Role: Well Wisher (uncredited)
Film Presence: Barely There
Role Type: Basically a background character.
Film Information and Summary: IMDb, TCM, Wikipedia
Release Date: November 15, 1940
Douglas Walton's role as Well Wisher
Douglas Walton and a brunette lady friend can be seen in the background shaking hands with Bette Davis. That's about it. At least we know he shared the screen with her, even if it's just for 5 seconds!
Here's the clip, you can barely see him!
I notice Walton often played in movies that took place in British colonies, sometimes even glorifying them (sometimes not), in films such as "Murder in Trinidad" (1934), "Storm Over Bengal" (1938), "The Sun Never Sets" (1939), "Singapore Woman" (1941), among many others. I guess because he's British the casting directors put him in those kind of movies.
For a film from the early 1940's, it was quite interesting on how it treated its major Asian characters as they were given a purpose in the entire film as oppose to just exotic backdrops. These characters have realistic reactions towards turning points of the plot, they speak their own mind, and have their own motives. Of course because the film was also from the 1940's, some of the characters still have their subservient parts, meek personalities, and there's also the taciturn dragon lady. It is what it is for its time, but at least it was something of a step-up. It also showed the underlying racial tensions between the British colonizers and the Asian natives. Some films during this time period would glorify British colonization. Not "The Letter." This award winning movie is worth the watch.
Release Date: November 15, 1940
Douglas Walton's role as Well Wisher
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| Douglas Walton and Bette Davis in "The Letter" (1940). |
Douglas Walton and a brunette lady friend can be seen in the background shaking hands with Bette Davis. That's about it. At least we know he shared the screen with her, even if it's just for 5 seconds!
Here's the clip, you can barely see him!
I notice Walton often played in movies that took place in British colonies, sometimes even glorifying them (sometimes not), in films such as "Murder in Trinidad" (1934), "Storm Over Bengal" (1938), "The Sun Never Sets" (1939), "Singapore Woman" (1941), among many others. I guess because he's British the casting directors put him in those kind of movies.
For a film from the early 1940's, it was quite interesting on how it treated its major Asian characters as they were given a purpose in the entire film as oppose to just exotic backdrops. These characters have realistic reactions towards turning points of the plot, they speak their own mind, and have their own motives. Of course because the film was also from the 1940's, some of the characters still have their subservient parts, meek personalities, and there's also the taciturn dragon lady. It is what it is for its time, but at least it was something of a step-up. It also showed the underlying racial tensions between the British colonizers and the Asian natives. Some films during this time period would glorify British colonization. Not "The Letter." This award winning movie is worth the watch.
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