The 13th Letter


The 13th Letter is a 1951 American mystery film noir directed by Otto Preminger and starring Linda Darnell, Charles Boyer, Michael Rennie and Constance Smith. The film is a remake of the French film Le corbeau, directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. It was filmed on location in Quebec, Canada.

Plot

Doctor Pearson, who works at a hospital in Quebec, Canada, receives a series of poison-pen letters. More letters, all signed with the mysterious picture of a feather, are delivered to others in the small town. Cora Laurent, the wife of Dr. Laurent, receives a letter accusing her of having an affair with Pearson. Another letter informs shell-shocked veteran Mr. Gauthier that he is dying of cancer, causing him to commit suicide. The townsfolk begin pointing fingers at all possible suspects.

Cast

In a contemporary review for The [New York Times], critic Bosley Crowther called the film "a moderately intriguing mystery" and contrasted it with Le corbeau: "lainly the morbid cynicism that ran through that notorious French film and implied a pervasion of corruption among the small-town middle classes in France is not in this 'poison-pen' fable... Perhaps that omission is fortunate—at least, for those who would enjoy a mystery film—for 'Le Corbeau' was so venomous and gloomy that it was well-nigh ridiculous. The dust of demoralization that rose from the lengthy parade of small-town connivers and neurotics was so dense and oppressive that it was hard to observe... Mr. Koch and Mr. Preminger have been hasty to do something about that.... hey have dropped the implications of a whole pattern of community disease and let it appear that just a couple of queerish people in a conspicuously religious town are in bad health."