I used to think of the Hollywood proclivity toward remaking foreign films in English to be a modern phenomenon until I encountered the 1951 remake of Fritz Lang's German classic "M" from 1939. Well, that comment segues nicely into the American remake of "Le Corbeau." "The 13th Letter" doesn't mention the French film as a source nor the historical incident from the 1920s it is based on but refers back only to the novel. It does pay some homage to its French origins. An opening title tells us that the new movie was filmed in its entirety at a "small French-Canadian community in the Province of Quebec." When I reviewed the Hollywood remake of Fritz Lang's "M" (released the same year as "The 13th Letter" but from different studios), I said that if you could, as much as possible, take the new film on its own merits then it had quite a bit to offer. I can't quite say the same for the Preminger effort. The director doesn't seem to be working too hard for a film that falls between "Where The Sidewalk Ends" and "Angel Face" in his filmography. The new film is not quite a shot-for-shot remake but is pretty much a scene-for-scene redo. The only substantial change is right at the end where a fairly long dialog passage goes to explaining the crimes in a lot more detail than Clouzot provided - but I liked the Clouzot approach better. The new young doctor is played by Michael Rennie who can't come close to showing the inner turmoil that Pierre Fresnay brought to his tormented physician. Linda Darnell is good enough as the landlord's flirty daughter if she isn't nearly as seductive and overtly sexual as the French would have it. The only real notable performance is by Charles Boyer who is quite brilliant as the elderly doctor with the young wife who the anonymous letters continually link to Rennie's character. Howard Koch wrote the screenplay. The cinematographer was Joseph LaShelle (Laura, The Apartment, Marty), so there was talent behind the camera. I can neither recommend or not recommend this picture. See it if curiosity leads you that way. It's not really a bad movie but not a very good one either.
Review of The 13th Letter
