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1st watched 5/30/2000 - (Dir-Otto Preminger): Well-done whodunit which revolves around a series of letters written supposedly to defame a local doctor in a Canadian town, but ends up becoming more fatal.It keeps you guessing until the end which is pretty much the measuring stick for this kind of movie.

The film stars out as an interesting mystery with an atypical premise. Then it deflates and gives you a disappointing ending.

Boyer is the only Quebecianite who has a French accent and as usual, he really pours it on.

I used to think of the Hollywood proclivity toward remaking foreign films in English to be a modern phenomenon until I encountered the 1951 remake of Fritz Lang's German classic "M" from 1939. Well, that comment segues nicely into the American remake of "Le Corbeau." "The 13th Letter" doesn't mention the French film as a source nor the historical incident from the 1920s it is based on but refers back only to the novel. It does pay some homage to its French origins. An opening title tells us that the new movie was filmed in its entirety at a "small French-Canadian community in the Province of Quebec." When I reviewed the Hollywood remake of Fritz Lang's "M" (released the same year as "The 13th Letter" but from different studios), I said that if you could, as much as possible, take the new film on its own merits then it had quite a bit to offer. I can't quite say the same for the Preminger effort. The director doesn't seem to be working too hard for a film that falls between "Where The Sidewalk Ends" and "Angel Face" in his filmography. The new film is not quite a shot-for-shot remake but is pretty much a scene-for-scene redo. The only substantial change is right at the end where a fairly long dialog passage goes to explaining the crimes in a lot more detail than Clouzot provided - but I liked the Clouzot approach better. The new young doctor is played by Michael Rennie who can't come close to showing the inner turmoil that Pierre Fresnay brought to his tormented physician. Linda Darnell is good enough as the landlord's flirty daughter if she isn't nearly as seductive and overtly sexual as the French would have it. The only real notable performance is by Charles Boyer who is quite brilliant as the elderly doctor with the young wife who the anonymous letters continually link to Rennie's character. Howard Koch wrote the screenplay. The cinematographer was Joseph LaShelle (Laura, The Apartment, Marty), so there was talent behind the camera. I can neither recommend or not recommend this picture. See it if curiosity leads you that way. It's not really a bad movie but not a very good one either.

Michael Rennie plays a doctor at a Canadian hospital who receives a series of poison pen letters. Soon these letters are sent to others which leads to tension amongst the inhabitants of the small Canadian town.

THE 13TH LETTER is a decent well made mystery which keeps the viewer guessing to the very end who is sending the poison pen letters and why. The cast is quite good, with Rennie giving a stand out performance as noble doctor who is the main target of the nasty letters. It a shame that this film from Otto Preminger is so rarely shown.

Otto Preminger directs "The 13th Letter" from 1951, a remake of the Cluzot film, "Le Corbeau."

This dark and heavily atmospheric film takes place in a small town in Quebec. Doctor Pearson (Michael Rennie) has left a big practice after his wife left him and subsequently committed suicide. Tall and handsome, he is attracting a lot of attention, some from a woman (Linda Darnell) he considers to be a hypochondriac vying for his attention. He has been receiving anonymous poison pen letters, as have others in the town.

The wife (Constance Smith) of Dr. Laurent (Charles Boyer) has received a letter accusing her of having an affair with Pearson. A letter sent to a hospitalized war hero states he has cancer and is just not being told. This causes the man to commit suicide.

Dr. Laurent takes charge of looking for the culprit - and there are many suspects.

Good, solid film with Rennie giving a wonderful performance as a good man trying to move on after a tragedy. Boyer is energetic as Dr. Laurent, an older man married to a beautiful younger woman who doesn't want to lose her. Linda Darnell is beautiful and sultry, on her way to a second career as a femme fatale and a long way from her innocence in "The Mark of Zorro".

Constance Smith won a Hedy Lamarr look-alike contest but her career in films ended in ashes due to her bad attitude and inability to get along with studio heads. At one point, she was imprisoned for stabbing her then-boyfriend, Paul Rotha, whom she later married and stabbed again as well as making several suicide attempts. She turned to drugs and alcohol and died after being in and out of hospitals and occasionally working as a cleaner.

Good film which takes you into the story and keeps you there, wondering about the identity of the villain.

In a small town in Quebec, newly arrived doctor Michael Rennie seems to be doing all right for a stranger. The other doctor in town is Charles Boyer, and he's getting on in years, not to mention the distraction of a young wife, Linda Darnell, who seems to be a hypochondriac. She calls on Rennie to tend to her, which Rennie construes as flirting. He's ot interested. He buried a wife too recently. Then letters start appearing, accusing people of carrying on affairs, and even worse.

