that Marie, Cora, and Pearson receive letters telling them to be at the church that night because the letter writer will be there, Marie who is on duty sneaks off to the church and becomes a suspect for what happens to her unattended patient later on that evening. The hero patient receives a letter that night that says the doctors are lying to him, that he has an incurable cancer. With that bad news, he takes a razor and commits suicide by cutting his throat.

Meanwhile, Pearson who is cold and aloof, putting all his energy into being a good doctor, with his only hobby his clock collection, is being pursued by an attractive lady patient, Denise (Darnel). She can't understand why he doesn't go for her. During his treatment of her, he discovers that she has a clubfoot, which can't be detected when she is wearing shoes. Evidently, this must have turned him on, because the next thing you know the two of them are kissing.

He explains his aloofness, by mentioning how he married a pretty woman and spent so much time away from her, building up a booming gynecology practice, that she met another man and left him. When that affair didn't work out and she wanted to come back to him, he refused and she soon committed suicide.

The most striking scene in the film was at the church, when out of the chorus of 18 members, a poisoned letter falls into the pews. The mayor comes along and takes charge of the investigation, an investigation that was unofficially being conducted prior to this by Dr. Laurent.

The result is that Marie is falsely arrested because her handwriting supposedly matches the one in the letter. But Marie goes free, as another letter is sent while she is in jail.

Spoiler: If you don't want to know who the poison letter writer is, skip the remainder of the review.

Cora tells Denise that she is having an affair with Pearson. When Denise tells this to Pearson, he goes to Dr. Laurent and the whole sordid truth comes out, of the old man dictating the letters to the younger wife he was afraid he couldn't hold onto. That he did it because Cora wrote the first letter and he was afraid she would be arrested or taken away from him and placed in a loony bin, and he couldn't bear to be without her. So he treated her psychological ailments himself, hoping that he could cure her some day.

The mother of the dead hero, gets wind of what Laurent did to her son and slits his throat with the same razor that her son used. This happens just as Laurent is writing a confession of his crime and his wife is being committed to a mental institution. So it seems as if the kindly doctor is not such a kind person after all, but a vicious predator, who was the bigger nut case in the family. His wife comes off as someone who is more of a mixed-up, troubled person, with a sexual problem that she can't control.

The film lost its power and energy to be viewed as a true noir film, and ends up being more like a flat- 'who done it thriller.' The force of its noir story never fully materialized under Preminger's Hollywood type of direction. The psychological motives of the couple were too murky to have much intellectual impact on the story. The only real noir moment of the film, was the one that visually showed Pearson's alienation, after his wife left him, as the camera pans to his bare room except for his clock collection.

    REVIEWED ON 1/13/2000    GRADE: C

Dennis Schwartz: "Ozus' World Movie Reviews"

    http://www.sover.net/~ozus

    ozus@sover.net

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