The Letter is an American pre-Code drama film directed by Jean de Limur and released by Paramount Pictures.

The plot of the film follows Leslie Crosbie, a young woman living on a rubber plantation in the East Indies of Singapore, who falls in love with a man named Geoffrey Hammond, as she no longer finds any affection for her current husband, Robert Crosbie.

However, Geoffrey falls in love with a Chinese woman named Li-Ti, and Leslie shoots him dead.

Placed on trial for her life, Leslie perjures herself on the stand and claims that she killed Geoffrey in defense of her honor.

[3] The film's lobby cards and its other forms of advertising entered the public domain on January 1, 2025, as they were works published in 1929.

The story was inspired by a real-life scandal involving the Eurasian wife of the headmaster of a school in Kuala Lumpur who was convicted in a murder trial after shooting dead a male friend in April 1911.

In 1931, Paramount Pictures released versions of the film dubbed in the Spanish, German, French and Italian languages.

"[8] Jeanne Eagels, who died just months after the film was completed, was posthumously nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actress.

[8] The film's lobby cards and its other forms of advertising entered the public domain on January 1, 2025, as they were works published in 1929.

[1][4][5] Herbert Marshall, who plays Leslie's lover in the film, also appears as her husband in William Wyler's 1940 Warner Bros. remake.