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The Letter

1940 film directed by William Wyler
Movie film Q1168233
The Letter
Trailer screenshot :this is a cropped version of Image:Bette Davis in The Letter 3.jpg · Public Domain · Wikimedia
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Summary

The Letter is a film[1]. It ranks in the top 3% of film entities by monthly Wikipedia readership (1,815 views/month).[2]

Key Facts

  • Director: William Wyler[3]
  • Screenwriter: Howard Koch[4], William Somerset Maugham[5]
  • Composer: Max Steiner[6]
  • Genre: drama film[7], film noir[8], crime film[9]
  • Based on: The Letter[10]
  • Cast member: Bette Davis[11], Herbert Marshall[12], James Stephenson[13], Gale Sondergaard[14], Cecil Kellaway[15], Frieda Inescort[16], Elizabeth Inglis[17], Victor Sen Yung[18], Doris Lloyd[19], Bruce Lester[20], Douglas Walton[21], Willie Fung[22], Tetsu Komai[23], Leonard Mudie[24]
  • Producer: Hal B. Wallis[25]
  • Production company: Warner Bros. Entertainment[26], Warner Bros. Pictures[27]
  • Director of photography: Tony Gaudio[28]
  • Original language of film or TV show: English[29]
  • Commons category: The Letter (1940 film)[30]
  • Distribution format: video on demand[31]
  • Review score: 8.4/10[32], 84/100[33], 100%[34]
  • Color: black-and-white[35]
  • Country of origin: United States[36]
  • Publication date: January 1, 1940[37], November 23, 1940[38], December 5, 1940[39]
  • Distributed by: Warner Bros. Entertainment[40], Netflix[41]
  • Narrative location: Singapore[42]
  • Topic's main category: Category:The Letter (1940 film)[43]
  • Commons gallery: The Letter (1940 film)[44]
  • Film editor: George Amy[45]
  • Nominated for: Academy Award for Best Picture[46], Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor[47], Academy Award for Best Actress[48], Academy Award for Best Director[49], Academy Award for Best Cinematography, Black-and-White[50], Academy Award for Best Film Editing[51], Academy Award for Best Original Score[52]
  • Executive producer: Hal B. Wallis[53]
  • Title: The Letter[54]
  • Different from: List[55]

Why It Matters

The Letter has Wikipedia articles in 20 language editions, a strong signal of global cultural recognition.[56] It is known by 30 alternative names across languages and contexts.[57]

Related Entities

Bette Davis film Gale Sondergaard Hal B. Wallis Max Steiner Netflix Singapore United States William Somerset Maugham William Wyler

References

Programmatic citations — every numbered marker resolves to a verifiable graph row below.

Direct Wikidata claims

  1. [3] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  2. [4] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  3. [5] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  4. [6] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  5. [7] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  6. [8] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  7. [9] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  8. [10] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  9. [11] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  10. [12] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  11. [13] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  12. [14] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  13. [15] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  14. [16] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  15. [17] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  16. [18] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  17. [19] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  18. [20] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  19. [21] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  20. [22] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  21. [23] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  22. [24] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  23. [25] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  24. [26] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  25. [27] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  26. [28] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  27. [29] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  28. [30] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  29. [31] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  30. [32] ↑ . Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved . wikidata.org.
  31. [33] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  32. [34] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  33. [35] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  34. [36] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  35. [37] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  36. [38] ↑ . IMDb. Retrieved . imdb.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  37. [39] ↑ . IMDb. Retrieved . imdb.com. Provenance: wikidata.org.
  38. [40] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  39. [41] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  40. [42] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  41. [43] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  42. [44] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  43. [45] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  44. [46] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  45. [47] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  46. [48] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  47. [49] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  48. [50] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  49. [51] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  50. [52] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  51. [53] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  52. [54] ↑ . wikidata.org.
  53. [55] ↑ . wikidata.org.

Class ancestry

  1. [1] ↑ . Wikidata. wikidata.org.

Aggregate / graph-position facts

  1. [2] ↑ . Wikimedia Foundation. dumps.wikimedia.org.
  2. [56] ↑ . Wikidata sitelinks. wikidata.org.
  3. [57] ↑ . Wikidata aliases. wikidata.org.

📑 Cite this page

Use these citations when quoting this entity in research, articles, AI prompts, or wherever provenance matters. We aggregate Wikidata + Wikipedia + authoritative open-data sources; the stitched, scored, cross-referenced view is what 4ort.xyz contributes.

APA 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph. (2026). The Letter. Retrieved October 16, 2026, from https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-letter
MLA “The Letter.” 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph, 4ort.xyz, 16 Oct. 2026, https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-letter.
BibTeX @misc{4ortxyz_the-letter_2026, author = {{4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph}}, title = {{The Letter}}, year = {2026}, url = {https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-letter}, note = {Accessed: 2026-10-16}}
LLM prompt According to 4ort.xyz Knowledge Graph (aggregator of Wikidata, Wikipedia, and authoritative open-data sources): The Letter — https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-letter (retrieved 2026-10-16)

Canonical URL: https://4ort.xyz/entity/the-letter · Last refreshed:

Edit History

Rolling log of changes to this entity's Wikidata record. Values shown reflect the current state of each edited property — follow the history link to see the precise diff for any edit.

  1. 3d ago · Quesotiotyo · 2026-10-14 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Wikipedia languages → ['an', 'ar', 'arz', 'ca', 'commons', 'de', 'el', 'en', 'es', 'eu', 'fa', 'fi', '
    Ampas collections film id → W079168
    Sitelink count → 31
    Claims rich → —
    "/* wbcreateclaim-create:1| */ Ampas collections film id: W079168, [[:toollabs:quickstatements/#/batch/290954|batch #290954]]"
  2. 6w ago · MsMorale · 2026-08-31 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    P14821 → 32701
    "/* wbcreateclaim-create:1| */ P14821: 32701, [[:toollabs:quickstatements/#/batch/269901|batch #269901]]"
  3. 7w ago · Davidultra · 2026-08-27 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Tv spielfilm film id → 1327658
    "/* wbsetclaim-create:2||1 */ Tv spielfilm film id: 1327658"
  4. 8w ago · Jindřich Rubeš · 2026-08-22 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Filmová databáze film id → 4332
    "/* wbcreateclaim-create:1| */ Filmová databáze film id: 4332, [[:toollabs:quickstatements/#/batch/269266|batch #269266]]"
  5. 16w ago · Yirba · 2026-06-25 view diff on Wikidata ↗
    Production designer → Carl Jules Weyl
    Publication date → +1940-01-01T00:00:00Z, +1940-11-23T00:00:00Z, +1940-12-05T00:00:00Z
    Screenwriter → Howard Koch, William Somerset Maugham
    Duration → {'unit': 'Q7727', 'amount': '+95'}
    + 33 other properties edited (see Wikidata diff for full list)
    "/* wbeditentity-update:0| */ QuickStatements 3.0 [[:toollabs:qs-dev/batch/38225|batch #38225]]: MovieLens IDs (part 1)"
Live feed via Wikidata EventStreams. New edits appear within minutes of being made on Wikidata.