A viewing of Bette Davis’ The Letter remake led one blogger back to Jeanne Eagels’ original performance as the murderess Leslie Crosbie, over at Classic Hollywood:

I re-watched it to see if there was anything noirish about it and wasn’t disappointed. Jeanne’s performance is powerful, the French director Jean De Limur also had scenes that wouldn’t disappoint noir fans. Jeanne Eagels descending the stairs to meet with her murdered lover’s Chinese mistress is pure noir cinematography. I must say this version is my favorite version of W. Somerset Maugham’s The Letter.

Although a work-print has been available for some time, a fully restored version of The Letter (1929) was released on DVD in 2011.