Letter (The) (1940)

Leslie Crosbie, the wife of a Malayan rubber-plantation owner, shoots and kills a neighbor she claims had dropped in to see her unexpectedly and made improper advances towards her. Her husband Robert was away for the night and no one has any treason to disbelieve her. They must go to Singapore, where the Attorney General decides she must stand trial for murder. She has strong support from the British expatriate community but her solicitor Howard Joyce learns from his clerk that Leslie had in fact written to the dead man asking him to visit her that evening. The original of the letter is in the hands of the dead man's Eurasian widow and she wants a hefty amount to part with it. Although she survives the trial, Leslie must pay a far greater price in the end.