Cinephiles will recognize this movie as a remake of Clouzot's LE CORBEAU. That movie was far more concerned with the vicious and hysterical gossip-mongering of small towns. There's some of that here, but Preminger, as he often was,is more interested in process than denunciation. Rennie undergoes a considerable hazing, but its effects are muted by the strong local government. Instead, it tackles the underlying mystery of who is writing these letters, and why. Is it for some gain, or is it mental illness? And if the latter, is it treatable in that post-war Hollywood way that all identifiable problems are easily solvable in 90 minutes of screen time?

Within those constraints, it's a good movie, with some handsome location shooting in St. Hilaire in Quebec. Unfortunately, I am an old movie fan. The shadow of Clouzot's raven hangs over this film, its statements about people in general and small-town attitudes making Otto Preminger's film, despite a fine cast and crew, seem trivial. That is putting it too harshly. Until the inevitable and quickly told happy ending, it's very atmospheric. I suppose that's all one can expect.

Nestled in the noir cycle is a trio of movies set in the Canadian province of Québec. Ozep's Whispering City and Hitchcock's I Confess make up the first two, followed by Otto Preminger's The 13th Letter. His strategy in setting it there was probably to preserve the Gallic ambience of the original, Clouzot's Le Corbeau (though that version is accounted more mordant and misanthropic).

Michael Rennie left a prosperous medical practice in London to set up residence in Canada after his unfaithful wife left him and later killed herself. He catches many an eye, as there are few marriageable men in the rural village, though Rennie keeps to himself and dotes on his collection of antique timepieces. But suddenly poison pen letters begin to circulate. At first they hint that Rennie is involved with the wife (Constance Smith) of a prominent doctor at the same hospital (Charles Boyer). Soon the letters take a more malicious turn, causing a young war hero to slit his throat by lying about Rennie's withholding a diagnosis of hopeless cancer. The police investigate, and the campaign of libel becomes a political cause celebre.

Rennie, meanwhile, slowly succumbs to the charms of Linda Darnell, who feigns ailments to coax him up to her rooms; beautiful but lonely, she's acutely sensitive when Rennie discovers the club foot she takes pains to conceal. She, too, falls under suspicion, along with many others as the letters continue to come....

Preminger handles the story with slow, modulated suspense, never resorting to shock tactics; his cast uniformly delivers restrained, effective performances (Rennie has never been so good). Distant thunder crackles constantly under the lowering skies, well shot by Joseph LaShelle, adding to the claustrophobic feel of provincial insularity. Yet this superior suspense film languishes in obscurity despite being one of the often dismissed Preminger's better works in the cycle, along with Fallen Angel, Where The Sidewalk Ends, Angel Face and – of course – Laura.

The script is intriguing, especially in the way it points the finger of suspicion at several different characters as to who is the writer of a series of poison pen letters in a small Canadian town, but it's also talky, and Otto Preminger's direction is strangely lacking in style, for the man who helmed the highly celebrated "Laura". This looks more like a TV movie before TV movies where in vogue. Linda Darnell and especially Constance Smith are gorgeous, Charles Boyer is very good, but Michael Rennie is miscast in the central role. ** out of 4.

A small Quebec town is rattled by a series of anonymous poison pen letters. Preminger takes a stab at Clouzot's LE CORBEAU (Clouzot himself being one of the finest purveyors of European noir, including LES DIABOLIQUES, THE WAGES OF FEAR and QUAI DES ORFEVRES). I don't recall the original very well, but I do know it had a more biting, cynical edge to it (as well as overt references to abortion, which of course was verboten under the Hays code) as opposed to the moodier tones found here. The subject matter is ripe for common noir themes like the fragility of civilized society and the darkness lurking beneath pleasant facades. Every performance is quite good, especially Michael Rennie and the sultry-as-ever Linda Darnell. The film keeps you guessing and keeps you interested, never playing a hand too soon. Although my copy was rather blurry, I could still appreciate the artful framing and use of light. The score is the weakest aspect, often laying on the strings too thick. Otherwise, quite a fine film.

The notorious "Le Corbeau" (1943) is an intriguing film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, with the storyline about a mysterious character entitled The Raven that writes poison pen letters and the power of rumors and the effect in the population of a small town in France. The film was banned in France since it was produced by the German company Continental Films during World War II in the occupied France.

"The 13th Letter" (1951) is a poor remake of "Le Corbeau" written by Howard Koch that introduces melodrama, romance and unnecessary explanations in the tight screenplay by Louis Chavance and Henri-Georges Clouzot. It is amazing how silly the plot becomes with these awful modifications. Despite the great international cast of this 1951 version, prefer to see the original "Le Corbeau" instead. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Cartas Venenosas" ("Poison Pen Letters")

A series of poison pen letters roils a small Canadian town.

Boyer and Darnell get top billing, but Rennie gets the screen time and uses it to memorable effect. His aloof Dr. Pearson is a fascinating portrait in guarded emotions. There's one scene where his steely reserve is topped. Catch the old lady, mother of the dead lad, as she brandishes a nasty looking razor while Pearson looks on, hoping it's not meant for him. It's deliciously played.

