themakeupgallery | character | blackface | 1940s

updated: 15/10/2004

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yellowface: The Letter

You hear a gunshot and you see a woman coming out shooting a man. Leslie Crosbie (Bette Davis) thinks she is going to get away with it until Mrs Hammond (Gale Sondergaard), her lover’s Eurasian widow, turns up with a letter. A great film but the Hays Production Code dictated two changes from the original story that detracted from its moral ambiguities: Gale Sondergaard’s character had to be a wife not a mistress; and Leslie had to be appropriately punished (stabbed by Mrs Hammond).

Perc Westmore was responsible for the makeup.