A cinematic masterpiece forced to change its ending by the strict Hays Code

Entertainment · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: William Wyler’s 1940 noir The Letter is a masterclass in tension, featuring a chilling Bette Davis. Yet, the film’s iconic, fatalistic conclusion was not the original vision. It was a forced addition to satisfy the Production Code Administration, which demanded that murder and adultery could not go unpunished.

Based on a W. Somerset Maugham play, the film follows Leslie Crosbie, a plantation owner's wife who murders her lover, Geoffrey Hammond. While the expatriate community in Malaya views her as a heroine, her attorney, Howard Joyce, discovers a damning letter proving the killing was cold-blooded. The narrative centers on the high-stakes manipulation required to suppress this evidence and secure an acquittal.

The production was marked by creative friction. Director William Wyler and Bette Davis famously clashed over the climactic scene where Leslie confesses her lingering love for the man she killed. Davis argued that a woman would never look at her husband while admitting such a betrayal, but she eventually relented, performing the scene according to Wyler’s direction. Despite this, she maintained that her own interpretation would have been superior.

The film's ending remains its most controversial element. The original script was rejected by the Production Code Administration for its lack of moral retribution. To comply, the studio added a final sequence where the victim's widow exacts revenge, and they changed the widow's ethnicity from a Chinese mistress to a Eurasian wife to further appease censors. Critics like Bosley Crowther noted that this forced postscript weakened an otherwise taut, insinuating melodrama.

Despite these external pressures, the film remains a critical triumph, earning seven Academy Award nominations. James Stephenson, cast as the attorney against the studio's initial hesitation, delivered a performance that earned him an Oscar nomination. Today, the film holds a 100% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, remembered for its atmospheric depiction of sultry nights and the grim, inevitable unraveling of its protagonist.

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