The movie's a good noirish mystery, benefiting from the Quebec locations, especially during the impressive funeral scene. This was during TCF's neo-realist period when actual locations were widely used. Then too, the French setting lends a kind of exotic air that boosts the unusual poison pen premise.

At first Darnell's role looks like one of her sexually aggressive type-casts, but then the screenplay does an effective job at winning our sympathy. At the same time, I'm impressed with the strikingly pretty Constance Smith holding up so well during director Preminger's extended hospital scene. There's not much info about her or her brief career. Too bad, she certainly had the chops—literally and figuratively—for a starring career. Took me awhile to identify Boyer as the aging doctor and a long way from his usual dashing leading man (sans toupee). After reading his bio, I expect he enjoyed this departure.

Anyway, the solution is rather complex and something of a stretch, for me at least. Nonetheless, the cast and the production carry it off, making for a very watchable 90- minutes.

Otto Preminger had a penchant for original far-fetched themes and stories that offered the challenge of being difficult to handle, and he made a sport of making them come out well after being handled thoroughly. This is a typical example. It is a psychological thriller of a most unusual kind, someone holding a small town with all its leading characters hostage by poisoned anonymous letters, pointing out the leading doctor at the hospital (Michael Rennie) as having improper affairs with his patients, one of them being Linda Darnell, who in this film is not as beautiful and captivating as the other doctor's young wife, Charles Boyer as far too old a husband for his adorable wife (Constance Smith in her first role). The mystery of these anonymous letters amount to a public scandal as one of them leads to a suicide. There will be more.

Otto Preminger handles the story with its intriguing settings at Quebec with subtle psychological expertise, the delicacy of the problem keeps steadily increasing to an unavoidable breaking point, which would take everyone by surprise. The acting is superb all the way. Charles Boyer is always perfect, but here Michael Rennie actually transcends him as a most gentlemanly London doctor having left his successful career as a gynaecologist after his wife's suicide after having betrayed him, while he is facing new and other challenges in Quebec, which he handles as well as Otto Preminger does. This is the kind of film that has to end up in the limbo of misunderstood undervaluation for its very intricate and difficult psychological finesse.

This film stars Charles Boyer, who, in my opinion, is a B actor, and Michael Rennie, an A actor, who always delivers a solid performance. Linda Darnell is featured as the most beautiful girl in town; it must be a town with a lot of average-looking women. She does a decent job as the unfaithful wife of Boyer (understandable). There is a a red herring in the middle of the film, and the movie loses steam after that false step. A decent try, but no cigar.

I thought "The 13th Letter" was a pleasant surprise, a good mystery that keeps you guessing until the end of the picture. In hindsight, it seems a good idea to place the film in Quebec - it seemed a little quirky when the film began but you gradually get used to it. Acting was good all around, especially the two old pros, Michael Rennie and Charles Boyer. Director Preminger uses all cast members as suspects and sprinkles suspicion around liberally - so much so that you can't pinpoint the culprit until late in the movie.

As noted in the site's summary, someone is writing poison pen letters to the new doctor in town (Rennie), and copying in various and sundry townspeople. The letters accuse the doctor of an affair with the wife of the head of the local hospital (Boyer). This is a well done mystery which I can't recall as being on TV. I think it would be well-received if it were dusted off by FMC - it was produced by 20th Century Fox and must be in their vaults somewhere.

If Fallen Angel was a step down for director Otto Preminger, in the wake of the almost flawless Laura, then The 13th Letter is nothing short of a painful plunge down the cellar stairs following the impressive Where the Sidewalk Ends.

A small, respectable community in French speaking Canada is shaken to its foundations by a series of poison pen letters. Dashing doctor Michael Rennie, a relative newcomer to the area, is initially targeted for his questionable moral conduct, but soon others find themselves under the microscope, with all manner of skeletons in the closet coming to life. At one point a theory circulates that the letters might be the work of two writers.

A premise of real promise, but for a variety of reasons the movie fails to ignite. Sets, which no doubt are intended to be haunting and atmospheric, simply look drab and dreary. The characters, Linda Darnell aside, are uniformly one dimensional. It's a community bereft of eccentrics, extroverts, comics, alcoholics (nobody's likely to drink Canada dry).....and it's definitely a village missing an idiot!

Finally, the performances fall into the perfunctory, 'pays the rent' category. Considering the gravity of the situation, there is very little emotion. No outpouring of rage, shock or horror - more, bemusement steadily descending into sombre, melancholy detachment. Rennie even makes the heartrending account of his tragic marriage sound like he's reading the assembly instructions to a flat pack from Ikea. I was never a huge fan of Joseph Cotten, originally selected for the part, but I am convinced that he would have brought a greater warmth and empathy to the role.

One can only assume that the original, the highly regarded Le Corbeau (1943), offered more punch, muscle and personality than this largely languid affair.