THE REGENT.

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 115, 11 November 1929, Page 5

THE REGENT.

Isolated on a rubber plantaaion near Singapore, not understood by a planter-husband buried In business and sport, and surrounded by Oriental servants who twang monotonously on a marimba (guitar), Leslie Crosbio is driven by boredom Into an affair with Geotfrey Hammond, whom she shoots In jealousy on discovering that ho has deserted her for a Chinese half-caste. .She invents the story that she shpt Hammond to prevent an assault by him, and she tells the tale so well in Court that the Singapore jury believes her. But, to prevent the defence from breaking down, her lawyer has to buy from the murdered Hammond's half-caste mistress, an incriminating letter from Leslie to Hammond, and the mistress maktst the lawyer pay 10,000 dollars. After the acquittal the husband Crosbie, insists on probing such colossal costs, and the law.ye*r (the real hero of the play) is forced to reveal the letter, exposing an unrepentant Leslie to a now savage husband. Here the playwright (Mr. Somerset Maugham) makes an abrupt ending, which is unsatisfying,,but .its provocative -Character may have been . part of Maugham's scheme. Having steered the ill - matched pair into a position from which it is difficult for stage art to extricate them, he just prepared to carry on the deadlock which is called wedlock, while the husband amiably remarks that they shall continue to live in the house haunted by the murder-memories of his dear wife. Under-tho title of "The Letter," this-talking picture was presented to a full and enthusiastic house at- the Regent on Saturday Judged by the high-water mark of the rc-cein Regent success. "Madame X," "The Letter" falls a liltle short, and Jeanne Ea-els is not quite ■ a Ruth Chatterton; but "The Letter" must nevertheless be classed in the lirst group of this year's screen-emotionals, for the way In which tho voices register, the grip and tenseness of the scenes, and tho wealth of foreign colour. If the challenge to legitimate drama is to be made good, the dramatic qualities and voice standard of the talking pictures must be maintained, and "The Letter" on the whole does that. It Is one of those screen melodramas that the student of talking-picture development should not miss, and lie will flnd artistic interest not only In the emotional work of Miss Eagels, but in the excellent sneakin" and acting of Mr. O. P. Heggie (the Messenger in "A Message from Mars") as tho upricht lawyer, of Mr. Herbert Marshall as the murdered Hammond (brief though his part is) and Ito some extent of Mr. Reginald Owen as the I husband. All the artists mentioned have come from the legitimate stage, and so has Lady Tsen Mai, who plays the half-caste mistress There are certain environmental touches, in the way of jungle and market life, that the legitimate stage cannot present, and of such is the extraordinary fight between a ■cobra and a mongoose, scenes of which flit in and out of the Singapore underworld part of the picture. Even Oscar Asche's Oriental market scenes are "left standing," by the modern film, and when these things shall come to be done in colour • ■ ! The statement in the premilinary notice of this programme, that "the ,supporting pictures of themselcvs aro a fine entertainment," is no boast.