Radio review - Lux - "The Letter" (1941) ****

The original three of the film's cast - Bette Davis, Herbert Marshall and James Stephenson - are united for this excellent radio production, which only really struggles in the final scene as it's hard to convey Davis' murder by the dead man's wife as effectively with words. Marshall isn't quite believable as a rough man of his hands as the role really requires but is spot on when it comes to playing a slightly dim cuckold willing to stick by his wife no matter what. Stephenson is very good as the lawyer attracted to Davis to the point where he breaks the law (his wife is given a short effective scene where she idiotically prattles about vowing not the make a cocktail while Davis was on trial - a good sharp contrast to Davis). You could point to the slippery cultured double dealing Chinese lawyer as an example of Hollywood racism but the white race is hardly well represented here. I wondered if Marshall's and Stephenson's characters wound up in a Japanese POW camp.